 The Federal Emergency Relief Administration bought the stripped forest land in the Laurel Hill Area in 1935 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression.Under the direction of the National Park Service and the U.S. Army the men working for the WPA and CCC began the process of building what was to become Laurel Hill State Park on July 1, 1935 at CCC camps SP-8-PA and SP-16-PA.These men cleared the streams and forests tangled brush, they built bridges on state roads, cleared paths in the forests, planted trees and built many of the facilities used today at Laurel Hill State Park.