Heart Mountain Interpretative Center on the lower slopes of the Bighorn Mountains was a internment centre housing 14,000 Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The Center, housed in one of the former barracks on the site, tells their stories through photographs, oral histories, artifacts and interactive exhibits. A paved walking trail takes you to the former hospital, root cellars, guard tower, swimming hole and living areas.
Formed in 1996, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is a non-profit organization. In August of 2011, the Foundation opened the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, a world-class museum dedicated to teaching this story to future generations.
A visit to Heart Mountain incorporates a variety of historical landmarks. The award-winning Interpretive Center is an inviting space that includes the Foundation’s vast permanent collection, a dedicated movie theater, a gallery for special exhibits, a tasteful and comprehensive gift shop, and a reflection room that faces the garden and Heart Mountain beyond. The grounds of the National Historic Landmark site include original “camp” structures, barracks, interpretive walking trails, a victory garden, and a memorial honor roll.
Permanent exhibits include a complete, full-length barrack built at the “Heart Mountain Relocation Center” during World War II. The barrack was rescued from demolition near Shell, Wyoming—about 80 miles from Heart Mountain.
It will now remain a fixture of the landscape that can speak not only to the Japanese American confinement during World War II but the extended Big Horn Basin history.
The red brick chimney of the hospital’s boiler house can be seen for miles around Heart Mountain. The 150-bed hospital complex once consisted of 17 wings connected by a long corridor. Today, only three buildings remain. Staffed by Japanese American doctors and a primarily white group of nurses, the hospital satisfied nearly all of the camp’s medical needs, including the delivery of 556 babies. Visitors can explore the hospital grounds, but are encouraged to be mindful of tripping hazards and wildlife in the area.
The root cellar is special in many ways. It is the only surviving camp structure built entirely by Japanese Americans.
Construction began on the root cellar in the summer of 1943, as part of the camp’s agriculture program. That year, the incarcerated labourers of the agriculture program accomplished what was known as the “Heart Mountain Miracle,” turning a dry Wyoming desert into verdant farmland in less than a year.
The cellar, built to hold produce from those fields, is more than 300 feet long and nearly 40 feet wide. Yet, it held less than half of the vegetables needed to feed the Heart Mountain camp. Another identical cellar, now collapsed, once stood next to it. Scroll down to learn about the stages of restoration completed so far and the future plans for the root cellar in our walk-through films.
When the government stripped Japanese Americans of all of the benefits of their citizenship, it also asked them to shoulder citizenship’s greatest burden: military service. Many Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain answered that call, leaving their families behind barbed wire to go off and fight for the country that had imprisoned them. The military honor roll on display at Heart Mountain National Historic Landmark site lists people from Heart Mountain who served.
Above the Center and across the road from the hospital complex, visitors will find the Setsuko Saito Higuchi Interpretive Trail. This 1⁄4 mile paved walking trail leads visitors through key moments in Heart Mountain history, and points out surviving features of the camp.
The U.S. Army 331st Escort Guard Company, consisting of 124 soldiers and three officers, were responsible for guarding the Relocation Center until the end of 1944. To enable surveillance of the Center, the camp was built with eight elevated guard towers that were stationed at regular intervals along the camp’s perimeter. Each tower was equipped with high beam searchlights and manned with two soldiers.
The James O. and Toshiko Joy Nagamori Ito Victory Garden – During their first year at the Heart Mountain concentration camp, Japanese American prisoners faced overwhelming heat, bitter cold, and howling winds. Almost as difficult to handle was the poor quality of food served in the mess halls, canned vegetables and unappetizing meat which had no appeal to Japanese American tastes.
James Ito can claim much of the credit for improving the food at Heart Mountain. James grew up on a farm and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley College of Agriculture, with an emphasis in Soil Chemistry and Farm Management. As the Japanese American head of agriculture at Heart Mountain, James banded together the camp’s displaced California and Washington farmers and turned the high Wyoming desert into fertile farmland. The result was known as the “Heart Mountain Miracle.” By the end of 1943, Heart Mountain was growing almost all of its own food. Two years later, the camp was producing a surplus. James left Heart Mountain in December 1943 for a position with the US Department of Agriculture. Later, he joined the Military Intelligence Service, helping to translate Japanese military communications.
Toshiko Nagamori had her last semester of high school interrupted by her incarceration. She received her diploma while confined at a temporary camp at Santa Anita Race Track. Later, after being transferred to Heart Mountain, she learned that prospective college students could leave camp if they found a school in the Midwest to sponsor them. While friends looked for a school for her, Toshi began the long process of applying for leave. The clerk assigned to process her application was a young farmer working in the office during the off-season—James Ito. During her breaks from college in Kansas City, James and Toshi began a courtship at Heart Mountain. They married in 1945. After returning to California, Toshi enjoyed a long career as an elementary school teacher.
Throughout their lives, James and Toshi remained dedicated to telling the Heart Mountain story, so that future generations could learn from this injustice. This victory garden—modelled after the small vegetable plots incarcerees grew near their barracks and in other open spaces around the camp—is dedicated in their honor.