Bear Mountain State Park - Tomkins Cove NY

City:: Tomkins Cove, NY
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Lodges, Ranger Stations and Visitor Centers, Lakes and Ponds
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Description

“Bear Mountain State Park is located on the west side of the Hudson River in Orange and Rockland counties of New York…

In the 1930s the federal government under Franklin D. Roosevelt was developing plans to preserve the environment as part of the Depression-era public works programs; the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, spent five years on projects at the park. Pump houses, reservoirs, sewer systems, vacation lodges, bathrooms, homes for park staff, storage buildings and an administration building were all created through these programs.” (wikipedia)

In addition, a report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration from 1933 records another New Deal site in the park:

“A camp for destitute unemployed women was established in Bear Mountain Park, in New York State, by the temporary emergency relief administration of the state with the cooperation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The Federal Emergency Relief Administrator ruled that the cost of the maintenance and administration of this camp might be included by the State in its accounting of expenditures when applying for Federal funds under subsection (b) of section 3 of the Federal Emergency Relief Act. This camp, still in an experimental state, and the only one of its kind in the country, is accommodating approximately 200 unemployed women.”