RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
Showing posts with label Works Progress Administration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Works Progress Administration. Show all posts
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Weedpatch Camp, Cal.-- Part 2: Providing Hygiene, Running Water and Security to the Displaced
Because of lack of hygiene and security, these type of camps were not acceptable, so the Farm Security Administration (FSA) built labor camps consisting of permanent buildings with running water, schools and libraries. The FSA also provided help in finding work. The first administrator of Weedpatch was Tom Collins.
Between April 1935 and December 1936, the Federal government's New Deal Resettlement Administration (RA) had relocated many struggling rural and urban families to planned communities.
Weedpatch camp, however, was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was located on the outskirts of the small towns of Arvin and Weedpatch. The camp is now located in an unincorporated area of Kern County, south of Bakersfield.
--RoadDog
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Weedpatch Camp, California-- Part 1: Built By the WPA for Migrants
Before reading about this place in the Route 66 News, I'd never heard of it before, but definitely all that The Grapes of Wrath."
From Wikipedia.
Weedpatch Camp, California, also known as the Arvin Federal Government Camp or the Sunset Labor Camp was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) south of Bakersfield, California, in 1936 to house migrant workers during the Great Depression. Several historic buildings remain of the camp and have been placed on the NRHP as of January 1996.
The camp had its origins in the migrations during the drought that caused the Dust Bowl in the mid-1930s. Oklahoma was particularly hard hit. and many farmers and their families left because of it. They migrated to California where they heard there were jobs and help. Most became farm laborers.
They were joined by others from Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. Housing for migrants consisted of squatter camps (essentially groups of tents pitched beside a road or camps established by farmers or growers.
--RoadBowl
Along 66, Nov. 2019: Weedpatch Dust Bowl Festival and Camp
NOVEMBER 15-- End of an era? Final Dust Bowl Festival held at Weedpatch Camp in California.
It was made famous in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath. It was the 30th and last festival as the survivors of it are getting too old to continue with it. (Evidently they were guests of honor.) It was held in Bakersfield, California and built in 1935by the WPA to house Dust Bowl refugees.
From the Visit Bakersfield Site.
Officially known as the Arvin Federal Government Camp, the migrant worker center most notably featured in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath."
The camp was a government rescue center for distressed migrant workers fleeing from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Various scenes from the 1940 movie adaptation of the novel were filmed here.
It still aids migrants today.
--RoadDog
Thursday, June 15, 2017
News From Along 66, May 2017: The Shaffer Spring Goldfish Bowl
MAY 8-- A history of the Shaffer Spring Goldfish Bowl in Arizona. Located between Kingman and Oatman, the bowl is fed by a natural spring. During the WPA construction of the "Gold Road Section" from Gold Road Mine to Kingman there was a water shortage.
A man named Shaffer found water seeping out of the rocks.
Goldfish, snails and plants were kept in it to keep algae from growing.
The bowl has frozen over or dried up on occasion, but someone always restocked.
There are 31 steps up to it and no banisters. You can find it after MM 31 heading to Oatman and those burros.
--RoadDog
A man named Shaffer found water seeping out of the rocks.
Goldfish, snails and plants were kept in it to keep algae from growing.
The bowl has frozen over or dried up on occasion, but someone always restocked.
There are 31 steps up to it and no banisters. You can find it after MM 31 heading to Oatman and those burros.
--RoadDog
Monday, May 11, 2015
Nashville's Iroquois Steeplechase-- Part 2
The race is run on turf with a purse of $150,000. It took place on May 9th this year, the 74th running.
Seven races are held and attendance is generally over 25,000 (which would explain all the signs). Most are decked out in their spring finest wardrobes including women's hats to match those worn at the Kentucky Derby. They say it is the best hats in the South.
Money is raised for the Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt which has received nearly $10 million in funds from the event since becoming the cause in 1981.
The Iroquois Steeplechase grounds were constructed in 1936 as part of a parks improvement project to the Works Progress Administration, part of FDR's attempt to get the U.S. out of the Great Depression.
Had we been there three days later, we would have been in the middle of it.
Gost, Another Traffic Jam. --RoadDog
Seven races are held and attendance is generally over 25,000 (which would explain all the signs). Most are decked out in their spring finest wardrobes including women's hats to match those worn at the Kentucky Derby. They say it is the best hats in the South.
Money is raised for the Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt which has received nearly $10 million in funds from the event since becoming the cause in 1981.
The Iroquois Steeplechase grounds were constructed in 1936 as part of a parks improvement project to the Works Progress Administration, part of FDR's attempt to get the U.S. out of the Great Depression.
Had we been there three days later, we would have been in the middle of it.
Gost, Another Traffic Jam. --RoadDog
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