According to Glory-June Greiff, our Indiana National Associate, “nearly half of Indiana’s state parks, and all but two of its state forests were developed or improved by New Deal agencies.” Reporting from Ligonier, Indiana, where she gave a lecture a few months ago, Glory-June recounts her impressions and describes some of the New Deal sites she discovered in this small town, once a thriving manufacturing community. In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created Woodlawn Park in Ligonier. The following year, it built multiple facilities—a stone shelter house, a large fieldstone flower bed that appears to have served as a fountain, a stone basin, and multiple stone platforms. Some of these structures are still standing today. Recreational facilities were a common type of project undertaken by the WPA. As Glory-June writes, WPA administrators found them especially well suited for creating employment opportunities where they were urgently needed, while also delivering public value for local residents. Read more about Glory-June’s site visit here.