Description: Dated March 25, 1938, this photograph shows Bear's Mill in Darke County, Ohio. The photograph's caption reads "Bear's Mill on Greenville Creek. Nearly 100 years old, this mill stands within a few feet of the site where Major Adams built the first grist mill in Darke County." The modern Bear's Mill was built in 1849 by Gabriel Baer and still runs to this day on the water generated by the dam over Greenville Creek. The hand hewn timber framework is the original, but the American Black Walnut siding was replaced in 2001. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B05F07_033_1
Subjects: Water mills; Winter; Natural resources; Ohio Federal Writers' Project; Works Progress Administration
Places: Greenville (Ohio); Darke County (Ohio)