The Great Depression

Paul M. Dunn: pictures. I traveled around the area with equipment, showing films at meetings, mostly at schools, and some considerable progress was made. Also I was associated with the State Parks Service, and we established several fire towers, those steel lookout towers that stood up on high points in several areas.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Which state was this?

Paul M. Dunn: Missouri. Part of the program was to rehabilitate the wildlife. The state fish and game department had a program of introducing the deer, the white-tailed deer. The source stock was from Michigan. Also wild turkeys, and they were released in refuges in the state parks. The program presently is very successful. At the outset there were no deer that remained from the native stock and no native turkeys, primarily because of hunting and poaching. The present supply of both the game birds and game animals is very good. In May 1931 we left Missouri because the Governor vetoed the budget and I was without a job.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: This was in the middle of the Depression, wasn't it?

Paul M. Dunn: That's right. Losing my job was a bit of a shock, but with the help of the Head of the Forestry Department at Iowa State University, a job was offered to me at Utah State University at Logan, Utah, and I accepted it. We moved to Utah and started on this new job September 1, 1931.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What was your job title or position?

Paul M. Dunn: I was an assistant professor in the Forestry Department - teaching half time and extension forester half time with the University. That carried on until 1935 when several new programs were established in the Federal Service: the CCC program started in 1933, the Taylor Grazing Act in 1934, and the Soil Conservation Service in 1938 - all Federal programs. The demand for technical people was rather good.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What did you teach at the University?

Paul M. Dunn: I taught six or seven different subjects - seeding and planting, regional forestry, logging and milling, and I had charge of the forest nursery. It was a Clark-McNary Nursery -- a Federally funded nursery. Seedlings were grown for distribution to farmers for windbreaks and shelter belts. That program was my responsibility.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How did your family feel about moving to Utah from Missouri?

Paul M. Dunn: We had no compunctions about leaving Missouri because we couldn't stay there; being the Depression - you have to have a job. We looked forward to it, and it was a challenge. I had been West before, but my family had not. From what we learned of Utah and the University at Logan, it appeared to be an interesting move. We enjoyed it there very much, for eleven years.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Mr. Dunn, are you Mormon?

Paul M. Dunn: No. We were raised in South Dakota and Iowa, and had had no contact with Mormons at that time. We learned a lot about the Mormons, and were accepted and treated in first-class fashion. At that time perhaps 95% of the University staff people were Mormons. There were only a handful of Gentiles.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How large was the Forestry curriculum at Utah State? Were there a lot of students enrolled?

Paul M. Dunn: No. The Department was first organized in 1928. It started from scratch primarily from the encouragement of the Forest Service and others in order to supply trained forestry people, in forest and wildlife management and range management for employment in the Inter Mountain region. The primary states were Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona. It caught on, starting out with just a handful of students, but through the years, while I was there, the CCC program was initiated, and there was a good demand for technically trained people in forest and range resources. So it grew. Until 1935 there were only three of us on the forestry staff.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: You came in 1932?

Paul M. Dunn: 1931. The impetus of these federal programs provided a lot of interest, and the students came from all over. From California back to New Jersey, and the enrollment grew. As I said, there were only three of us on the staff, a range specialist and me in forestry, and the Head of the Department, Professor T.G. Taylor. In 1935 the Head of the Department was offered a position with the Soil Conservation Service, and I was appointed Head of the Department. We carried on and the enrollment grew from just a handful in the early 1930's to about 400 students by 1940.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What do you attribute that to? The increase in enrollment?