The Recreational Demonstration Area program (also known as the Recreation Demonstration Area program) was a National Park Service program during the 1930s and early 1940s that built forty-six public parks in twenty-four states on 397,000 acres (1,606.6 km2), chiefly near urban areas in the United States.
[1] The NPS used labor from a variety of Great Depression federal relief programs, chiefly the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration, to build recreational demonstration areas.
The goals of the Recreation Demonstration Area program were typically threefold: 1) to develop land as a park; 2) to provide employment; and 3) to create new parks near urban areas.
There are five former recreational demonstration areas in Virginia, four of which are now part of the National Park Service.
Two recreational demonstration areas were built in Missouri and are now state parks.