Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 6 (continued)
Heart Mountain Relocation Center

Interpretation

In 1995 the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in the town of Cody had a temporary exhibit on the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. Located in a well-traveled area of the museum, the display included text, photographs, examples of the relocation center newspaper, the mimeograph machine that printed the newspaper, a Wyoming state flag used by the relocation center Girl Scout troop, a child's diary, and other artifacts.

Figure 6.35. Detail of marker placed by the American Legion.

Fifteen miles north of Cody along U.S. Highway Alt. 14, there is a historical monument placed by the American Legion and a directional sign to the relocation center memorial park. The American Legion marker, erected in 1963, mentions the state-of-the-art sewage system, excellent schools, and other amenities that were available to the evacuees (Figures 6.34 and 6.35).

The original Honor Roll, which was inscribed with the names of soldiers from the relocation center, is the central piece of the Heart Mountain Memorial Park (Figures 6.36-6.40). The park was initiated by the Heart Mountain Relocation Center Memorial Association, formed by homesteaders after World War II. The park includes plaques, a sidewalk, and a graveled parking area surrounded by large rocks. Also there is a concrete slab that once supported a brick chimney with a plaque noting it was moved from Block 23. To the north are the three standing hospital buildings and the staff residence. The Heart

Mountain Memorial Foundation has proposed to restore the buildings and use one for an interpretive center.

There are several fine examples of former barracks in the surrounding area. One was donated to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles (Figure 6.41). It was dismantled, trucked, and reassembled there. Another good example of a recycled barracks is on a farm just north of Cody on State Highway 120. It appears to be unused at present (Figure 6.42).

Figure 6.41. Barracks building later moved to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Figure 6.42. Recycled barracks along State Highway 120 north of Cody, Wyoming.

Also at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles is a 55-gallon barrel full of small stones, each one carefully inscribed with a Japanese character. The barrel had been uncovered near the former relocation center cemetery by local landowners Les and Nora Bovee, who donated them to the museum in 1994. It has been theorized that the stones may have been Buddhist sutras to memorialize the dead, but the museum is still seeking more information about them (JANM Quarterly Summer 1994).

The burials at the relocation center cemetery were moved to the Crown Hill Cemetery in the town of Powell, 11 miles northeast of Heart Mountain. The cemetery is located on the eastern edge of Powell on the south side of Lane 7 (Cemetery Road). Section 13 of the cemetery contains five headstones with Japanese surnames. Three of the headstones are large river-worn cobbles set in concrete (Figure 6.43). The inscriptions on one face of each cobble are English and those on the other face are Japanese. The inscribed dates indicate these people died in November and December 1942 (Figures 6.44-6.46). The other two headstones noted at the cemetery are typical western designs and include 1945 and 1946 dates (Figures 6.47 and 6.48).

Photo Album

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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