With picks, shovels, & hope

"In 1933, only days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a new program, the Civilian Conservation Corps, which put three-quarters of a million young men to work restoring forests and farmland, building infrastructure, and fighting fires in America's national parks, monuments, and forests. Many workers were sent far from home, including thousands who came west to the Colorado Plateau. In this high, dry, and lonesome setting, they encountered natural beauty unlike anything they had ever seen, as well as challenges they could not have imagined. Incorporating the men's own reminiscences, With Picks, Shovels, and Hope tells their story. To this day, visitors reap the rewards of the CCC's work. With Picks, Shovels, and Hope reveals how our public lands in the Colorado Plateau came to be the magnificent, visitor-friendly places they are. Dozens of beautiful color photographs and historical black-and-whites illuminate this engaging history."--Publisher's website.