Closing the Camp
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The number of laborers staying at the camp rose and fell over the summers and through the years. Bumper crops might bring many workers, but crop failures or a slow-down in jobs forced families to move down the road to the next opportunity. By the 1960s a new threat was on the horizon—automated bean pickers. Increased mechanization meant that some crops could be picked more cheaply and effectively by machines than by people. Camp attendance began to drop. When the City received the camp from the Federal government it promised to run it for 20 years. In July 1968 the decision was made to close the camp at the end of the summer and sell the remaining 160 cabins, only 40 of which were still occupied.
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Rather than running a labor camp, the Springdale Housing Authority wanted to build a 170-unit low-income housing development on the camp’s land, using Federal funds to secure the 40-year loan. Groundbreaking on Phillips Plaza, named after Springdale’s mayor, began in the fall of 1969. By May 1971 the first renters were living in the $2-million-dollar project. Today much of the camp exists only in memories and photographs. A few old cabins may still stand as outbuildings in area yards and fields. The camp’s community building, which once held the nursery school for migrant children, was moved to the southern part of the property. It serves as a Head Start school, continuing the structure’s long tradition of sheltering youngsters in need. |
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