Nevada Sites

"Establishing communications between outlying ranger stations was imperative. Crews built roads and telephone lines between the Paradise Valley Ranger Station and the outlying station at Martin Creek. The men also constructed the administrative buildings at Paradise Ranger Station and the forest supervisor’s compound in Elko. The construction of the Elko-Mountain Home road generated widespread interest and attracted dignitaries including Senator Pat McCarran, Governor Richard Kirman, Congressman James Scrugham, Attorney General Gray Mashburn, and state and highway officials." --The Civilian Conservation Corps in Nevada

The Pershing School District Office was constructed with the help of the National Youth Administration (Nevada state office) in 1941, according to a plaque on the building, which still stands.   The building is a modest one-story structure in Moderne Style, with decorative indentations above the windows and a handsome design around the entrance.  It has recently (c. 2020) been repainted from beige to brown and the office name over the entrance is gone or has yet to be reinstalled.

The historic post office building in Lovelock, Nevada was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the Great Depression. The building, which opened in 1938, is still in use today.

The historic post office building in Tonopah, Nevada was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1940-41.   The building is still in use today and the interior appears largely unchanged over time.

The historic post office in Yerington was constructed in 1938 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, is still in service. "The Yerington Main Post office is one-story red brick building which rests upon a raised basement platform. The front elevation is flat, symmetrical, and Classically-pro-portioned. Five bays divide the facade: two flat-arched bays and a centered, round-arched entry bay. Sandstone and wood are used for trim details. A copper-clad hipped roof covers the building. The Yerington Main Post Office is significant on the state level for art and on...

The historic post office building in Ely, Nevada, was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the Great Depression in 1937-1938.  It is a classic "federal" style brick building, a standard design for many post offices of the time. The building was sold to private owners in recent years and is presently  known as the Postal Palace Convention Center, a part of the operations of the Hotel Nevada and Casino on Main Street. The interior has been modified for its new use, but some of the original lobby is still there (in 2023).

An oil-on-canvas mural entitled "The Uncovering of the Comstock Lode" was painted in 1940 by Ejnar Hansen and installed in the lobby of the Lovelock NV post office.  It is still in place today, reminding people of the immense role of the silver boom in the history of Nevada (and, indeed, the United States as a whole).

The 1940 oil-on-canvas mural, "Cattle Round-Up," by Polly Duncan depicts several cowboys guiding cattle into a shed while the bulk of the herd is being driven in from the broad expanse of the Nevada landscape.  It is a typical New Deal era post office mural in that it depicts a theme from the locality and its history and is done in American Regionalist style. The Treasury Section of Fine Arts funded this mural, probably at the same time as the old post office was expanded in 1940.   The mural at the former post office was moved to the city's modern post...

The historic post office in Yerington houses an example of New Deal artwork: an oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Homestead on the Plain." The 1941 Adolph Gottlieb work was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts.

The federal Public Works Administration provided a hefty loan and grant enabling the construction of a power line that would bring electricity from the then-newly completed Hoover Dam to the eastern Nevada town of Pioche. Nevadaculture.org: " directed the government’s assistance to Nevada for the construction of the first line delivering electrical power from the newly completed dam.  That line, to Pioche, Nevada served as a kind of model for the succeeding ones, and it cost $ 900,000 to complete.  The PWA under Felt’s direction provided about a third of that money as an outright gift and another third as a long-term...

The CCC established Camp Hawthorne (DG/G-119) in Nevada as a part of the Grazing Service's effort to restore the public domain. Vernard "Bud" Wilbur, a recruit stationed at the camp, described the work performed by the CCC in an oral history interview: “It was hard work, since we came from a city and weren’t used to this type of work eight hours a day…But they fed you well…We graded roads…We dug out a big reservoir about a mile above camp and firmed it all up with rocks and so forth, and then it was filled so that stockmen could use it...

"The Division of Grazing (Grazing Service as of 1939) operated the greatest number of CCC programs in the state. There were several reasons for this. First of all, Nevada has the largest public domain (nonallocated federal acreage) of any of the forty-eight states. With little trouble, Nevadas elected officials and stockmen easily persuaded national CCC officials to approve requests for several new grazing camps, notwithstanding national CCC program budget cuts. Second, following passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, a large workforce was needed to implement its ambitious provisions. Even with CCC assistance, the amount of work needing to...

CCC Company 1915 "built the Marines an excellent rifle range" in the town or vicinity of Hawthorne, Nevada. The exact location or status of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal, though it is likely that the facility was related to other construction projects at the old Naval Ammunition Depot.

"Between 1934 and 1935, Civil Works Administration and Federal Emergency Relief Administration workers had repaved over fifty-eight blocks. Much of the work was in the suburbs, where the "dust menace" had long been a problem."

"Robert Mitchell School in Sparks got a new playground with supervised play for children from FERA."

Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a monument to five fallen members of Company 1212 who died fighting a fire outside Orovada, Nevada on July 28, 1939. The monument and plaque reside at the center of a U.S. 95 rest area south of Orovada, toward Winnemucca. BLM: "A crew comprised of 23 men from a Civilian Conservation Corp responded to a lightning fire just outside of Orovada on the Santa Rosa mountain range. A thunderstorm had been developing above the fire while the crew hiked in and had now collapsed, creating a sudden wind shift and strong down drafts. Five of...

“One of the CCC’s most important contributions was the well-engineered twenty-six-million-gallon capacity reservoir and dam in Rose Creek Meadow. The Rose Creek Reservoir was an incredible undertaking due to its location more than halfway up the mountainside. The labor-intensive water impoundment was largely constructed by manual labor and horse-drawn Fresno Scrapers. The long-term advantages of the Rose Creel Reservoir live on as the reservoir continues to provide a significant source of water to this day. Subsequent efforts focused on transporting additional water to the depot on the valley floor. CCC crews soon completed a 4.5-mile duplicate water-supply system (pipeline) and...

The Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1938 by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the protection of migratory birds and endemic species of the Basin and Range region.  It serves over 220 species of waterfowl and is the largest nesting area in the west for Canvasback ducks. The refuge covers about 38,000 acres, almost half of which consists of marshes created by springs drawing from aquifers coming out of the Ruby Mountains to the west.  The refuge lies at an elevation of 6,000 feet and mostly within Elko County NV, with the southern end in White...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and graded roads leading to the newly created Ruby Lake Wildlife Refuge, in order  to connect with existing state highways to Wells NV, where the railroad passed.  The road up the east side of the valley was entirely new, while the west side county road was improved.   "Using a combination of heavy equipment and manual labor, the CCC built the 26-mile long ‘East Service Road.’ In all, Ruby Lake enrollees graded 52 miles of road service, including 19 miles of county road, between the refuge and the oiled highway (State Route 229) that led...

The Rye Patch Dam lies in the Humboldt River valley, which crosses Nevada from east to west.  The California Trail went along the Humboldt River and the Lovelock Valley has been a gateway for gold and silver prospectors since the 1860s. It has also been home to irrigated farming, which benefitted greatly from the New Deal of the 1930s. The Bureau of Reclamation constructed Rye Patch dam in 1935-36, as part of the larger Humboldt Reclamation Project.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did ancillary work during the final stage of construction of the dam, clearing acres of brush in and around the reservoir...

"The Division of Grazing (Grazing Service as of 1939) operated the greatest number of CCC programs in the state. There were several reasons for this. First of all, Nevada has the largest public domain (nonallocated federal acreage) of any of the forty-eight states. With little trouble, Nevadas elected officials and stockmen easily persuaded national CCC officials to approve requests for several new grazing camps, notwithstanding national CCC program budget cuts. Second, following passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, a large workforce was needed to implement its ambitious provisions. Even with CCC assistance, the amount of work needing to...

The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1931 in the desert landscape of northern Nevada and eastern Oregon and enlarged by order of President Franklin Roosevelt in December 1936, under the auspices of the Bureau of Biological Survey (Fish and Wildlife Service after 1940).  It now covers 573,000 acres and is part of the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which is headquartered in Oregon.  It harbors one of the last reasonably intact examples of a sagebrush-steppe ecosystem in the Great Basin and is known for its populations of bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope and wild mustangs (since removed). The Civilian...

This steel and concrete bridge, crossing the Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada, was completed in 1937 by the Public Works Administration (PWA).

"The Southside School annex was built in 1936 to provide additional classrooms for the Southside School, which was built in 1903 and demolished in 1960 to make way for Reno's City Hall. The school annex was built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and labor, and housed the kindergarten, and the fifth and sixth grades. The WPA programs were initiated under President Franklin Roosevelt and the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. The program employed nearly nine million people over an eight-year period; in Reno, both unemployed professionals and laymen contributed to the construction of the new Southside School Annex....

Second Half of Final Extended Building Phase (1941-1942). Residential housing for employees of the Stewart Indian Boarding School Staff and Civilian Conservation Corp - Indian Division (CCC-ID) was acute by the late 1930s. Off-site rental units in Carson City and Reno were expensive and hard to find. Stewart Indian Agency Superintendent Don C. Foster made several attempts to gain approval for two new cottages for CCC-ID employees and approval finally came after his offer to redirect CCC-ID funds (earmarked for a Walker River project) to the cause. Five cottages (including two duplexes) were built west of the Indian School in the...

Stewart Park, formerly a city dump, was completed in 1937 through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

A street improvement project in Sparks, Nevada was undertaken during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $13,399 grant for the project, whose total cost was $22,921. Work occurred between December 1938 and June 1939. (PWA Docket No. NV 1039)

"The Division of Grazing (Grazing Service as of 1939) operated the greatest number of CCC programs in the state. There were several reasons for this. First of all, Nevada has the largest public domain (nonallocated federal acreage) of any of the forty-eight states. With little trouble, Nevada's elected officials and stockmen easily persuaded national CCC officials to approve requests for several new grazing camps, notwithstanding national CCC program budget cuts. Second, following passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, a large workforce was needed to implement its ambitious provisions. Even with CCC assistance, the amount of work needing to...

Completed in 1937, the state Supreme Court and Library in Carson City, Nevada was constructed with funding from the Public Works Administration.

"The Division of Grazing (Grazing Service as of 1939) operated the greatest number of CCC programs in the state. There were several reasons for this. First of all, Nevada has the largest public domain (nonallocated federal acreage) of any of the forty-eight states. With little trouble, Nevada's elected officials and stockmen easily persuaded national CCC officials to approve requests for several new grazing camps, notwithstanding national CCC program budget cuts. Second, following passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, a large workforce was needed to implement its ambitious provisions. Even with CCC assistance, the amount of work needing to...

“By the spring of 1936, the CCC continued where they left off in 1934. Crews built a water system for the Kyle Canyon Campground, the Rainbow Canyon summer-home area, the Kyle Canyon Guard Station, and the Air Force Base Rest Camp. Considerable time was also spent cleaning up collapsed CCC barracks destroyed by devastating storms during the previous winter…Once the camp was operational, the CCC began constructing Deer Creek Road into Lee Canyon and building trails to Little Falls and Mount Baldy.” --The Civilian Conservation Corps in Nevada

"Camps Newlands and Carson River worked primarily in the Fallon and Fenley areas. While Camp Carson River concentrated on improving the spillway at Lahontan Dam, Camp Newlands took on downstream canals and ditches. Camp Newlands also provided the labor force for the Walker River Irrigation system in Smith Valley. At Topaz Lake, the CCC constructed the levee along the east bank of the intake canal, adding an additional twenty thousand acre-feet of water storage. Camps Newlands and Reno also maintained a summer camp at Boca Dam where enrollees worked on the Truckee Storage Project – a Nevada and California joint...

“The CCC built a number of tourist and campground facilities and trails at the new Valley of Fire State Park. They built stone visitor cabins, ramadas for shade, and roads into natural points of interest at the Valley of Fire. From parking areas, several trail systems leading to the blazing red-rock formations and petroglyph sites were also constructed.” --The Civilian Conservation Corps in Nevada The sandstone cabins pictured here were originally built as a shelter for passing travelers and are now part of a picnic area.

Virginia Lake Park south of Reno was constructed by the WPA in 1936-1938. The park is both a recreational site and serves as a detention reservoir for flood control and irrigation. "Thanks in part to night work crews, the WPA quickly created what became known as Virginia Lake Park south of Reno. The lake was designed for swimming and wading with an average depth of five and a half feet. It was one of many Nevada parks created."   (https://www.newsreview.com)

The Volunteer Fire Department building in Winnemucca, Nevada, was constructed with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1938-39. The building, located on South Bridge St. in central Winnemucca, is still in use today. The structure contains four bays for fire trucks and a residential space upstairs. The stucco facade is a good example of Art Deco style of the 1930s and has been well maintained.  The PWA contributed a grant covering roughly half the cost of the project.

 The federal Works Progress Administration helped to construct an old convention center at what is now the northwest corner of Stewart Ave. and N. Las Vegas Blvd. in Las Vegas, Nevada. A National Register of Historic Places registration form states: "For several years a convention center had been supported by Las Vegas's forty or more fraternal lodges who had repeatedly suggested that the town build a multi-storied structure with a hall and offices sufficient to host large convention meetings. Financing would come from the lodges renting space. But it would not be enough. A solution was finally reached in the Fall of...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) each worked to develop the Washoe Country Club in Reno, Nevada. The historic golf course is still in use today. Work began in May 1935 (by the FERA) and the course was completed in October 1936 (by the WPA).  The course was built on the site of the original Reno airfield.

A waterworks/sewer construction project in Caliente, Nevada was undertaken during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $15,750 grant for the project, whose total cost was $61,304. Work occurred between January and December 1936. (PWA Docket No. NV 2904)

A waterworks/sewer construction project in Carlin, Nevada was undertaken during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $77,800 loan and $22,574 grant for the project, whose total cost was $101,906. Work occurred between July 1934 and January 1935.  

"An emergency Works Progress Administration project in Goldfield relieved a severe water crisis by connecting mains to a supply in Rabbit Springs."