Wooden Avengers, Target Kites, and Draftees: How America’s First New Deal Community Took the Fight to the Axis | Aviation

Situated in the quiet hills of West Virginia, the small town of Arthurdale has a big story to tell.

When one thinks of naval aviation, the landlocked, mountainous state of West Virginia doesn’t usually come to mind. Even so, with the outbreak of the Second World War, the craftsmen of rural Arthurdale came together to train and supply America’s sailors and soldiers for war.

The story of Arthurdale begins in 1933 when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the mining town of Scotts Run, West Virginia. Appalled by the conditions and the stories told by residents, she went back to Washington with a new idea in mind – a self-sufficient, government-sponsored community (the first of 99 communities nationwide) to get these hardworking West Virginians on their feet. The new town, built on approximately 1,200 acres, was to be focused on farming rather than industry. The handful of factories in the town that operated over Arthurdale’s history never lasted longer than a year. However, when the United States was plunged into World War II in 1941, Arthurdale’s industry found new purpose.