History of the Phoenix Area-Part X
The onset of the Depression changed everything.The 1920’s had been boom years, and cotton and copper had been key ingredients to that prosperity. The stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, signaling the start of the Great Depression, and the air figuratively went out of the economy.
Leaders of the city’s business community scrambled to come up with a plan to diversify away from the agricultural and mineral sectors; the focus was on increasing tourism in a big way. This movement had already been underway on a smaller scale, with the San Carlos Hotel opening in 1928, and the Arizona Biltmore in 1929, to attract the well heeled visitors Arizona sought. Dude ranches and resorts opened in the Wickenburg and Tucson areas, selling a taste of the lifestyle of the “Old West”.
Little differentiated the experience of Phoenix from the rest of the country during the Great Depression; unemployment went through the roof, and business and industry dried up. The programs instituted by the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations eventually brought some results, and it can be said that the New Deal helped transition Phoenix from the boom year 20’s to a new prosperity following WWII..
World War II saw military installations spring up throughout the Southwest. Airmen were trained here in large numbers, since our flying weather was so good. Internment camps for prisoners of war were also established in the Phoenix area. All these new people would later contribute to Phoenix’s next growth spurt.