AGENCY: Governor's Office. Emergency Relief Administration
SERIES: 19542
TITLE: Drought Relief Program project files
DATES: 1934-1949.
ARRANGEMENT: Numerical by project number, thereunder reverse chronological by year, month, and day.
DESCRIPTION: These project files document the history of state-wide drought relief projects initiated through Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) grants and administered by state and local agencies. The Utah Emergency Relief Administration (UERA), Governor's Emergency Drought Relief Committee, Utah Rural Rehabilitation Corporation, and State Department of Finance used the records to review and authorize water development and conservation projects, allocate federal funds, manage the purchase of equipment and materials, supervise construction, and negotiate legal title to the projects after completion. The records contain social and environmental information on local communities such as hydrologic and geologic data on the area; number and condition of families, people, livestock, or acres involved; and names of sponsors. Letters from applicants are particularly interesting as they reveal the desperate conditions in which many Utah residents lived in this period, including some correspondence with the governor. The files contain maps, project plans, applications, scientific reports, surveys, legal agreements, cost and benefit analyses, petitions, purchase receipts, construction logs, completion reports, expenditure summaries, equipment advertisements, purchase orders, claims for labor, and assorted correspondence. The Pelican Point Pumping Plant project on Utah Lake, and the Strawberry Reservoir Outlet Works project are two particularly noteworthy projects completed under this program.
RETENTION
DISPOSITION
RETENTION AND DISPOSITION AUTHORIZATION
Retention and disposition for this series is proposed and has not yet been approved.
FORMAT MANAGEMENT
Microfiche master: Retain in State Archives permanently with authority to weed.
Microfiche duplicate: Retain in State Archives permanently with authority to weed.
Paper: Retain in State Archives permanently with authority to weed.
APPRAISAL
Historical
These files will be retained in their original format. Some documents may hold intrinsic historical value, particularly the letters from despondent Utah residents and the Governor's correspondence, and should be preserved.
PRIMARY DESIGNATION
Public