In the summer of 1940, the United States was finally beginning to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Only four years earlier, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) had sent photographers, including Russell Lee, across the United States. The images of poverty and economic depression they captured would go on to become representative images of Depression-era America. But when Lee went back out in 1940, he was given the mission of capturing images of recovery, economic success, and the positive influence of the FSA. The following images, from the Library of Congress’s archives, shows what this period of increased growth looked like in Utah’s Cache and Box Elder counties.
Box Elder County, July 1940. Original caption reads, “the old method of getting rid of manure, throwing it over the fence.” Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress
An FSA cooperative member greasing machinery. Box Elder County, July 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
A farm girl puts away dishes in the kitchen cabinet. Box Elder County, August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
An irrigation ditch on the Logan River in Cache County, Utah, July 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
Hydroelectric plant of city of Logan, Utah. The streams flowing from the mountains provide water for power and irrigation. July 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
Children buy candy in Mendon, Utah, August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
Pitching hay on a farm in Cornish, Utah, in September 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
A congregation of Latter-day Saints attend church in Mendon, Utah. August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
FSA workers filling the tank of a converted automobile that supplied power for their sprayers. August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
Trucks full of sugar beets waiting to be unloaded at a sugar beet plant. November 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
A farmstead and irrigation ditch on the outskirts of Logan, Utah, August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.
Young people from Logan picking berries for a farmer in Cache County, Utah, in August 1940. Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress.