The Great Depression put millions of people out of work. Many of them hit the road, hoping to find employment in other places, but the economic problems were widespread. This meant that tens of thousands of people were wandering the country, without work, money, food, or shelter.
The Federal government responded to the Depression with an alphabet soup of relief agencies, such as the WPA, the CCC, the CWA, etc. One of those agencies built transient camps to feed, house, and employ adult men.
91 Years Ago
The June 13, 1935 Colorado Transcript announced that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was building a second transient camp at Camp George West. The first camp had opened a year earlier. To date, residents had improved the roads, laid new sewer pipe, dug a new well, and built an amphitheater on the south side of South Table Mountain.
Six months later, the Transcript described the ongoing list of jobs for the workers:
Among the projects are the completion of a boiler house, central heating system, a camp headquarters building, a combined recreation hall and canteen and a camp infirmary. Other improvements planned are replacing 400 wooden tent floors with permanent floors and an additional mile of sidewalk and gutter…. It is expected that several thousand native trees and bushes, most of them yellow pine, will be planted, Stone and crushed rock for the various projects is being taken from the top of South Table mountain, which is being developed as a military air field as the ground is being cleared of rock and leveled…. All work on the projects will be done by transients, who receive the regular WPA wage scale.
The Colorado Transcript, December 19, 1935
In June of 1936, Camp George West returned to its normal function as a National Guard training camp, the guardsmen enjoying much improved living conditions. The Transcript mentioned that a strengthening economy had enabled most of the former transient camp residents to find private employment. “Transients not absorbed by private enterprise were transferred to camps in the national forests.”
