NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PUBLIC WORK FUNDS APPROVED

The Branch of Engineering reports the receipt of notification of Public Works allotments to the National Park Service. An analysis shows that the allotments made provide for the following work to be accomplished in national parks and monuments of the Region:

61,530 VISIT GEORGE WASHINGTON BIRTHPLACE

The best travel season since the 1932 bicentenary was reported this month by Philip R. Hough, Superintendent of George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Westmoreland County, Virginia. A total of 61,530 persons visited the Monument during the travel year ended September 30, an increase of more than 4,000 above the 1937 figure. Represented on the registration books were 48 states, six territories and 32 foreign countries.

NEGRO RECREATIONAL PROGRAM GAINS MOMENTUM

The program to provide recreational facilities for Negroes in certain National and State Parks and Recreational Demonstration Areas has made headway in recent weeks. A proposal to establish separate Negro camp grounds in Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been approved by the Acting Secretary of the Interior and work is expected to start soon. Facilities for Negroes already have been installed in Shenandoah National Park and there are plans to extend them.

Preliminary studies provide for one or two organized camps and possibly a swimming pool and day use area on federal Recreational Demonstration lands in the West Branch Section 20 miles southwest of Richmond. A master plan just approved by the Regional Landscape Architects also makes provision for similar facilities near Crabtree Creek Recreational Demonstration Area, between Raleigh and Durham, N. C. The CCC camp established in the new Shelby County Negro Recreational Area, near Memphis, Tenn., now has a master plan which provides for organized camps, swimming, picnicking and sports, and proposes the acquisition of additional land for development.