Historical Marker Program

First Shelterbelt in the United States

Greer County
Location: southeast of Willow at intersection of US-283/OK-34 and E1370 Road
Coordinates: 35.029363, -99.501007
Material: Granite
Sponsor(s): Greer County Conservation District, Oklahoma Deptartment of Agriculture-Forestry Services, Oklahoma Forestry Association, Oklahoma Historical Society
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Environmental/Cultural Ecology; Government

As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s program to stabilize blowing topsoil and put people to work during the Great Depression, the Prairie States Forestry Project coordinated the planting of wide belts of trees from North Dakota to Texas. The first shelterbelt in the nation was planted on the H. E. Curtis farm near Mangum on March 18, 1935. For the next seven years more than 18,000 miles of shelterbelts were planted, including nearly 3,000 miles in Oklahoma.