Forestry and Agriculture Sites

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.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed fire towers on steel frameworks to help protect the new plantings and existing forests. The fire tower at O'Bannon State Park was completed in 1937 by CCC laborers. The steel tower replaced a temporary, 55' wooden tower. The fire tower stands around 100' tall with 9 flights of stairs within the tower.

The campsite is marked primarily by low stone walls and scattered foundations. The camp was occupied in December of 1934 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Co. 517, which was comprised of young African-American boys. Upon completion of their work, the camp was discontinued in the fall of 1937 and Co. 517 moved on to another location.

This fire lookout tower was constructed as a New Deal project in 1941, potentially by the CCC. It is in reasonably good condition though it is no longer in use and the initial stair has been removed for safety reasons.

Originally formed as the result of glacial action during the Ice Age 15,000 years ago, Oakland Lake is a kettle lake, part of the Alley Pond Park system in northeast Queens. It is surrounded by glacial boulders and is fed by underground springs and a ravine that flows into the lake from the south. The lake served several purposes until it was transferred to New York City's Parks Department in 1934. The Parks Department notes: "In the 1930s, Works Project Administration (WPA) workers lined the brook feeding Oakland Lake with blocks, and later, the brook and a small pond leading into the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a concrete wall along the west side of Ocean Avenue. A metal plaque reads "Built by Works Progress Administration 1935-1036."

Numerous New Deal agencies had a tremendous impact on the development of Ocmulgee National Monument, the site of pre-Columbian southeastern settlement dating back millennia. "The largest dig ever conducted in this country occurred here at Ocmulgee and the surrounding area. Between 1933 and 1936, over 800 men in Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (ERA & FERA) and later the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) excavated under the direction of Dr. Arthur R. Kelly from the Smithsonian Institute. Kelly was the only archaeologist at the Ocmulgee camp and conducted evening training courses for the men....

The Ogden River Project provides irrigation water for 25,000 acres of land along the Wasatch Front around Ogden UT, as well as supplemental water for the City of Ogden. The anchor of the project is Pineview Dam in Ogden Canyon and the resulting reservoir created from the waters of Ogden Creek.   Pineview Reservoir feeds a system of distribution canals to water users on the plains in and around Ogden.   The system is fed by the 5-mile long Ogden Canyon Conduit running down the north side of the canyon wall.  From there, a 25-mile long Ogden-Brigham Canal runs north toward Brigham...

"During the 1930s numerous improvement projects were carried out through federal relief programs. A Civilian Conservation Corps Camp of about 200 young men was located in the beech woods where the former Caddy Camp building stands. Gift and loans were solicited to match the Works Progress Administration funds, making possible the building of nature trails and roads, picnic sites, cabins, tennis courts, the outdoor theater, Camp Russel, and the entire Crispin Center area. Crispin Center - with its large swimming pool, golf shop and Pine Room area - has changed little on the outside. Built in 1937-38 of natural sandstone, much...

The Farm Security Administration build this camp in 1939 to house black farm workers from the Caribbean. While there is still housing here, this is no longer a camp.

The heart of today's Greenbelt, Maryland – popularly known as "Old Greenbelt" – is a large, planned community laid out and constructed during the New Deal. It features community facilities such as a school, theater and community center, a large number and variety of housing, basic infrastructure of roads, water and sewers, and extensive landscaping and an attached forest.  Almost all of the original facilities are still intact. Greenbelt was one of four greenbelt towns initiated by Rex Tugwell, head of the Resettlement Administration (RA). Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are other surviving greenbelt towns; a fourth,...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop Olympic National Park, including constructing the park's headquarters, during the 1930s.

Historically identified as the Oregon State Forester’s Office Complex, the Oregon Department of Forestry Complex was developed by workers from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The Historic American Buildings Survey described this complex as a significant example of New Deal-era planning and development. It includes 4.5 acres originally utilized as the state headquarters for the Civilian Conservation Corps and 7.25 acres purchased for the Oregon State Forester’s Office and forest service supplies. Although new construction exists, the lay-out, buildings and landscaping are a legacy of WPA and CCC work and the collaborative contributions of the...

The Oregon State Forester’s Office was designed by a US Forest Service architect and constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers after preparation of the site by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this structure is considered one of Oregon’s best examples of a building in the National Parks style. Timberline Lodge heads the list in this category but the Oregon State Forester’s Office, although significantly smaller, shows a remarkably high quality of workmanship as well. Linn A. Forrest, the US Forest Service Architect associated with Timberline Lodge’s floor plan and elevations, produced the...

Constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the interior of the Oregon State Forester’s Office demonstrates a high level of craftsmanship. Its interior was decorated by a wood carver employed in the Federal Arts Program of the WPA with finishes to window frames and wood floors provided by workers supported by the National Youth Administration (NYA). Making every room in the office building distinctive, different Oregon native woods were selected to panel each room – and each ceiling received a special treatment as well. Eighteen native woods are used in the interior. Eugene based artist Arthur Clough carved the stairway railing...

The Resettlement Administration constructed the Osage Farms cooperative project across 13 miles in the northern part of Pettis County, Missouri from 1937-1943. Many of the original buildings, including a government farmhouse, still remain and are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are now part of the Bois d'Arc Cooperative farm. The NRHP document about the properties contains the following excerpts: "The Osage Farms project area is within the easternmost four (Houstonia, Hughesville, Heaths Creek and Longwood) of a band of five townships across the northern third of Pettis County... The period of significance is 1937-1943, a timeframe during which...

The Farm Security Administration build this camp for white farm workers about 1939. While there is still housing there, the camp no longer exist.

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, “After the state acquired the land, it was reforested with groves of pines which were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The CCC also built the first campground sites in the area.”  

This metal tower was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) between 1935 and 1936 under the supervision of Denzel Doggett.

The Owl's Head summit is one of the areas in Groton State Park developed by the CCC: "In 1933, CCC Company 146 from Rhode Island was stationed along the road to Osmore Pond. Approximately ¾ mile from the campground on the left, you will see the remains of a stone fence at the entrance to the camp, the Recreation Hall chimney, and cellar holes. Company 146 was responsible for building structures at New Discovery, Osmore Pond, Owl’s Head, and Kettle Pond... A stone fire tower built in 1935 is the highlight at the summit . As you are hiking to the summit,...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted in efforts to eradicate the oyster drill, a predatory sea snail that preys on oysters, in New Jersey waters. One specific work site was the Maurice River Cove of Delaware Bay, by Heislerville, New Jersey.

The oyster project was completed at an expenditure of $67,270.94 for bedding of 2,678 acres of oyster reefs with shells. The sponsor’s contribution was $4,683.18 and the Works Projects Administration funds $62,587.76. The project was approved 1935 to support the cultivation of oysters along the gulf coast. The oyster seedlings were planted on the state reefs of Pass Christian and Pascagoula and in the Bay of Biloxi. At the time, Biloxi was rated the largest oyster canning industry in the world.

Pachaug State Forest is the largest forest in Connecticut. After the land was acquired by the state, "Laborers from New Deal programs such as the ... Civilian Conservation Corps then turned these newly acquired lands into usable open space ..." The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)’s Camp Lonergan, which housed Company #179, was stationed at Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown, Connecticut. The camp was established June 6, 1933 and was discontinued May 28, 1942. A CCC Museum exhibit discusses the camp's accomplishments. "The largest state forest in Connecticut was home to a camp named after Senator Augustine Lonergan. A shingle mill was set up near...

The Oregon Skyline Trail, a portion of today's Pacific Crest Trail, was established in 1920. Its popularity among hikers and climbers grew to such an extent that a 1934 study of trail conditions produced a detailed report. Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees provided much of the labor for the recommended improvements. Improvements included relocation of stream fords due to hazardous or inconvenient conditions, alternative routes over portions of the trail, evaluation of campsites, recommendations for building of shelters, latrines, and garbage pits, and new trail signs and maps. Construction of shelters on the Skyline Trail was one notable priority facilitated by CCC...

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a camp F-23 at Packers Meadows, Selway Forest, Idaho.

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...

The Palmer Depot is a historic train station built in 1935 to provide transportation to the Matanuska Valley Colony. The Alaska Railroad was the main means of transportation by which colonists arrived in the Matanuska Valley in 1935. A New Deal homesteading experiment, the Matanuska Valley Colony was established to foster economic growth and the development of agriculture in the new territory. Land plots in Matanuska Valley had been subdivided and open for homesteading starting with 1914. But the land was difficult to cultivate and economic growth between 1914 and 1935 turned out to be slower than expected. The land...

Paris Mountain State Park was developed in large part by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). "CCC structures, including the Camp Buckhorn lodge, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places." The state park on Paris Mountain was built in the 1930s by the Depression-era CCC. Sixteen other parks in the state of South Carolina were also created due to the work of the CCC. The land for the park was acquired in 1935 from the city of Greenville." CCC work included the development of the entrance, road construction, a bathhouse and an office, picnic facilities, staff residences, a gazebo, the development...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop a fish hatchery at the Park County Hatchery near Cody, Wyoming. "The 1935-1936 biennium was a heyday of improvements and construction. ... WPA labor built a new log hatchery building with 36 steel troughs, water system improvements, and landscaping at the Cody hatchery." The location and status of this project is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

1933 Mayor Alvin Lucier in his inaugural address listed 4 major projects done in cooperation with Federal Relief agencies. 3. PARKS AND COMMONS AND RECREATION FACILITIES. This project was designed to further develop the Artillery Pond project and includes some building. This would bring nearer to realization a well thought out plan for the development of an area particularly well suited by nature for a recreational center. It also includes work to be done at the South Common and at the swimming pool at Field's Grove. 1934 Mayor Lucier in his annual report wrote: "No less than seven Federal programs have directly affected our people. During...

"Conservation efforts began in the river valley in 1907 when the Patapsco State Forest Reserve was established. During the Depression years of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted trees and built trails, picnic areas, campsites and handsome cut-stone pavilions to improve what had by then become "Patapsco State Park". Company 356 of the Civilian Conservation Corps made its encampment near Lost Lake at Camp Tydings in the Avalon Area. The CCC built the stone picnic shelters in Orange Grove and Glen Artney (not visible from the river). The CCC was also responsible for planting trees in...

The Patten Colony Farm is a historic structure representative of the farmsteads associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation's Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The complex includes a log house, two log and frame barns, a chicken coop, an outhouse, and another outbuilding. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the log house: “The one-and-one-half story log house was built by a colony construction crew and has an "L" shaped floor plan. A green house was added on the southeast corner around 1972. The main roof ridge runs...

President Franklin Roosevelt created Patuxent Research Refuge (PRR) with Executive Order 7514, December 16, 1936, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace dedicated it on June 3, 1939.  The refuge began with 2,670 acres and has since grown to 12,841 acres. It is “the nation's only national wildlife refuge established to support wildlife research” (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). Several New Deal agencies helped to build the extensive facilities at the Patuxent Research Refuge. At the time, wildlife refuges came under the direction of the Bureau of Biological Survey (later merged into the Fish & Wildlife Service).  The Works Progress Administration (WPA)...

"Penderlea Homestead Farms, located in northwest Pender County, North Carolina, was the first of 152 homestead projects developed in 1934 under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The purpose of the homestead projects was to provide penniless tenant farmers, bankrupt farm owners, and unemployed ex-farmers during the Great Depression with a means of making a living. Providing for self-sufficient rural communities also eased the burden of over-crowded cities. n 1934, Hugh MacRae, prominent Wilmington developer and agriculturist, proposed to the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, U.S. Department of the Interior, that a homestead project be established in Pender County... In May of1935, the Resettlement...

"A Civilian Conservation Corps Camp of 208 men completes projects like rebuilding Eagle Tower, constructing stone fences, clearing hiking trails and roads, planting trees and refurbishing the ski jump and toboggan run near today's Nature Center."  (https://dnr.wi.gov)

The CCC assisted in the development of this state forest.

The Big Timber Pioneer newspaper reported in January 1937 that a rat eradication project was being undertaken by the WPA in the Montana town of Lewistown: "A ton of rat poison and 1,500 traps arrived in the city as the first step in a campaign to rid the city of its overabundance of the pests. The extermination will be carried on as a WPA project, in co-operation with city and county authorities." Later the same year, the same paper reported that: "WPA officials have informed County Agent Ralph Stuckey the cricket and grasshopper control project will be carried on in Fergus county during...

"In 1934 the Division of Subsistence Homesteads purchased a tract of land on what was then the outskirts of Phoenix in order to build a public housing community for low-income residents. Construction of the first half of the Phoenix Homesteads began in 1934 and was completed in 1935. These Pueblo Revival style adobe homes were built on 0.75-acre parcels to accommodate subsistence gardens and small farm animals. Fruit, nut, and olive trees added to the self-sufficiency of the community. Trees and shrubs were planted for shade and privacy. A second small-scale farming cooperative was planned in 1935 by the Resettlement...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed fire towers on steel frameworks to help protect the new plantings and existing forests. The steel fire tower at Pike State Forest was completed in in 1935. The tower stands about 110' tall and has 9 flights of wooden steps.

In the early 1930s, the Civilian Conservation  Corps (CCC) made improvements to an experimental fire station established by the U.S. Forest Service in the Shasta National Forest, at Pilgrim Creek just east of McCloud Ranger Station. Pilgrim Creek had long been the site of a tree nursery for reforestation projects, but in 1930 an experimental fire station was added to the site. According to a former forest service fire control officer, the experiments concerned fire detection, control and prevention (see document in photograph below).  The same officer recalled that the CCC built a lab and office, a house and a barn, and...