Heart Mountain War Relocation Center

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The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center was a relocation camp located in northwestern Wyoming, United States, on an isolated site between the towns of Powell and Cody. The camp was used to imprison Japanese Americans during much of America's involvement in World War II. The camp is named after the nearby Heart Mountain.

Construction on the camp began in June 1942, and the first prisoners arrived in August. By October, about ten thousand people lived at the camp, making it the third-largest settlement in Wyoming. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was interned there as a boy. Most residents had been moved by train from California. The camp closed in November 1945.

Several buildings in the camp still stand, though they have become decrepit with time. A memorial, made of unfinished wood, has been erected.

On December 21, 2006 President Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law guaranteeing $38,000,000 in federal money to restore the Heart Mountain relocation center along with nine other former Japanese internment camps. "H.R. 1492".

See: Japanese American internment

[edit] External links

• Heart Mountain Digital Preservation Project — History and photographs from the Hinckley Library, Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming.
• Fact sheet from the US National Park Service
• Caspter Star Tribune article about the camp