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The first tree of the Great Plains Shelterbelt, an Austrian pine, was planted at the Ed Curtis farm near Willow, Oklahoma, on March 18, 1935. The state forester of Oklahoma, George Phillips, did the honors. The Great Plains Shelterbelt was designed to mitigate damage from the 1930s dust storms.

Shelterbelts were natural windbreaks planted to protect land from the dust storms of the 1930s. The Great Plains Shelterbelts spans several states. The agency that started the project is unknown to the Living New Deal, but the project was transferred to the Works Progress Administration because of a dispute over the source of funding. Today, very few of the Depression-era shelterbelts are left, but a few trees remain of the shelterbelt built on the McFarland Ranch.  McFarland Ranch is a private property southwest of Cimarron. The ranch is south of the Arkansas River and the trees were originally irrigated by the Arkansas...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park throughout the New Deal era, 1933-42.  Among the other works undertaken by CCC enrollees was the construction of three amphitheaters, at Aspenglen Campground, Moraine Park Museum and Glacier Basin campground.  These were used for educational presentations by park rangers and staff. The Aspenglen and Glacier Basin amphitheaters were built in 1938 (Brock, p. 43), as part of general upgrades to those campgrounds (Brock, p 41).  The amphitheaters were designed by the National Park Service in Rustic Style and meant to blend into the landscape and surrounding trees.  The one...

Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915 to preserve a spectacular section of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains.  Several new additions to the park have been made over the years, until it reached its present size of 415 square miles. The park saw considerable recreational development in the 1920s under the National Park Service (NPS), but it benefitted enormously in the 1930s from the New Deal.  Most notable of the New Deal agencies was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), but the \ park also gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), road work by the Bureau of...

In 1934, Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) railroad, “negotiated a $900,000 Public Works Administration loan which would be used to make B & O’s New York-Washington line an industry-wide proving ground for various types of lightweight train construction and high-speed steam and diesel power” (Harwood, 1990). Among the equipment constructed with this loan was the Royal Blue, a streamline train set consisting of eight cars made out of aluminum and lightweight steel. The Royal Blue was a reincarnation of a popular B&O train service from the turn of the century plus “a quarter of a century of...

In the 1936-37, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) build the stone observatory (later visitor's center) at Land's End on the western tip of Grand Mesa. It was built in the Rustic Style popular in the early 20th century, of heavy basalt stone from the mesa and rough timbers. Grand Mesa is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, around 500 square miles in area and 10,500 high.  It is entirely within the Grand Mesa National Forest. The observatory was shuttered when we visited, but not permanently closed, we hope.

The Land's End road up the western end of Grand Mesa was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933-34.  The main builders were 200 veterans enrolled in the CCC, who worked out of a CCC seasonal tent camp at the foot of the mountain; so, the project was long known as "the Veterans' Road". The road climbs up 9 miles up switchbacks to the rim of the mesa.  The hardest section, from Wild Road picnic area to the top, was completed by U.S. Forest Service employees in 1934-35. The road is still in use.

The town of Fruita, Colorado received a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of over $70,000 that covered almost half the cost of a new Fruita High School, begun in 1935 and completed in 1936.  The building is now used as the Fruita Middle School. The school building is a lovely example of Moderne architecture. It is a long, rectangular two story structure with two rows of windows separated by vertical elements suggesting columns. There is a small, single story wing joined to the main building and a rounded entrance foyer between the two.  The cladding is a light orange/earth-tone brick. There is...

From 1938 to 1939, young relief workers from the National Youth Administration (NYA) built the North Casper Clubhouse in the city of Casper, Wyoming. Upon finishing the structure, the NYA noted that the “building was planned to meet a pressing need in the North Casper community and has been extensively used by various organizations and activity groups” (Cassity, 213). NYA workers constructed the building using a unique architectural method known as rammed earth construction. The walls of the clubhouse measure eighteen inches thick and are finished with metal lath, plaster, and stucco. The original design of the building included space for...

In 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed three new buildings for the Sherman Guard Station, including an office, garage/shop, and an outhouse. Originally used as a yearlong headquarters for the Sherman Ranger District, the ranger station became a seasonal work center by 1933. The site was used intermittently throughout the 20th century, and has most recently served as the staging area for fire crews fighting the Mule Forest Fire in 2002. Six buildings remain onsite at the Sherman Guard Station today, and all three of the buildings constructed by the CCC remain in use by...