These photographs taken by Russell Lee in July 1942 document the efforts of the energetic residents of Ola, Idaho and show the backbone of America. Russell Lee reported “Some of the members are in the armed services and others are working in war factories and others are helping neighbors who are haying. One member of […]
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You must see these amazing photos and vintage films of citizens of Ola, Idaho in 1940s – Takes you back in time
Ola, Idaho applied and received for two loans from the Government to open a cooperative sawmill to save the town from economic ruin. Their efforts paid off and when photographer Russell Lee returned to the town in 1942, the smiles on faces of the citizens of Ola reveal their success. Member of the Ola self-help […]
A sawmill saved the town of Ola, Idaho from disaster – see pictures of the men who saved the town
The Great Depression hit Idaho hard. From 1929 to 1932, the income of the average Idahoan dropped nearly fifty percent. Photographer Dorothea Lange visited Gem County’s Squaw Creek Valley, Ola, Idaho in October and November 1939 and took many pictures of the residents. These photographs reveal Idaho’s social history during the Depression and early war years. […]
The people of Ola, Idaho rallied together during the Great Depression and built themselves a better life.
The picturesque town of Ola, Idaho was an isolated community due to impassable roads much of the winter and this created significant problems for them during the Great Depression. Ola is an unincorporated community in Gem County, Idaho, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles north of Emmett. Carroll Baird homesteaded along Squaw Creek, less than […]
Stunning pictures from the early 1900s of garment workers working from home in New York!
The garment industry is one of the oldest and largest export industries. We often hear of sweatshops and under age workers in other countries, but there was a time in America when sweatshops were common as well as those who worked at home and required their children to assist in the work. The photographs below […]
Big Bopper’s watch found 21 years later – you’ll never guess where
We lost a great musician early when Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr., better known as the Big Bopper lost his life along with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens in a plane crash Feb.3, 1959. His watch was not found at the crash site until spring when the snow melted in Iowa. This beautiful song by the Big Bopper’s […]
[Pictures of vintage store] – Coffren Store in Maryland, the only intact example of 19th century general merchandise store
The Coffren Store in Maryland is a rare example of a well-preserved, mid 19th-century general merchandise store. Small local stores of this type one-room utilitarian structures including a Post Office once commonly dotted the rural landscape of the county. Most have long since disappeared, and the few others remaining have been altered. The Coffren Store […]
Silhouettes, an art form that has been around for ages
SILHOUETTES by Dorothy Graham Gast Silhouettes have been used as a means of representing images of leaders for thousands of years as evidenced by coins bearing the likenesses of their rulers. In the Bible Jesus responded to those Jewish leaders trying to trap him by asking if the Jews should pay taxes. His response was […]
Stunning photos of rural life in Georgia in 1939, times were hard
Erosion of land was a major problem in Georgia during the 1930’s along with the depression. Marion Post Walcott visited Georgia and documented the economic difficulties residents had with photographs Her photographs provide a glimpse of life in rural Georgia in 1939. The descriptions included with the photographs are hers. Farmer in overalls pointing toward eroded […]
Miraculous story of survival in a tornado
A Night I Can’t Remember by Joyce Ray Wheeler A cyclone is a low pressure area in the atmosphere in which winds spiral inward. All cyclones have two characteristics. The atmosphere pressure is lowest at the center. The winds spiral inward at the center. (Why in the world am I defining cyclones?) There are very few of my Ray family left. My dad was born into a family […]