Photographs of Boy Scouts learning to swim and dive at Crabtree Creek Recreational Area during the summer of 1943, in Raleigh, NC.

Crabtree Creek Recreational Area was developed beginning in 1934 as a Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project.

In 1943, the area was bought by the state.
It’s unclear precisely where these particular Boy Scouts were swimming in 1943, but by 1950 they would have been forced to use the southern area of the park, which was renamed Reedy Creek State Park when the state segregated the park and split it in two.

The northern half was renamed after Governor Umstead in 1955, and the entire area is now known as William B. Umstead State Park. It was desegregated in 1966.

Photos and narrative source: ConDev3529A, Department of Conservation and Development Photo File, State Archives of North Carolina.