The world was without hope for many of Colorado's young men in 1933. Youth unemployment was 25 percent and another 29 percent were working only part-time. Many quit school before graduation to work odd jobs to support their families. Others took to hitching rides on railroad cars desperate for a new opportunity. Even young men who finished their schooling were without work as they had no job experience or training. Then, in 1933, with the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) young men could go to work in Colorado's national parks, state parks, national forests and other public lands. They no longer worried where their next meal would come from. Now they could learn new job skills. In Colorado CCC boys planted trees, erected fences and telephone lines and put out forest fires. Today we still use the roads and trails they built. CCC work was made to last. At the program's end in 1942 over 30,000 Colorado men served at over one hundred twenty camps. And work was completed in nearly every county in the state. Robert W. "Bob" Audretsch retired as a National Park Service ranger at Grand Canyon in 2009 after nearly 20 years of service. Since then, he has devoted himself full time to research and writing about the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC). Bob grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Wayne State University where he received a BA in history and a MS in library science. Prior to his work as a ranger, he was a librarian in Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado. Bob has a lifelong interest in history, nature, books, and art and has written numerous publications in the fields of library science, sports, and history. Bob is the author of Grand Canyon's Phantom Ranch (Arcadia Publishing, 2012), Shaping the Park and Saving the Boys: The Civilian Conservation Corps at Grand Canyon, 1933-1942 (Dog Ear Publishing, 2011), We Still Walk in Their Footprint: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern Arizona, 1933-1942 (Dog Ear Publishing, 2013), Selected Grand Canyon Area Hiking Routes, Including the Little Colorado River and Great Thumb (Dog Ear Publishing, June, 2014) and, with Sharon Hunt, The Civilian Conservation Corps in Arizona (Images of America) (Arcadia Publishing). He resides in Lakewood, Colorado.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a nationwide program during the Great Depression to put poor unemployed young men to work in national forests, state parks, national parks and the other public land. By the end of the program in 1942 over 30,000 Colorado men served. Many helped build the magnificent amphitheater at Red Rocks. Others labored on the picturesque Rimrock Drive at Colorado National Monument. And in every national forest in the state CCC enrollees built roads and trails, many that we still use today. In 1936 newspaper men L.A. Gleyre and C.N. Alleger toured the state visiting all thirty-nine CCC camps taking photographs, interviewing leaders, studying the work accomplished and compiling rosters of the enrollees and their leaders. Their book was a genuine slice of CCC life containing a two to three page history and photos of each camp. Their book has been long out of print and very rare. Now it is back in print again. And it includes a new index of over 7,000 personal names compiled by CCC historian Robert W. Audretsch. Many of the book's names are of Colorado men. However two thousand names are of men from other western states such as Oklahoma and Texas. Audretsch has written three books on the CCC in Arizona. His latest book is The Civilian Conservation Corps in Colorado, 1933-1942, Volume 1, (Dog Ear Publishing, 2017). He resides in Lakewood, Colorado.

Histories and rosters of the Colorado and Wyoming Civilian Conservation Corps companies and camps from the summer of 1938.

"The world was without hope for many of Colorado's young men in 1933. Youth unemployment was 25 percent and another 29 percent were working only part-time. Many quit school before graduation to work odd jobs to support their families. Others took to hitching rides on railroad cars desperate for a new opportunity. Even young men who finished their schooling were without work as they had no job experience or training. Then, in 1933, with the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) young men could go to work in Colorado's national parks, state parks, national forests and other public lands. They no longer worried where their next meal would come from. Now they could learn new job skills. In Colorado, CCC boys planted trees, erected fences and telephone lines, and put out forest fires. Today we still use the roads and trails they built. CCC work was made to last. At the program's end in 1942, over 30,000 Colorado men served at over one hundred twenty camps. And work was completed in nearly every county in the state."--Back cover volume 1.