Reflections on the The Seventy-Fifth New Deal in Oregon Anniversary of the New Deal Essays in Honor of an OHS Exhibit Oregon’s Legacy by Sarah Baker Munro 6 003 LOGGING, FARMING, AND MIN- 19. Under his leadership, for exam- OHS neg., bb OHS neg., ing — industries that formed the back- ple, the Federal Reserve System eased bone of Oregon’s economy — began credit. Hoover also held conferences in sliding during the 192s and plum- Washington, D.C., encouraging busi- meted when the stock market crashed nesses to maintain wages and railroads in October 1929. Ten billion board and utilities to expand construction. feet of lumber had been produced in He substantially increased the bud- Oregon during 1929. The following get for federal public works. As the year, demand for lumber weakened Depression deepened due to the ensu- because of a decline in construction, ing banking crisis, however, Hoover’s and production decreased 2 percent initiatives proved weak and ineffective. to 7. billion board feet.1 Drought The public blamed Hoover for the plagued the dry desert and plateau economic hardships, naming homeless areas of eastern Oregon, wreaking shantytowns “Hoovervilles.” Oregon havoc on farm production and caus- voters joined the rest of the nation in ing increased layoffs in the agricultural hoping that a political change would sector. Oregon’s mining industry also bring economic relief. experienced a slowdown. As unem- When Franklin Delano Roosevelt ployment rose in Oregon, consumer became president of the United States spending declined, reflecting national on March , 19, he launched a bar- trends. Nationally, unemployment rage of legislation — collectively peaked at 2 percent in 19, and many known as the New Deal — aimed at who remained in the workforce were providing reform, relief, and recovery employed at reduced wages.2 Over half from the Great Depression. Because of workers were underemployed or Oregon’s economy revolved around unemployed, impacting many Orego- rural industries that were ravaged nians and leaving some homeless. In by the Depression, Oregon was situ- Virginia Darcé, Pouring Concrete, woodcut print, published in The Builders Portland, over people lived at one ated particularly well to benefit from of Timberline (Portland, Ore.: Works Progress Administration, 1937) shantytown at Sullivan’s Gulch. Roosevelt’s legislation. During the President Herbert Hoover had ini- initial “Hundred Days” of Roosevelt’s tiated significant recovery efforts in first term, he introduced and Congress OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 © 28 Oregon Historical Society Reflections on the New Deal in Oregon enacted legislation that restructured showcases a variety of projects that Administration Highway Federal at the U.S. Located banking, agriculture, industry, and changed the face of Oregon during labor relations. One of Roosevelt’s first the 19s. acts, developed cooperatively by mem- bers of both his and Hoover’s staffs, BUILT UNDER THE PWA, BONN- was the Emergency Banking Relief eville Dam generated electricity that, Act, which was introduced, passed, and starting in 198, was transmitted to signed into law on the same day. rural regions, some of which had Major legislation from the Hun- never before been electrified, includ- dred Days that impacted Oregonians ing isolated farms and towns in valleys also included the National Indus- throughout Oregon. With funding trial Recovery Act, which created from the Emergency Relief Appropria- the Public Works Administration tion Act and in conjunction with the (PWA); the Civilian Conservation Oregon Transportation Department, Corps Reforestation Relief Act, which construction of bridges along the established the CCC; the Federal Oregon coast (the Coos Bay, Siuslaw, Stonemasons place large boulders on one portal to the Toothrock Tunnel on the Emergency Relief Act; and the Beer- Alsea, and Yaquina bridges), tunnels Columbia River Highway in about 1937. Works Progress Administration funds Wine Revenue Act, which affected (the Sunset — now Dennis L. Edwards, supported road building and improvements throughout Oregon. Oregon’s brewing industry. Legisla- — Toothrock, and Salt Creek tunnels), tion enacted during 1935, called the and roads and highways (the Wolf Second New Deal, launched the Creek-Wilson River highway) opened parks, and others. A separate Native Project wrote about the lodge. Grif- Social Security System and, under coastal areas to visitors and improved American unit from Umatilla worked fith personally promoted Timberline the Emergency Relief Appropriation economic opportunities. on a monument to Chief Joseph at to members of the administration in Act, established the Works Progress Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Wallowa Lake. Washington, D.C., by sending them Administration (WPA). Collectively, enrollees built trails and campgrounds WPA workers who built Timber- samples of Christmas cards depict- these programs changed the nation, in national forests and state parks, line Lodge and a ski lift on Mount ing the lodge, news articles about including Oregon, in significant and opening them to visitors. According to Hood expanded the recreational Timberline, and Timberline Lodge, visible ways. U.S. Forest Service records, CCC camps opportunities for skiers and visitors a book decorated with woodcuts by The public works programs, such occupied at various times between 19 to the Mount Hood National For- Oregon artists on the Oregon Art as the PWA, CCC, and WPA, created and 192 in the Mount Hood National est. Timberline Lodge was a dream Project. Timberline is an icon of the jobs for many unemployed, destitute Forest included Zigzag, Cascade Locks, pursued by Oregon’s WPA director, WPA — a lodge for the public in a citizens. Their work dramatically Dee, Friend, Bear Springs, Summit Emerson J. Griffith. Many programs national forest. developed or enhanced use of rivers, Meadows (later a WPA camp), High of the WPA in Oregon participated The art collection of Timberline national forests, state parks, roads and Rock, Plaza, Oak Grove, Oak Grove/ in Timberline Lodge: WPA and CCC includes work by Oregon’s most prom- highways, schools, and post offices Estacada, and Latourelle. The Tim- workers built the lodge and its sur- inent artists of the 19s, including C.S. throughout the state. The year 28 berline Trail, which circumnavigates rounding landscape; funds from the Price’s Huckleberry Pickers and three marks the seventy-fifth anniversary Mount Hood, was built by CCC Federal Art Project (FAP) furnished other oil paintings; Howard Sewell’s of the inauguration of Roosevelt’s workers, who also worked on road and decorated it; participants in the murals Symbolizing Lodge Builders; New Deal and is an opportunity to construction, ground preparation, Federal Theatre Project produced the- Charles Heaney’s The Mountain; acknowledge its legacy, a bequest that and stonework at Timberline Lodge. atrical sketches for its dedication and Darrel Austin’s Dishwashers, among transformed Oregon. An exhibit at CCC workers constructed buildings opening, and Federal Music Project others; Douglas Lynch’s Calendar of the Oregon Historical Society (OHS), and laid out trails at Silver Falls and musicians played at the same events; Mountain Sports, a series of carved Oregon’s Legacy: The New Deal at 7, Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial state and writers for the Federal Writer’s linoleum panels; and Virginia Darcé’s 6 OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 Reflections on the New Deal in Oregon 7 Courtesy of Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; on loan from the WPA Negatives Collection Paul Bunyan opus sectile murals. The Senator Charles McNary and Congres- exhibit at OHS includes original fur- man Walter Pierce supported New nishings seen by President and Eleanor Deal legislation, but Portland Mayor Roosevelt when he dedicated the lodge John Carson and Oregon Governor on September 28, 197, including an Charles Martin opposed Roosevelt’s armchair built specifically for the reforms. Robbins concludes that the president by the WPA woodworking New Deal was generally popular in the shop under Ray Neufer. Some of the West, especially in places where hydro- furnishings that reportedly caused electric projects tilted the per-capita Eleanor Roosevelt to exclaim that the expenditures of New Deal programs craft at the lodge was the best she had in the region’s favor. Robbins specifi- seen are also included in the exhibit. cally describes the impacts of the CCC Another part of the seventy-fifth in the national forests and state parks anniversary exhibit at OHS offers a and of the WPA on bridge and road glimpse of the work of Oregon art- building and in the arts, projects that ists, actors, writers, and musicians are illustrated in the exhibit. who participated in the Federal Art Robbins also emphasizes the sexual Women employed under the Division of Professional and Service Projects in Oregon Project, the Federal Theatre Project, discrimination that was commonplace hook rugs to furnish Timberline Lodge in about 1937 . Others wove fabrics for the Federal Writers’ Project, and the in the New Deal, reiterating Neil Bark- drapery, bedspreads, and upholstery or sewed appliquéed draperies for guest rooms Federal Music Project. er’s description of “institutionalized before the lodge opened in February 1938. sexism in the WPA guidelines.”7 Since ON OCTOBER 9, 2004, A LABOR a family could have only one member Arts Symposium — Oregon Art Dur- employed under the WPA, the women’s poaching game and fish; and picking people in culture was, as Horowitz ing the Roosevelt Era: