• Belvedere Community Regional Park - Los Angeles CA
    In 1942, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) constructed 60-acre Soledad Park in East Los Angeles, CA. "From the 1940s to the 1960s," the L.A. Conservancy notes, "Belvedere Park (renamed in 1949) was known for hosting the games of the local Mexican American baseball leagues in the northern field, 'El Porvenir.' The park helped to foster a sense of community that led to the baseball players' involvement in local political and labor organizations, and the teams helped sustain the players' traditional language and culture." The construction of the Pomona Freeway in the 1960s divided the park in half: 31-acre Belvedere Park to the...
  • Community Regional Park - Arcadia CA
    In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) converted Ross Field, a World War balloon training school for more than 3,500 military personnel located in Arcadia, CA, into a public park. They constructed a golf course, swimming pool, and tennis courts. "Before opening day Oct. 12, 1938, the WPA crew christened each golf hole: The fifth is 'Railroad' because it paralleled the Pacific Electric tracks; the 11th is 'Wind' because the prevailing wind blows in players' faces, and the 16th is 'Clubhouse Turn' because it was the first turn on pioneer Lucky Baldwin's original racetrack site. A plaque paying tribute to the...
  • Dinosaur National Monument Expansion - Dinosaur CO
    In 1909, an abundance of dinosaur fossils were discovered  by a team of paleontologists collecting for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, near Jensen, Utah. It was one of the most important dinosaur excavation sites in the United States at the time. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson set aside 80 acres around the fossil discovery site as a National Monument. President Franklin Roosevelt expanded the monument to its present size of nearly 200,000 acres in 1938. About 3/4th of the enlarged monument lies in Colorado, making this one of the few bi-state national parks or monuments.  It is administered by the...
  • Duniway Park (improved) - Portland OR
    Although Duniway Park was founded in 1918 to serve residents in south Portland, improvements had been limited and those who used it complained of the odors associated with the landfill that originally established the playground area. In 1934, the Oregon's State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA) authorized funds to improve the park. SERA was funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) during 1934-1935. FERA operated from May 12, 1933 through 1935 when it was replaced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as the New Deal's primary work relief program. One of the city's major newspapers, The Oregonian, reported that the SERA funded...
  • Hart Park - Orange CA
    Hart Park in Orange, California, was created in the 1930s by the City of Orange with the help of the State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA) and the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Orange City Park was the town’s first park. In 1935, a proposal was submitted for funding to build Orange City Park with $30,963 from the WPA for relief labor and $12,362 in local funds for materials, employing 66 men for 11 months. The proposal was approved in early 1936 and the work probably continued for the next two years, given the extensive improvements made. This was part...
  • Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park: Development - Crescent City CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did the initial development of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in the 1930s. The area where the CCC did its work is along state highway 199, just west of the village of Hiouchi and a few miles east of Crescent City, California.  This remains the only significantly developed part of this large park, with its many groves of enormous, first-growth redwoods, such as Stout Grove. Engbeck (2002) notes that, "CCC Company 1903, of Camp Prairie Creek, built a new entrance road and a park custodian's residence. They built a campground near the Smith River with a...
  • Moosehorn National Wildlife Preserve - Baring ME
    "Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge is a northern treasure in the National Wildlife Refuge System. It consists of nearly 30,000 acres of federally protected lands in northeastern coastal Maine. The refuge's landscape is varied, with rolling hills, large ledge outcroppings, streams, lakes, bogs, and marshes. The diversity of forests and wetlands provides habitat for over 225 species of birds, endangered species, resident wildlife and rare plants. A northern hardwood forest of aspen, maple, birch, spruce and fir dominates the upland. Scattered stands of majestic white pine are common. The Edmunds Division boasts several miles of rocky shoreline where tidal fluctuations of...
  • Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park: Development - Big Sur CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive improvements to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park on the central California coast, developing it for public recreational use after the state parks commission acquired the land in 1933.  The enrollees worked out of Camp Big Sur from 1933 to 1941.  We believe Camp Big Sur was located either at the present Main Campground or at the Group Picnic Area. The CCC built campgrounds, picnic areas, a campfire center, and several stone restrooms (comfort stations). They also constructed the main lodge with a post office and cabins.  To this, they added a park headquarters and administration...
  • Tautphaus Park and Zoo - Idaho Falls ID
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped develop Tautphaus Park and Zoo in Idaho Falls, Idaho around 1935-36. A 2015 Idaho Falls city press release states: "In 1934, the city of Idaho Falls purchased land in Tautphaus Park, then called 'City Park,' and in 1935 the first zoo animals were brought to the park. Log buildings were erected throughout the park and financed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.  Some of these buildings can still be seen on zoo grounds and now serve as an education center and a storage barn." The rustic style buildings are still in the park, though the...