{"id":17832,"date":"2017-05-28T23:16:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T05:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=17832"},"modified":"2017-05-30T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:15:22","slug":"recalling-the-past-at-heart-mountain-interpretive-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/05\/recalling-the-past-at-heart-mountain-interpretive-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Recalling the past at Heart Mountain Interpretive Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t
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In 1942, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center was the first of 10 internment camps to be opened by the U.S. government. It was also the first to close, on Nov. 10, 1945. Today, a replica of a guard tower rises outside the interpretive center.<\/p><\/div>

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The boiler-house chimney marks the location of a 150-bed hospital complex, which grew to include 17 wings connected by a long corridor. Community support saved the smokestack from destruction in the 1970s. It was straightened and refurbished from 2011-13.<\/p><\/div>

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Photos of camp life are a big part of the visitor experience at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.<\/p><\/div>

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On display at the museum, the May 27, 1942, edition of The Cody Enterprise reports the news of the 10,000-prisoner concentration camp next to the story on 400 Elks coming to town for a state convention.<\/p><\/div>

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Heart Mountain, rising between Cody and Powell in Park County, Wyo., towers over the site of what was the state's third-largest city from 1942 to 1945.<\/p><\/div>

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After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the forced removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.<\/p><\/div>

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The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is open year-round and also will make appointments for visits.<\/p><\/div>

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A display at the interpretive center shows a photo of Japanese-Americans being checked in for transportation to a relocation center.<\/p><\/div>

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This memorial, dedicated in 1985, honors the more than 750 internees who left to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. Fifteen Heart Mountaineers died in the war.<\/p><\/div>

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An ROTC student from Casper takes a photo of a display during a tour of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.<\/p><\/div>

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Incarcerees developed farm fields and grew 45 different crops, including broccoli, lettuce and corn, and Japanese crops such as kaikon, takena, mizuna and nappa. More than 5 million pounds of produce were harvested in 1944. Beets and barley are big today.<\/p><\/div>

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The Heart Mountain Honor Roll Memorial lists the men interned at Heart Mountain who served in the U.S. military during World War II. It is part of an interpretive walk on the bluff above the museum.<\/p><\/div>

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A walkway of commemorative bricks guides visitors to the front doors of the Heart Mountain museum.<\/p><\/div>

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A staff of 150 worked in the 17 wings of the hospital complex, which saw 5,486 admissions and 391 major surgeries in its three years of operation, according to camp records.<\/p><\/div>

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Members of the hospital staff worked in buildings like this. They included a white chief medical officer and chief nurse and Japanese-American physicians, nurses, nurse's aides, dentists, pharmacists and orderlies, according to museum materials.<\/p><\/div>

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The boiler and the chimney were part of a system that provided steam heat to the hospital buildings. Three of the original structures sit on the bluff above the interpretive center.<\/p><\/div>

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A replica of a guard tower rises near the museum. On the bluff behind the tower is the chimney that was part of the steam-heating system for the camp's hospital complex.<\/p><\/div>

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Staff members at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, located 11 miles from Powell and 14 miles from Cody, are eager to answer questions from visitors.<\/p><\/div>

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Estelle Ishigo, the white wife of a Japanese-American man, was paid $19 a month to sketch experiences she witnessed while living in the camp. On display at the museum is her image of internees boarding one of the last trains to leave the camp in 1945.<\/p><\/div>

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On display in the musem, this Estelle Ishigo image of a winter scene is one of many drawings in the Ishigo Collection. <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>