In 1929, the Great Depression swept America and left millions without work. To help the country through these tough times, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created several federal work programs that lasted from 1933 to 1943, putting unemployed people to work on public projects in return for needed paychecks as part of the New Deal. During this period, New Deal workers built roads, bridges, airports, schools, parks, ballparks, and conservation projects for flood prevention, and they started tree farms. In Minnesota, many communities benefited as the Minnesota Department of Highways, now the Minnesota Department of Transportation, partnered with New Deal work programs to build a statewide network of more than 100 parking areas and historic markers, including the Lake St. Croix Overlook, which gave travelers rest areas and introduced early tourists to the state's scenic places. Arthur R. Nichols, a Minnesota landscape architect, and Harold E. Olson of the Minnesota Department of Highways designed the overlook, and workers from the federal National Youth Administration constructed the wayside in 1938-39. Restored by the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation in 2013, the Lake St. Croix Overlook, also known as Stillwater South, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Depression-era roadside parking areas are recognized for their rustic wood-and-stone designs, high quality craftsmanship, and harmony with natural surroundings, and stone salvaged by Works Progress Administration workers from the Minnesota Territorial Prison in Stillwater was used here and at other such sites.