Heart Mountain Relocation Center

Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of ten concentration camps constructed by the War Relocation Authority during World War II to incarcerate Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Operating from August 1942 until November 1945, the camp held over 10,000 incarcerees on a remote, windswept plain near Cody, Wyoming, at the base of the geological formation Heart Mountain. The facility became a significant site of both profound hardship and organized resistance against the federal government's incarceration program.

History and establishment

Following the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942, the Western Defense Command, led by General John L. DeWitt, designated the entire West Coast a military exclusion zone. The War Relocation Authority was subsequently created to manage the forced removal and detention of over 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry, the majority of whom were American citizens. Construction on the site in Wyoming began in the summer of 1942 by the Kiewit Corporation, utilizing a standard military-style blueprint with over 450 hastily built barracks, mess halls, and administrative buildings surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. The first incarcerees, arriving from the Pomona Assembly Center in California and directly from their homes in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, faced an incomplete camp with inadequate shelter against the harsh high-plains climate.

Life at the camp

Daily existence was defined by institutional regimentation, extreme weather, and the struggle to create community. Families lived in single rooms within tarpaper-covered barracks, using communal latrines and mess halls. Incarcerees worked for meager wages in essential camp operations, including the extensive agricultural project that cultivated over 1,000 acres to produce food for the camp and the war effort. They established a fully functioning community with a hospital, schools, a newspaper called the Heart Mountain Sentinel, and various churches. Cultural life flourished with activities like sumo tournaments, judo clubs, and artistic endeavors, while sports leagues, particularly baseball, became a major pastime. The camp's high school, known as the Heart Mountain High School, fielded teams that competed against nearby towns like Powell and Cody.

Resistance and legal challenges

Heart Mountain became a national focal point for organized dissent against incarceration and the military draft. The Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, led by incarcerees including Kiyoshi Okamoto and Frank Emi, counseled young men to refuse the draft until their constitutional rights were restored, arguing that they were being asked to fight for a democracy that had imprisoned them without charge. This resistance led to the largest draft resistance trial in United States history, resulting in the conviction of 63 resisters, whose sentences were later commuted. Concurrently, the constitutionality of the exclusion orders was challenged in the case of *Korematsu v. United States*, a landmark Supreme Court decision that originated with Fred Korematsu's arrest. Heart Mountain incarceree Mitsuye Endo also pursued a successful habeas corpus petition, leading to the Supreme Court ruling in *Ex parte Mitsuye Endo* that loyal citizens could not be detained.

Closure and aftermath

The camp officially closed in November 1945, following the revocation of Executive Order 9066 and the announcement of resettlement policies. Incarcerees were given a small stipend and train fare to return to the West Coast or relocate elsewhere, often facing profound economic loss, social prejudice, and the difficult task of rebuilding lives. The federal government auctioned off or removed the camp buildings, and the land was eventually returned to previous owners or sold to private farmers. Many former incarcerees dispersed across the country, with some returning to Wyoming in later decades. The physical landscape of the camp largely reverted to agricultural use, with only a few concrete foundations remaining visible for years.

Legacy and remembrance

The site's historical significance is preserved and interpreted by the Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation, which established the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, a museum and educational facility that opened in 2011. The center was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 and is part of the National Park Service's Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program. Annual pilgrimages attract survivors, descendants, and scholars, while the story of the camp is explored in works like the documentary *The Legacy of Heart Mountain* and the book *Heart Mountain: Life in Wyoming's Concentration Camp* by Mike Mackey. The legacy of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and the draft resisters has been re-evaluated, with many now viewed as civil rights heroes who defended the Constitution from within the barbed wire.

Category:Japanese American internment camps Category:National Historic Landmarks in Wyoming Category:Park County, Wyoming