Tularosa Basin Museum features New Deal programs in New Mexico

The alphabet soup of organizations meant to put America back to work in the 1930s during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal left its mark on the Tularosa Basin.

Works Progress Administration, or WPA, and the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, were among those putting New Mexicans to work.

"Because 33% of New Mexico was government-owned land, National Forest, National Parks, all that; so it was perfect place for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to come in and set up their camps," Josette Herrell of the Tularosa Basin Museum of History said. "There were so many people from all over the country that were looking for jobs and this was a good place."

Roosevelt's New Deal was a campaign promise he had made when he first ran for U.S. President in 1932.

Practically as soon as he took office, Roosevelt began implementing it.

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"Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs," according to the Library of Congress. "Later, a second New Deal was to evolve; it included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers."

The Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps were employment programs under Roosevelt's New Deal.

Some of the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps projects in the Tularosa Basin and Lincoln National Forest include the Woman's Club in Indiana Avenue in Alamogordo, the Visitor's Center at White Sands National Park, the Otero County Administrative Building which started out as a Post Office, the Weed Gym which is now the Weed Community Center and the Orogrande School.

More:Celebrated women of Otero County: Katherine Ortega and Elizabeth Garrett

The Civilian Conservation Corps did environmentally-based projects where the Works Progress Administration did public works programs.

The WPA/CCC exhibit can be seen at the Tularosa Basin Museum of History on the corner of White Sands Boulevard and 10th Street in Alamogordo.

For more information, call the museum at 575-434-4438.

Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.