Monticello Live

In Monticello’s Mason Hill area, in Martha Circle, there is a “WPA” marker being used as a “mailbox post”. 

This story tellssome of the history of that marker.  Mrs. Sheilla Lampkin provided the research for this story. 

The WPA was the Works Progress Administration.  It was a federal program under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs to put people back to work during the Depression years in the 1930s.   

The WPA built roads, bridges, dams, parks, etc.  Their projects were called “public works” because they benefited the public as a whole. 

Many of our national parks were WPA, or had WPA projects as a part of them.  For example, the trails and railing at the Grand Canyon were WPA projects and have markers to verify. 

WPA workers were primarily family or older men. The government created jobs for them so they could feed their families.  The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) was for younger guys who’d turned 18.  They could also get jobs, but some of their wages had to be sent back home to the parents and families.  The whole idea was to put people to work.  There are several men around Drew County who worked in the CCC camps.  

Many state parks in Arkansas were WPA or CCC projects.  Many of the older concrete bridges were WPA projects and are marked that way.  Many of them survive today.    

Many national parks have facilities built by the WPA.  All of their projects were marked at one time.  

The marker shown was used to mark the areawhere the WPA had cleared a road. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Other stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.