New Deal Era, WPA, CCC and many other government run organizations...

Wages in 1929 were about average for the time. $ 0.10, $ 0.12 1/2 and $ 0 .15 tops, per hour and remained about the same until the late '30s. Postage was 2 cents first class and my dad said "For the first time in his life it hurt to lick a postage stamp". Instead of money in those days most transactions were made by "bartering, trading or swapping goods". Times were hard but most people were happy and about everybody was in the same boat.

In 1948 when Yvonne and I were married my wages were $ 0.35 an hour, $ 14.00 a week, and we saved money, bought our household goods, groceries and clothes, went to the show generally more than once a week and enjoyed life. Even a penny had value in those days.

The New Deal going into effect was a great thing since it not only provided employment for many people, it did wonders for all the area. The WPA built school buildings, court houses, bridges, public parks, outhouses for the public and many other useful projects and you can still see the WPA placard and date on many things as you travel around the country. Take alook as you travel and just about anywhere in the US you will find their sign.

The early forest rangers traveled on horseback in the area since there wasn't sufficent roads or transportation to justify other means. The U S Forest Service owns and maintains many thousands acres of the Ozark area and manage timber sales and timber management. It also built the first telephone service to the Lurton mountain area and the many fire towers, most of which have been removed as of now.

This composit was put together by Lloyd Sutton. It is the Fairview Fire Tower near Lurton. The boys are from left: Don, William and Lloyd Sutton, made in 1944. The upper corner is the same spot in 2000...you can still see the concrete piers where the tower stood.

The towers in the general area of Lurton were located at the following locations: Freeman Springs approximately 10 miles south on HWY 7, Fairview, (a small tower), located about half way between Lurton and Pelsor, (Pelsor was also known as Sand Gap at that time) Mount Judea 8 miles north on HWY 123, Ketcherside 8 miles northeast on Forest Service toward Bass (has a number now but I don't have it here), Round Hill tower on further on Bass road then east toward Richland Creek road and one blackgum tree with climbing spikes on it located between Lurton and Cowell. The towers were, all except the tree, connected with telephones and by communicating with each other and using their locater maps could pinpoint a fire in the forest acurately.

During the Depression, fire fighting was one of the most prosperous businesses. It may not be so, but there appeared to be two fire fighting crews in our particular area, one seeing to it that there were fires to fight and the other putting them out and then alternating between setting fires and fighting them. The government paid good wages for fighting fires. There wasn't a ranger station as such at Lurton but a small office was built and containers holding axes, rakes, shovels and food for the crew was kept on the porch of the general store and kept supplied for ready use. By the way the Forest Service did have vehicles to haul the firemen and equipment and was used until the CCC days.

CCC Camps, another of Frankie's NEW DEAL projects and a great contributor to the welfare of Lurton, Arkansas along with many communities throughout the U S. Within less than a ten mile area were located the following: Camp Pelsor, HWY 7 south across the road from Fairview Tower, Camp Sand Gap about a mile SW of Pelsor on HWY 123 toward Ft. Douglas and Camp Moore, East of Ketcherside Tower near Richland Creek on the forest road. Then just alittle further past Camp Sand Gap and just beyond Ft Douglas was Camp Ft Douglas. Also Camp Lost Corner was near Hector, Arkansas.

Not only did the men in the various camps replace the local firefighters they built numerous roads throughout the area, did TSI (Timber Stand Improvement), some of which was to a little questionable to me as it looked like they killed a lot of the best of the native timber, however, that is just my personal opinion.

Thanks go to Harry Sutton for recalling the times during the New Deal Era.