Arvin Federal Government Camp, also known as the Weedpatch Camp or Sunset Labor Camp, was built by the Farm Security Administration south of Bakersfield, California, in 1936 to house migrant workers d
The Community Hall
Photograph of camp administrator Tom Collins with migrant mother and child (November 1936)
The Library (left) and Post Office (right) buildings were moved and their exteriors restored.
The Library at the Arvin Federal Government Camp with a staffed WPA Librarian.
The Grapes of Wrath
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The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when
Arvin Federal Government Camp
…office buildings were renovated. The plight of the Okies and a description of Weedpatch Camp were chronicled by novelist John Steinbeck in his book The Grapes of Wrath.The book is dedicated to camp administrator Collins who was the model for the character called Jim Rawley. The book was instantly successful and sold…
First edition cover