Geneva State Park: Geneva State Forest Improvements – Geneva AL

Description

“Geneva State Forest was formerly part of a vast land holding of timberlands owned by the Jackson Lumber Company. The lumber company, as was a common practice of the time, clear cut the land. They were left with land that was of little use. Jackson Lumber Company tried to sell the land for as little as 50 cents an acre.^[2] They were unsuccessful and ultimately chose to donate the land to the State of Alabama instead of paying property taxes for land they could no longer use.^[2]

The land transfer took place during the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program for young men from unemployed families, established in 1933. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, it was designed to combat unemployment during the 1930s. The CCC operated in every U.S. state.^[3] The CCC had several camps in Alabama including one at Geneva State Forest. The young men of the CCC worked to revitalize the forests of Geneva County and southern Alabama. They did this by clearing brush, building access roads and hand planting thousands of tree seedlings.” (wikipedia)