Completion Year: 1940

Established by the Minnesota legislature in 1905 to allow public access to Minneopa Falls, the Minneopa State Park was enlarged and improved during the New Deal period by Works Progress Administration funding. WPA workers improved the falls with new stairs, built public hiking trails, and constructed seven new buildings, including a public shelter, new maintenance buildings, restrooms, and other structures. Constructed from local sandstone and lumber, the seven rustic-styled WPA buildings constructed on the site were added to the National Historic Register in 1989.  

The Black Mountain Lookout Tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and was completed in 1940. The tower is 14′x14′ with a catwalk on a stone foundation. It functioned as the lookout for the north end of Bighorn National Forest. No longer in use, the tower remains a popular hiking destination. In the summer of 2014 the U.S. Forest Service partnered with non-profit HistoriCorps to sponsor extensive rehabilitation work on the tower. Volunteers completed a variety of tasks with the intention of the tower becoming a rental cabin or interpretive site.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) maintained a camp at Pactola Lake SD from 1933 to 1940.  It was designated Camp F-4 and worked under the supervision of the US Forest Service.  Recruits at Camp F-4 worked chiefly in the Black Hills National Forest of western South Dakota. "Camp F-4 was part of a national CCC program to renovate forests and build more recreation areas. Work projects, supervised by the USDA Forest Service, included tree thinning, pruning and planting, fire prevention and suppression; rodent, insect and disease control, grazing land improvement and recreation area development. Enrollees removed dead, diseased, suppressed and excess...

Constructed in 1940, this New Deal post office is also the site of Ann Hunt Spence's 1942 mural, "Romance of Southington," painted under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

William E. L. Bunn painted the mural "Mississippi Packets" for the lobby of the Hickman post office in 1940; the work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

"Pony Express and Rural Delivery" This bas relief, cast stone sculpture, unveiled in 1940 by Vincent Glinsky for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts is at the site of the former Weirton Post Office. The post office moved out of the building in the 1960s and it has remained vacant.

The New Deal early on was involved in helping this small rural town (est. 1680) which only had a population of 569 in 1930. 1933 A few individuals are mentioned along with the town share of costs each for a PWA project and a C.W.A. road project involving a culvert. The school superintendent in a lengthy report gives a mention to the New Deal "The Federal Relief Program even recognizes the importance of adult education and guidance so we cannot consider curtailing the advantages for those who are immature in all respects." 1934 4 people and a few companies are mentioned in connection with a...

A small amount of Federal assistance was provided for this very rural community of 161 people (1930 population) 1933 ORDERS DRAWN FOR 1933 C. W. A. WORK Everett Day, materials for CWA work $ 2 58 Hutchins' Cash Store, dynamite, fuse and caps 20 08 Total $22 66 Report of the Superintendent of Schools "It is generally known, I think, that underweight children are receiving free milk at the hands of the Federal Emergency Relief during the winter and spring terms." 1934 ORDERS DRAWN FOR ERA WORK, Improvement of a school lot 6 men employed $158.65 Report of the Superintendent of Schools "There is available no Federal Free Milk this year but...

Built to replace the former library that shared an 1895 building with the town hall. "By the early 1930s, the Town Hall location was too small. Even though these were the years of the Depression, plans began for a new library. Adelaide Pearson, who had moved to Blue Hill in 1928, took on the formidable task. She was described as “a small woman who got things done” and had a vision for a library that was an integral part of the community, serving more than as a place to store and retrieve books. To fulfill that dream, she organized a fundraising campaign...

CWA, ERA, WPA, and PWA during the entire period of the New Deal were involved in some economic activity, not counting the CCC work on the park and Navy Base in this small coastal community. 1934 Under ROADS AND BRIDGES, the the C.W.A. is listed as hiring 15 people for a road project. 1935 Under CONTINGENT ACCOUNT an E.R.A. project and a W.P.A. project are mentioned without any details about the nature of the project. 1936 An unspecified W.P.A. road project employed 14 men. THIRD CLASS ROADS (Used with PWA Project) 16 men employed and $647.64 contributed by the town. 1937 An unspecified W.P.A. project 14 employed $832.29 contributed...