We still enjoy their trees and trails. Now this monument honors them in Glacier.

He’s 6 feet tall. He weighs 460 pounds. And he’s just the second of his kind in Washington state.

To find him, drive up Mount Baker Highway to the Glacier Public Service Center.

Named “CCC Worker Statue,” the new bronze sculpture is greeting thousands of visitors who stop at the U.S. Forest service center on their way to trails and other sites in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and North Cascades National Park.

So who is this bare-chested guy? And what was the CCC?

He represents the multitude of young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which existed from 1933 to 1942.

Created by President Franklin Roosevelt, it provided work for more than 3 million out-of-work men so they could support themselves and their families in the midst of the Great Depression. In return, they planted more than 3 billion trees and constructed trails, buildings and over 800 parks across the nation, according to the History Channel at history.com and the nonprofit Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy.

They were mostly 18 to 25 years old, and referred to as Roosevelt’s Tree Army and CCC boys. They earned $30 a month, with $25 going to their families.

From camps spread throughout the state and nation, they helped shape the nation’s park systems.

“The things we enjoy today was done by a bunch of out-of-work kids,” said Janet Oakley, a Bellingham writer and historian who has researched the CCC here in Washington state.

There were about 200 men at Camp Glacier in Whatcom County, according to Oakley.

You’ll find their work here in places that include the Glacier Public Service Center, the Austin Pass Warming Hut (now the Heather Meadows Visitor Center) and the Douglas Fir and Silver Fir campgrounds, as well as miles of forest roads and trails, Oakley said.

Elsewhere, the young men in different CCC camps built the tower on Orcas Island and the bathhouses at Deception Pass, Oakley added.

Oakley and Mike Impero, whose father was among the CCC boys at Camp Glacier, helped bring the $20,000 statue to Glacier, thanks to an anonymous donor.

The effort is part of a larger project by the nonprofit Civilian Conservation Corps out of Edinburg, Virginia, to erect the monuments.

The statues are in 40 states.

The one in Glacier was dedicated June 16, becoming the second in Washington state. The first was dedicated in September 2004 at Deception Pass State Park.

The Whatcom County statue was the 72nd in the nation and a tribute to the young men who were helped during a dark time in the nation and whose legacies exist still.

“It created the tenets of the American conservation movement and the infrastructure of the modern outdoor recreation system that we still enjoy today. It still gives back to us today,” said Joan Sharpe, president of the CCC Legacy.

She added: “In a time where the CCC is quietly slipping away from the public consciousness, these statues are a tribute to their work and a reminder of the young unemployed youth who participated in America’s greatest conservation program and natural resource restoration project.”

Learn more

• ccclegacy.org and on its Facebook page, titled Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy.
  
  
• The Glacier Public Service Center, 10091 Mount Baker Highway, has information about the CCC and its contributions.

• history.com. Type “Civilian Conservation Corps” into the search window.

• Washington State Parks has a two-part video on YouTube about the Civilian Conservation Corps contributions in the state. Type “Washington State Parks Civilian Conservation Corps” into the search window.