New Mexico’s Civilian Conservation Corps Experience The Telling New Mexico Inaugural Lecture Series

Noted author and historian Richard Melzer will speak on the “The Civilian Conservation Corps Experience in New Mexico,” the next talk in the Telling New Mexico Inaugural Lecture Series, at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 2, in the History Museum Auditorium. The event costs $10. Tickets are available at the museum shops and at www.museumfoundation.org/tellingnm.

Note: This event was originally scheduled for a lecture on World War II by Ferenc Szasz, who has since encountered a health issue. Richard Melzer has graciously agreed to speak in his place.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was the most popular and successful program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression of the 1930s. For more than 3 million young men across the United States, the CCC often made the difference between starvation and survival – not only for the enrollees, but also their families back home. The men learned skills, improved their education, got healthy, prepared themselves for service in World War II, and, most importantly, came of age during hard economic times. Melzer has documented the CCC experience in New Mexico, describing how this highly effective program benefited more than 50,000 enrollees in the state and became, for most men, the turning points in their lives.

Today, their legacies still stand in projects at Elephant Butte Lake, Rattlesnake Springs near Carlsbad Caverns, and Bandelier National Monument.

Melzer, originally from Teddy Roosevelt's hometown of Oyster Bay, N.Y., has lived in New Mexico since 1973 and has taught history at the University of New Mexico's Valencia Campus since 1979. He is the author of more than 100 articles about New Mexico history and the author, co-author, or editor of 12 books, including Coming of Age in the Great Depression: The Civilian Conservation Corps Experience in New Mexico, 1933-1942 (Las Cruces: Yucca Tree Press, 2000). Melzer is a past president the Historical Society of New Mexico and current president of the Valencia County Historical Society.

Among the many honors he has received for writing, teaching and service to his profession, he is most proud of receiving the UNM’s 1995 Teacher of the Year award.

The History Museum includes exhibits dedicated to the Depression and the “alphabet soup” of programs that built roads and schoolhouses and nurtured a generation of artists, writers and musicians.

The lecture series continues on Sunday, Aug. 22, when Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Northern Arizona University associate history professor, speaks on "Dine'/Navajo Women: At the Intersection of Nation, Gender, and Tradition."