Project type: Education and Health, Schools
New Deal Agencies: Works Progress Administration (WPA)
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Description
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs put people to work. Young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built flood control projects at Elephant Butte Dam. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers built three schools in Las Cruces, including Court Junior High. They also built numerous tourist and recreation facilities in the area.
Picacho Avenue earned the nickname 'Little Oklahoma' when it became a thoroughfare for refugees bound for California. Stranded and destitute, travelers sold their belongings for gas money. This roadside trade was the precursor of Picacho Avenue's antique and second-hand stores."
-Las Cruces: Crossroads of History
Source notes
"The Great Depression," Las Cruces: Crossroads of History <https://www.las-cruces.org/code/history_exhibit/waterhardtimes.html#Depression> "New Deal Sites in New Mexico," Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps, New Mexico Humanities Council. <https://atlas.nmhum.org/atlas.php?gmap=42>
went there in 1963&1964