Roosevelt’s Tree Army Comes to Town

In 1934 a new post office established the identity of Crouch, now the commercial district for Garden Valley. The town was named after Billy Crouch, a miner who homesteaded near the confluence of the Middle and South Payette Rivers. In the 1920’s, Crouch donated property for a new community hall in Garden Valley.

In 1933, the first Civilian Conservation Corps troops arrived at Camp Gallagher, located a dozen miles upriver from Crouch. The CCC was one of the New Deal programs initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat the Great Depression. Contrary to popular belief, Idaho suffered more than most states in the Pacific Northwest during this time. From 1929 to 1932, the income of the average Idahoan dropped nearly fifty percent.

Between 1933 and 1942 over three million men enrolled in "Roosevelt’s Tree Army." They earned thirty dollars a month, twenty-five of which were sent to their families. This stipend kept many Americans off the relief rolls.


The old Trading Post

Most of the CCC boys came from urban areas back east. They were poor, hungry, and lonely for their friends and relatives back home, so when the Garden Valley Post Office was overwhelmed with their mail, a new one was established at Crouch. The new post office was conveniently located so that CCC troops working up the Middle Fork could pickup and deliver mail to local residents on their way to and from camp.

The CCCs helped support Garden Valley’s economy during the midst of the nation’s economic crisis. Camp inspection reports indicate that local settlers produced much of the food consumed at Gallagher Flat and Tie Creek, another CCC camp established on the Middle Fork in 1937. The townspeople, in turn, sponsored weekly dances and movies for the CCC enrollees.

Alder Creek Bridge