A public works project provided relief for the unemployed and a much-used state park for Raleigh.
Better known as Umstead State Park, Crabtree Creek Recreational Demonstration Area is a public works project that converted worn-out and subpar farmland into a recreational park during the Depression. In the short term, the project supplied work for young, unskilled men who joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as well as work for the architects, foresters, and engineers who designed the project and trained the workforce. The CCC workers planted forests on old farm fields, created lakes, and built the rustic-style bridges, roads, trails, picnic areas, and camp facilities that are characteristic of CCC projects. Today, the park contains the region's best collection of New Deal rustic architecture and landscape design.
