By 1933, the Great Depression had left the mountain people of the Cumberland Plateau without jobs, hungry, desperate and despairing. To overcome the devastating economic effects of the times, U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, began a series of programs across the country to help stimulate jobs, provide opportunities for affordable housing and restore hope. The Cumberland Homesteads is one of the planned New Deal Communities built by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads between 1934 and 1938.
