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E. Works Progress Administration Beginning on December 1, 1935, the National Park Service cooperated with the WPA, the major agency established by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 8, 1935, by assuming the responsibility for the technical supervision of the programs of forty-one WPA camps. [37] The program was undertaken at the request of the state, county, and municipal agencies sponsoring the camps and with the concurrence of the WPA. The work camp program provided an extension of the services rendered to state, county, and municipal governments by the National Park Service in the conservation of natural resources and the coordinated and planned development of recreational areas for public use. Projects were undertaken in three federal, twenty-two state, three county, and thirteen municipal park areas. In addition, the WPA requested that the Park Service assume responsibility for a beach-erosion project along the Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, coast, constructing sand fences and planting on the resulting dunes. Of the nearly $9,000,000 WPA allotment to the Park Service in 1936, $1,425,185 was expended on a preliminary survey of 150 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway and on grading and drainage structures along a 40-mile section of the parkway. The sum of $6,750,000 was allocated for the acquisition and development of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site. In addition, $693,951 was expended on administrative expenses of the camps and $77,240 for repairs and replacement of federal property damaged or destroyed by the 1936 floods. [38] Additional Works Progress Administration allotments for projects in the national parks amounted to more than $15,000,000 in fiscal year 1937. Among the major projects undertaken with these funds were: acquisition of land for recreational demonstration purposes--$1,562,481.61; beach erosion control project, North Carolina (federal)--$679,925; development of non-federal recreational park projects--$4,144,327; and development of federal recreational park projects--$7,418,515. [39] Chapter Three continues with... |
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