In the early 1960s, unemployment on the Navajo Reservation hovered around 40% and Tribal leadership desperately tried to create jobs for Diné peoples. In 1964, Tribal chairman Raymond Nakai advocated for better economic development on the reservation and – hoping to attract outside investment – opened up the Navajo Nation to outside businesses. To further entice companies, the tribe offered $1 million toward development to any company willing to relocate. Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation responded to the offer and decided to build a plant in Shiprock, New Mexico and provide housing for tribal members who helped with construction. After its completion, Fairchild employed more than a thousand workers (the majority being female) and provided consistent jobs for ten years.

In the early 1970s, however, the country’s economy lagged, affecting companies like Fairchild. Many of the workers in Shiprock faced reduced paychecks or even termination. According to one Navajo account, the plant manager said, “This is a business venture, not a charitable activity.” The weakened economy combined with news of the plant’s financial solution wounded the community’s morale. The American Indian Movement (AIM) – an organization founded during the Civil Rights Era that fought for indigenous communities’ rights – heard about the situation and decided to intervene. Protestors including activist Russell Means came to Shiprock and laid siege to the plant on behalf of the underpaid and dismissed workers. The protestors demanded that Fairchild rehire the workers and restore their paychecks to pre-reduction rates. However, some local Natives considered this protest against the company dangerous and unnecessary.

Fairchild refused AIM’s conditions and let the tribal government handle the matter. However, the tribal government did not help overcome the impasse and the siege ultimately shut down the plant. Fairchild executives expressed frustration over how the tribe handled the situation and withdrew from the reservation altogether, relocating their operations to Korea. Some AIM supporters perceived this result as a victory, but locals recognized the great loss of employment opportunity alongside a damaged reputation for future incoming businesses on the Navajo Reservation. Even today, these consequential outcomes continue to have a harmful effect on Navajo employment.

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Pres. Roosevelt aimed to employ more than 300,000 men in the CCC. Just two months after the program’s implementation, 1,200 worked in Payette National Forest camps such as Gallagher and Silver Creek. Roosevelt hoped their rural camps and labor would “add to present and future values of the nation’s natural resources.” Eventually, over 18,000 total men worked to do this in Idaho’s forests.

CCC camp impacted on nearby communities was significant. CCC workers constructed roads to make rural areas accessible and undertook beautification projects to bring order to a still-rustic region. Communities around the nation valued the program for its benefits; 85.1 percent of all letters written by community members and sent to the CCC director’s office contained positive opinions regarding the program. By 1941, Payette National Forest workers, then numbering over 4,500, completed 13 bridges, 134 buildings (mostly for the Forest Service), and 131 miles of road. CCC workers created recreational areas for nearby communities, many of which still exist. In 1939, for example, 170 workers from Gallagher camp worked at the 640-acre Warm Lake on the south side of the Payette National Forest. Enrollees developed a campground for Boy Scout use, built recreational buildings and constructed roads for public access to the area. CCC recreational projects helped launch a developing outdoor tourism industry in the Payette National Forest region, increasing the overall incomes of Idahoans.

While expanding recreational infrastructure, CCC workers preserved forests, fought fires, and planted trees in rural areas nationwide. Workers traversed the woods, sprayed pine beetle repellent and treated nearly two million acres of white pine for blister rust fungus in Idaho. In the Payette National Forest, fires were numerous. The summer of 1940 brought 90, and 600 CCC workers and nearby civilians toiled relentlessly to extinguish them. In the last week of August, workers helped quell 43 fires. The Flat Creek fire burned nearly 2,000 acres before firefighters controlled it, using trails built by CCC workers to import equipment. Workers also built fire watch towers and seeded barren areas. Between 1933 and 1941, Payette National Forest workers planted trees covering a sum total of 147 acres of land.

In between work projects, CCC enrollees received a general education, room and board and 30 dollars per month during their short stays. Much of each payment went to the workers’ struggling families. Workers frequently spent their remaining balance at local communities and often participated in recreational activities. In 1938, the Cascade townsfolk edged out Camp Gallagher 8-7 in a hyped inter-league baseball game. As seen in the newly formed sports leagues, composed of both townsfolk and CCC men, a cooperative attitude between workers and communities arose from the economic boost the CCC introduced.

The CCC in the Payette National Forest, the state of Idaho and rustic regions around the country provided not just an economic incentive for communities, but fostered a “civic generation.” Because of the program, forests are accessible and populated with trees the CCC planted and beautification projects its workers built. What newspapers called “the best New Deal program” went largely undisputed in the state of Idaho.

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Prominently located a mere 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, Hill Air Force Base has become a remarkable feature of Utah’s landscape. Even before its gates opened in 1940, its construction as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project provided economic grown and prosperity to the region. The base also served as a symbol of changing relationships between Utah locals, the federal government, and the United States military.

The local and military relationship that existed throughout Utah’s early history can only be described as contentious. Conflicts between Army commanders seeking to increase the military and therefore federal influence in Utah Territory frequently butted heads with the Mormon majority that dominated territorial government and law. Though tensions would decrease, allowing for Utah’s admission as a state, the isolationist and self-sufficient attitudes that were uniquely Mormon would persisted into the 20th century.

Utah’s limited economic diversity and general reliance on agriculture left much of the state’s population vulnerable to the effects of the Great Depression. In the mid-1930s, the Army Air Corps began expressing interest in building an Air Depot in the Intermountain West, believing an inland position would keep it safe from coastal attacks. Excitement spread throughout Utah as the prospect of the base promised further economic relief and, more importantly, growth. Cities throughout Utah expressed interest in hosting the new Air Base, but none with as much enthusiasm and determination as the local leaders of Ogden, without whom the base might never have been built.

The promise of full cooperation by Ogden’s leaders and donation of land near the already established Ogden Arsenal brought wavering federal attention for the project back to Utah. A combination of Works Progress Administration and defense funds totaling $30 million were allocated to the construction of the base, and by the end of 1943, Hill Field had become the largest civilian employer in the state. What little opposition that did arise with the base’s construction was limited to criticism of its location in Ogden as opposed to spots in the Salt Lake and Utah Counties.

During World War II, Hill’s responsibilities consisted of aircraft supply and maintenance, and expanded to include missiles in 1959, when the base received the assignment to manage the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Just as the base’s responsibilities were expanding, so too were the communities surrounding the base. Housing and transportation shortages prompted rapid growth and development in Ogden and surrounding municipalities.

Today Hill Air Force Base continues to be one of the largest employers in Utah and a necessary supporting fixture to many businesses in Ogden. While the massive base closures in 1995 brought uncertainty for the base’s future, many have taken comfort in Hill’s assignment as the depot for the Navy, Marine, and Air Force variants of the F-35. It is anticipated that the F-35 will maintain Hill’s significance with the Air Force as whole, keeping the base a permanent fixture in Utah.

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