Following the stock market crash of 1929, the United States plunged into the Great Depression. By 1932, unemployment had reached 23 percent and more than 13 million Americans had lost their jobs. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1932 on his New Deal platform, promising in his first 100 days in office to bring Congress programs designed to pull America out of the depression. In July 1933, Company V-1781 was organized here, and men began arriving to start new jobs building Arkansas's first state park. The Civilian Conservation Corps became part of the legacy of Petit Jean State Park, as the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, and War operated project camps to preserve and conserve many natural resource areas.