THE ALABAMA LANDING by Jon R McKinnie Hernando DeSoto’s expedition In 1541-1542, Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto’s expedition included the first white men to explore this particular area of north Louisiana. They had traveled throughout mid-America from the Mobile, AL starting point and, in time, to south Arkansas and north Louisiana. Expedition journals record they spent […]
Cotton was a major commodity for the Lake Dick Project Community, Arkansas in 1938. (New Deal Project) The fields were so extensive that day laborers had to be employed to pick the cotton. The bags of cotton picked by each laborer was weighed and recorded in the fields as seen by the photographs below taken […]
After a grueling day picking cotton, at the New Deal, Lake Dick Project in Arkansas, day laborers were rewarded with their pay each evening for their work. The counting and recording took time so the laborers had to wait time to receive payment. Many rested, while others stood and watched the monetary transactions as these photographs taken by Russell […]
Little remains of the Lake Dick Project from Roosevelt’s New Deal. All that is left are a few houses. The area is currently on the National Register of Historic Places. When it was active, there was considerable work for everyone as seen by the photographs taken in 1938 by Russell Lee and Dorothea Lange. Dairy […]
Many children lived in the New Deal, Lake Dick Project in Arkansas in 1938 and new schools were built for them as can be seen in the photographs below Lake Dick Agricultural High School by photographer Russell Lee Oct. 1938 Lake Dick School House also doubled as a Community Center, photographer Russell Lee Oct. 1938 Principal […]
Lake Dick, Arkansas represents a unique experience in American agricultural history because it is one of a small number of communal farms established and operated by the United States Government as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. Lake Dick represents the most socialistically oriented of the many cooperative farms established in the 1930’s. “The organization […]
The Lake Dick Cooperative Association in Arkansas was a New Deal Project. It consisted of the heads of each resident household, with each member holding one share of stock. This Association controlled all commercial and agricultural activities at Lake Dick. As a benevolent cooperative, the Association leased the entire 3,453 acre farm from the […]
Lake Dick is located northeast of Pine Bluff and south of Altheimer, Arkansas. A New Deal program which supported farming projects, established the community on the shore of Lake Dick in 1936. The Lake Dick Cooperative Association was responsible for farming the land and for operating the community’s cooperative services. These services included a general […]
Cotton farming was a major product at the Lake Dick Project in Arkansas but it was hard, grueling and back breaking work as can be seen in these photographs taken by Russell Lee in 1938. Young children often went to the cotton fields with their parents Overseer of Cotton pickers Day Laborers were hired as […]
These remarkable photographs taken by Russell Lee show farming equipment, techniques of haying and sorghum making in October 1938. How times have changed! Member of Lake Dick Cooperative Association, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas Cleaning vats used in production of syrup from sorghum, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas Stripping sorghum prior to crushing. Sorghum mill at […]
