Fort Peck Dam is the stretch of land between the Missouri River and Fort Peck Lake. Built between 1933 and 1940 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Great Depression, it became an engineering marvel and a testament to the human spirit. In the early 1930s, with unemployment averaging 18 percent, two of every five banks failing, and crops continually decimated by drought and locusts, conditions appeared bleak as the New Deal emerged. Authorized under the Public Works Administration in October 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Fort Peck Dam became the single largest employer of the New Deal, providing work for thousands of men and women during the Great Depression, while thousands more established businesses to serve the workers.