The Crewport Farm Labor Camp: A Short History
By Mario C. Compean
"Well, like I told you, I never had any friends that we'd sit and talk or whatever. No, every day to do work with my father and my brothers, get home and take care of my mother and do at home whatever had to be done... the only day we didn't work was Sunday, and that was to wash clothes for all week and get ready for Monday. And that was it."
Julia Saenz, narrator
The Crewport Farm Labor Camp was home to several hundred migrant farm labor families for almost three decades. Located in the central region of the Yakima Valley in the State of Washington, the Camp’s official closing was announced by local authorities in late 1968. During the next two decades the former labor camp made the transition to a community of permanent residents comprised mostly of Mexican immigrants. The story of these people, as told by those who lived there and by others who knew and associated with them, is the story of working class families engaged in a constant struggle for survival. It is the story of parents and their children, of poverty-bound families who wanted the best life they could have. It is the story of common folk who worked hard and made many sacrifices to achieve their life goals.
Crewport existed as a migrant farm labor camp from May, 1941 to
December, 1968. Its roots are in the Great Depression and in the
drought that hit the Plains states during the 1930's. Severe drought
and strong winds combined to whip up dust storms in 1933 and 1934.
The storms did not subside until the latter part of the decade and
caused an ecological and human castastrophe. The farmlands suffered
fatally damaging erosion. Many families lost their farms and were
thus forced to migrate west to start their lives anew. The states
affected by the storms are known
in history as the Dust Bowl, and the farm families that fled them
came to be called Dust Bowl migrants or drought refugees.
The Crewport Farm Labor Camp opened its doors for the first time in May, 1941. The Camp was built by the federal government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) to house migrant farm workers who were uprooted by the dust storms. Initially the camp was known as the Granger Farm Workers Camp because of its location just two miles north of the City of Granger, Washington. When it first opened only families from the Plains states were housed at the Camp. Soon thereafter Mexican American migrant farm workers from the Southwest, mostly from Texas, also called Crewport their home. Mexican Americans and other migrant farm workers were recruited to the Yakima Valley because of the farm labor shortage caused by World War II.
The families who lived at Crewport made a significant contribution
in meeting the labor demands of the agricultural economy of the
Yakima Valley. Many of these families stopped migrating from Texas
and elsewhere, and settled permanently at the Camp. Change in the
resident population continued through the 1950's. Eventually most
of the drought refugee families relocated elsewhere in the Valley
or in other regions of the state. By the late 1950's most of the
families living in the Camp were Mexican American. Many of these
Mexican American families settled in nearby Granger when the Camp
was closed.
The closing of the Crewport Farm Labor Camp was officially announced
at the end of 1968, partly as a result of the ferment caused by
the social movements of the times. By then the condition of the
Camp shelters and homes had deteriorated badly, and farm labor advocates
demanded that improvements be made. In response the Washington State
Health Board issued new housing code requirements that caused Yakima
County, which was now the Camp's owner, to order it closed. County
authorities argued that the new housing code made it too costly
to renovate the shelters. Consequently the Camp was closed and sold
to a private investor who, in turn, sold the shelters and houses
one by one to individual families. Population changes at Crewport
that began in the mid-1940s continued through the 1960's. By the
latter 1960's and early 1970's new residents at Crewport now came
mostly from Mexico. Mexican immigrants thus comprise the majority
of the current Crewport community.
