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Photo courtesy Meridian State Park
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epression, drought, un- employment and low farm and oil prices were but a few of the things bothering Texans in the early 1930s. The state's economy was suffering the same symptoms felt across the nation following the great stock market crash in 1929. It was during this time, ironically, that the fledgling Texas State Park System got a major facelift and be- o dMmories Sl came a significant factor in the state's public recreational milieu. This was fiade possible by President Franklin frO n a L'i eof D. Roosevelt's establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Natonal Hardship the first New Deal recovery program started after his inauguration on by Jim Cox, reprinted from March 4, 1933. This new program September 1978 Texas Parks & Wildlife established work camps throughout
the nation where unemployed young men toiled on conservation projects such as flood control, reforestation and construction on public lands. The 15 camps established across Texas concentrated on improve- ments in state parks-and they came none too soon. Texas' parklands hardly deserved the term "park system" when the CCC was organized in 1933. Al- though the Legislature previously had purchased a few historical sites, the state park system did not exist CCC camps such as this one at Meridian State Park made a priceless contribution to the Texas State Park System. Texas had 2,620 men at work in state parks out of 18,000 nationally.
Texas. Parks and Wildlife Department.Texas Parks & Wildlife, Volume 41, Number 9, September 1983,
periodical,
September 1983;
Austin, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1568778/m1/4/:
accessed July 16, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.;
crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.