Resettlement Community - Fruita CO

City:: Fruita, CO
Site Type:: Resettlement Communities, Infrastructure and Utilities, Forestry and Agriculture, Electricity
New Deal Agencies:: Resettlement Administration (RA), Housing Programs, Public Works Funding, Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
Completed:: 1937
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Marked:: Unknown
Site Survival:: No Longer Extant

Description

The farmland around the town of Fruita in western Colorado was the site of a Resettlement Administration (RA) project that relocated poor farmers driven out by the Dust Bowl. Some 34 families had been relocated to Fruita by 1937. The official name was the Grand Valley Resettlement Project (also known as the Western Farms Association). (Fruita Community History page)

It appears that another 32 families were relocated to neighboring Loma CO, probably as part of the same Resettlement Project (Wikipedia). A Community Hall was built in Loma for the new settlers in the area by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.

The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) also brought electricity to 800-900 farms in the area, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a new Fruita high school and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was busy at the Colorado National Monument, a few miles south (Fruita Community History).

We cannot corroborate that the WPA built a library for Fruita.