Utah Resettlement Project papers
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of two boxes of material, 21 folders, discussing the following projects of the New Deal resettlement agencies: Price River, Green River, Elberta, Blue Bench, Ashley Valley, Lasal, Ivin's Bench, Price Suburban Homesteads, and Midvale Suburban Homesteads. The entire collection is composed of photocopied documents, the originals being in Record Group 96 of the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The original filing order system has been maintained to preserve the integrity of the collection. The somewhat hasty manner in which documents were filed says much about the hustle and bustle of the New Deal resettlement agencies. Working with the collection, one can sense the frustration that the massive bureaucracy and endless paperwork of New Deal government provoked. The collection is small enough that preserving the original filing order will not inhibit the researcher's ability to use the documents.
Dates
- 1910-1937
Language of Materials
Material in English
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Utah Resettlement Project must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.
Historical Note
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration dispensed federal funds to establish rural rehabilitation communities for farmers who had been displaced by the Depression to encourage the development of self-sustaining farm families.
One of the New Deal's most ambitious schemes for agricultural reform was the rural resettlement program. Four New Deal agencies - the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Resettlement Administration, and the Farm Security Administration - participated in the effort. Thereunder, the government was to purchase submarginal farmland nationwide and resettle its inhabitants on viable farms. In Utah, the resettlement agencies proposed to buy 5,280 submarginal farms and resettle 1,200 farm families. In practice, the agencies permanently resettled fewer than fifty of the state's farm families, centering their activities in Widtsoe, a small town twenty miles north of Bryce Cannon. None of the projects proposed within this collection were ever implemented by the resettlement agencies. Nonetheless, the papers in this collection are valuable, for they reveal much about the nature of the New Deal resettlement program and about environmental, social, and economic conditions in southern eastern Utah during the Great Depression. It is fitting that these documents should be available at Utah State University since the university served as headquarters for the Resettlement Administration duding the 1930s
Extent
2 boxes (1 linear foot)
Abstract
Records pertaining to Utah projects of the New Deal resettlement agencies. Included are records from Price River, Green River, Elberta, Blue Bench, Ashley Valley, LaSal, Ivin's Bench, Price, and Midvale. The records were obtained from the National Archives.
Arrangement
Documents are generally arranged by project. For the three major projects - Price River, Green River, and Elberta - documents are further divided into 0-1000-level papers just as they were filed by the Resettlement Administration.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquisition information is unknown.
Processing Information
Processed in May of 2006
- Ashley Valley (Utah)--History.
- Blue Bench (Utah)--History.
- Elberta (Utah)--History.
- Green River (Wyo.-Utah)--History.
- Ivin's Bench (Utah)--History.
- La Sal (Utah)--History.
- Land tenure--Utah.
- Midvale (Utah)--History.
- New Deal, 1933-1939--Utah.
- Price (Utah)--History.
- Price River (Utah)--History.
- Public Utilities
- Title
- Guide to the Utah Resettlement Project papers 1910-1937
- Author
- Finding aid/Register created by Special Collections and Archives
- Date
- ©2011
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Based On Dacs (Describing Archives: A Content Standard, 2nd Edition)
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid encoded in English.
Revision Statements
- 2009: Template information was updated to reflect Archives West best practice guidelines.
Repository Details
Part of the Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives Repository
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
3000 Old Main Hill
Logan Utah 84322-3000 United States
435 797-8248
435 797-2880 (Fax)
scweb@usu.edu