The collapse of the Cabin Branch Pyrite Mine, and the onset of the Great Depression eight years later, forced industrious landowners, farmers, and mine workers to economize.  Houses and farmland fell into disrepair and a large percentage of park landowners failed to pay their taxes. As the local economy was making subtle shifts deeper into poverty, the national economy was in complete turmoil. The Roosevelt Administration began looking at proactive ways the government could assist American families.

It was during these dark times that Conrad Wirth, who would later become Director of the National Park Service (NPS), led in the development of the Recreational Demonstration Area (RDA) program.  The optimistic RDA program aimed to provide relief to struggling farmers by developing outdoor recreation areas near major cities.  As was typical of many new deal programs, local farmers rarely shared the government’s view of their farmland as ‘sub-marginal’ and economic situation as ‘bleak’.  To many, it was just a simple life. The RDA program hoped that by paying farmers to move elsewhere, they would be giving the land a second chance and a second life as an outdoor playground for poor Washingtonians.  Of the 150 families that lived on the proposed RDA land, many had called this place home for over a century. Some families were resettled to places just outside the boundaries, and others refused to leave.  The entire resettlement process would take over eight years to complete. More...