The board gets a new name State Parks Committee. It still receives no legislative funding but is now permitted to collect concession rentals and camping fees. 1921-1928 Car ownership zooms, as does demand for new destinations. Most parks are closed and facilities deteriorate due to vandalism and lack of maintenance. Three years into the Great Depression, newly elected Governor Clarence D. Martin approves State Parks funding again.
Hard times increase public demand for parks that families can visit for free.
1933 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal relief program that puts young men to work planting trees, fighting fires and developing public park lands. Washington State Parks benefits tremendously from this and other relief work programs during the Great Depression. Even now, more than six decades later, scores of roads, hiking trails, bathhouses and picnic shelters built by The Three Cs are in active use. A booming post-war economy and an overall increase in leisure time fuels interest in outdoor recreation. A new Parks Bill passed by the legislature transforms the State Parks Committee into the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.