A moving place and part of our history!
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many parts of the West Coast were declared military defense zones. The government ordered the removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry and the War Relocation Authority was established in March 1942 to house them in inland camps. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of ten temporary camps constructed to confine over 110,000 men, women and children forced to leave their homes in California, Oregon, Washington and
part of Arizona. This was the only camp located in Wyoming. Construction on the center began in June 1942 and the first internees began to arrive on August 11, 1942, and by October the population of Heart Mountain surpasses 10,000. The train ride from California took an average of 4 days and 3 nights. For most of the trip shades were drawn, and no one was allowed to look outside.At the peak of its population the Heart Mountain Center, which covered over 740 acres, contained nearly 11,000 people housed in 450 barracks. Although surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, the internees kept the camp functioning as a small city. At the time it was the third largest city in Wyoming.
Between 1942-1945 185 persons died at Heart Mountain. Some bodies were sent to Great Falls, Montana for cremation at a cost of $100; others were buried in the camp cemetery. All but five of the bodies were exhumed and removed to the West Coast after the war. The five unclaimed bodies were moved to the Powell Cemetery. (The town of Powell, Wyo. is located 11 miles to the north of were the camp was situated.)
The Heart Mountain Relocation Center officially closed on November 10, 1945, and the last train of internees left on November 15. The internees received a train ticket and $25 to begin their new lives away from the camp. When these people were released, many internees found they had nothing to return to as their homes and businesses had been foreclosed on because of their inability to continue payments while detained in the camp.
The national security measure, established for the supposed "protection" of Japanese-Americans (and they were American Citizens), has since been criticized as an overreaction. The Congressional Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians determined the incarceration was not justified by military necessity, as the government had claimed, but was the result of racial prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.
Several relic buildings and the hospital chimney spire rising in the sky remain as visible reminders of Heart Mountain Relocation Center. In 1996 the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation was founded. During the last decade the foundation has achieved a number of significant milestones in its mission to preserve the Hear Mountain site. In 2001 they were able to purchase the land, once part of the original camp, to build an interpretive center, which finally opened on August 20, 2011. In 2003 it restored the military honor roll of more than 800 names of people who served in the military from the camp, and in 2005 a self-guided 1,000 foot walking trail with eight stations was dedicated.
A moving place!
That is all for today,
Candy and Johnny
