Seventy-five years ago hundreds of young men and boys were sent to the Smoky Mountains to build a park.

Last week, former members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, now in their mid- to late 80s, met to commemorate that great work.

Beginning in 1933 and lasting nine years, the area that was to become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park had as many as 4,000 young men and boys working in 22 different camps, all under control of the U.S. Army.

The CCC workers built trails, fire towers, roads, bridges, back country shelters and two park centers, helping turn the land from a timbered and forest fire-gutted skeleton into the country's most-visited national park.