National Park Service: Confinement and Ethnicity (Chapter 6)

Confinement and Ethnicity:
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An Overview of World War II
Japanese American Relocation Sites
by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord
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Chapter 6 (continued)
Heart Mountain Relocation Center

Central (Fenced) Area

Most of the land at the Heart Mountain relocation center is currently under cultivation. However, three areas have intact features: the administration and hospital complexes, on Bureau of Reclamation land; the warehouse and root cellar areas on private land; and a portion of the high school, also on private land. Each area is discussed in more detail below. There are a total of six standing buildings, three at the hospital complex, one within the adjacent staff housing area, one small room or vault at the high school, and a root cellar in the warehouse area.

Hospital, Staff Housing, and Administration Areas

Figure 6.11. Hospital, staff housing, and administration areas.
(adapted from Penny et al. 1990)
(click image for larger size (~64K) )

The hospital and administration areas are located on public land administered by the BOR, which retains a 71-acre parcel. The three buildings still standing in the hospital area include the boiler house with its large smokestack, a warehouse, and a mess hall (Figure 6.11). All three buildings are abandoned, and windows and doors are broken or missing. All are of similar construction: foundations are poured concrete, walls and roofs are wood frame sheathed with boards and covered with asphalt shingles on the sides and rolled roofing on top.

The boiler house measures 50 by 90 foot in plan; the clay brick chimney tapers from a 8-1/2-feet-wide base and reaches over 75 feet in height (Figures 6.12 and 6.13). The warehouse (called a personnel housing unit in Penny et al. 1990 and Rose 1992) is 24 by 120 foot in plan (Figure 6.14); the mess hall (called a ward in Penny et al. 1990) is 40 by 180 ft (Figure 6.15). Designations used in this report are based on those listed on the WRA blueprints. For more detailed descriptions the reader is referred to Rose (1992).

hospital boiler house, Heart Mountain
Figure 6.12. Hospital boiler house at Heart Mountain.

In addition to the buildings there are numerous other features present, including power poles, a loading dock, a fire hydrant, a manhole, and two 20-by-120-foot concrete slabs (Figures 6.16 and 6.17). The WRA blueprint suggests the slabs, north of the standing warehouse, are foundations of an additional warehouse and the morgue. A smaller slab north of the morgue slab is 36 feet by 87 feet; this foundation, connected to the boiler house with a concrete sidewalk, is in the location of the hospital laundry on the WRA blueprints (Figure 6.18). It appears to have been converted to a service station after the relocation center use, and there is a concrete gasoline pump island adjacent (Figure 6.19). East of the hospital along the edge of the terrace there is some relocation center building debris, as well as several post-relocation-center trash dumps.

The staff housing area adjacent to the hospital complex still has one of its original buildings, used by the Heart Mountain Extension Club from 1953 to 1985. The building, 24 feet by 50 feet, is actually only half a building (Page 1986). Walls are wood frame with cement/ asbestos fiber shingles, the roof has asphalt shingles (Figure 6.20). Other features present in the staff housing area include two concrete slab foundations, one 26 by 80 feet and one 26 by 125 feet, a 7-foot-square concrete cellar (Figure 6.21), and possible concrete perimeter foundation remnants of two other buildings. There are four manholes in place, two power poles still standing, and a sign post that may have been a street sign during the relocation center use. A stone and concrete barbeque in the area was probably constructed and used by the Main family, according to Larson et al. (1995:6); noted inscribed in the mortar were the names "Becky," "Pop," "CEI," "Momy," "MARG," "Sally 1944," "LAW 50," and "1944" (Penny et al. 1990).

There is a memorial at the former administration area where the Honor Roll was constructed in front of Administration Building No. 1 (as listed on WRA blueprints) during the relocation center occupation. The Honor Roll consists of a large wooden sign within a raised rock and concrete planter and an original flag pole (Figure 6.22). No text remains on the Honor Roll, but the sign once included the names of Japanese American servicemen from Heart Mountain.

South and east of the Honor Roll there are concrete slabs, footings, building debris, a manhole, and other traces of former buildings. Slabs include two measuring 14 feet by 14 feet, two measuring 14 feet by 21 feet, and one 125 feet by 125 feet in size. The larger slab was the foundation of Administration Building No. 5, according to the WRA blueprints; the smaller ones do not conform to buildings on the blueprints, but may have been patios for staff apartments.

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Continued

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