Works Progress Administration

Although I have been very fortunate to have a copy of my GG Grandparents diary as they traveled over the Oregon Trail in 1853, much was left out and if it were not for the W.P.A. projects I would not have many facts of the journey.

The Works Progress Administration or referred to as the W.P.A. was introduced in 1935. The program was for the purpose of giving employment to the needy and covered a broad area of project work. The largest number of persons employed through the W.P.A. was 3,000,000 in February 1936 and 3,250,000 in October 1938.

About 80% of the W.P.A. activities were in the construction field, but there were also other projects, including a project called W.P.A. Interviews. In each county, a person was selected to interview elder residents and record past history of the area. Leslie L. Haskin conducted interviews in Linn County, Oregon. If it were not for the foresight of the W.P.A. to preserve a part of our history through these interviews, I would be at a loss as to some of the historical facts about my ancestors that settled in the Brownsville, Oregon area in 1853.

There is now much interest in early history and the only available original copies of the Linn County W.P.A. Interviews are in very poor condition. Through the efforts of Nina L. Williamson and Richard R. Miligan these interviews were transcribed and put into booklet form and can now be found in multiple volumes at the Linn County Museum in Brownsville, Oregon. For more information on the interviews please go to http://www.lgsoregon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=34:wpa-interviews&Itemid=100049&layout=defaultW.P.A. Interviews