- City:
- Huntsville, TX
- Site Type:
- Hatcheries, Forestry and Agriculture
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1939
- Completed:
- 1940
- Quality of Information:
- Minimal
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Between 1939 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked at the state fish hatchery northeast of Huntsville, Texas as part of project 65-1-66-175. The WPA reworked the ponds to remove sediment, added an 8-inch water supply line and concrete drainage boxes. They improved the drainage ditches by digging them out, rebuilding some with rock masonry walls and adding culverts where necessary. They also widened some of the levees around the ponds to allow trucks to drive on them.
Years later, the lake that fed the ponds of the hatchery drained when its dam failed in a storm, forcing the closure of the hatchery. The state gave the facility to Sam Houston State University, and the land is currently the university’s Center for Biological Field Studies.
Source notes
Sam Houston State University’s Center for Biological Field Studies: (https://www.shsu.edu/academics/sciences/news/cbfs.html), accessed March 23, 2018.
Note cards on period photographs from the National Archives and Records Administration digitized by the Historic Sites and Structures Program, Texas State Parks (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/141324854@N04/albums/72157666429693481), accessed March 23, 2018.
Site originally submitted by Larry Moore on March 23, 2018.
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