- City:
- Modesto, CA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Water Supply
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1937
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped pay for major improvements to the irrigation canals of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), created in 1887.
“MID ditches were vastly improved during the Depression. One project in 1937, was funded by a $380,000 federal grant from the PWA. It would bring the miles of improved ditches up to about 100 miles (out of a total of about 450 miles). Fifty ditches were involved in this project and over 500 men were employed for about five months. The federal government furnished about 45% of the cost of the manpower and materials.” (Osborn, p. 46)
Source notes
National Archives and Records Administration, PWA record cards.
B. J. Osborn. Modesto: An Informal History. 2003: 46.
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 27, 2010.
Additional contributions by Andrew Laverdiere, Richard Walker.
Site Details
| Federal Cost |
|---|
| $380,000.00 |
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Devan Costa
Andrew Laverdiere
There are multiple manholes in the Modesto area near the above-referenced photo with WPA 1941. Are these related to the canal mentioned above?
Hi Devan. In the Fresno Library there is an archive of WPA job cards describing work they did in Modesto and sanitary sewers, waste water, water mains, etc. were all projects they worked on, however, most cards were not specific as to the location. If you can look through a local newspaper of that period, you might be able to find out what was being worked on. Just keep in mind that if it was a Republican leaning newspaper, they tend to cover the New Deal as little as possible, especially starting around the 1936 campaign.