Upper Basin lands served as sites for CCC work camps during the Great Depression and for a Japanese relocation camp during World War II. After the war the Bureau of Reclamation built a waterworks system to irrigate farmland being offered to returning veterans.
Digging Ditches with the CCC:
The New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps provided the Klamath Basin with continued employment during the worst of the Great Depression.
War Relocation at Tule Lake:
The federal government used over a thousand acres of Klamath Project land to intern Japanese Americans in the Tule Lake War Relocation Camp during World War II.
Death by Balloon Bomb:
An area near Leonard Creek became the site of the only continental US war casualties in May 1945 when a family encountered a Japanese balloon bomb.
The Veterans Lottery:
With the end of World War II, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation auctioned off Klamath Project land to returning veterans.
