In August 1942 the first train full of Japanese Americans arrived on the lonely plains of northern Wyoming. Forcibly removed from their homes, their businesses and livelihoods taken from their hands, more than 14,000 people were placed behind barbed wire at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center between Cody and Powell. These were American citizens. Fathers and mothers, grandparents and children, business owners and esteemed members of the community were shipped to Heart Mountain. Their only crime? Their Japanese heritage. Today, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is a must visit historic landmark on the way to Yellowstone, helping visitors never forget this sobering piece of American history.
Can You Visit the Heart Mountain Internment Camp?
Opened in 2011, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center sits on the former site of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, which was active from 1942-1945. After purchasing your admission at the Smithsonian-affiliated site, you’ll be directed to the theater where a short film, “All We Could Carry,” serves as an introduction. From there, explore permanent and special exhibits ranging from historic photos to artifacts, to a scale model of the center as it would have looked in the 1940s.
See what the quickly assembled, tarpaper barracks looked like when the internees first arrived, versus how these resilient people turned them into homes, despite all odds. Check out the gift shop, along with the new Mineta-Simpson Institute, dedicated to fostering empathy and cooperation and celebrating the lifelong friendship of Norman Mineta, a young incarceree at Heart Mountain, and Alan Simpson, a boy scout from Cody. The two men couldn’t have been more different: Mineta, a Democrat and Japanese American who went on to serve in two presidents’ cabinets, and Simpson, a Republican Wyoming senator. Yet the two remained close their entire lives and serve as the inspiration for the institute. Take a peek at the archival and collections facility, before heading outside to tour the grounds.
Download the Heart Mountain Augmented Reality Experience before starting your tour. Most of the center’s buildings were removed after its closure, but using your phone’s camera and augmented reality, you can bring history back to life at 16 stops along the way. It’s possible to walk the 50-acre site, but you can also drive along dirt roads.
The buildings that do remain are a barracks, hospital and root cellar. The hospital cannot be entered, but you can explore inside the barracks on a guided tour (by appointment) with caretaker Johnny Tim Yellowtail. A member of the Apsáalooke nation (Crow), Yellowtail offers a rich perspective on not only the history of Heart Mountain as a confinement site, but as the homelands of many Indigenous people, including the Apsáalooke, who named the rising peak in visible from the center, Heart Mountain. The root cellar, which is being restored and expected to open summer 2025, represents the incredible feat the center’s residents achieved by turning arid prairies into fertile farmland, so much so that their work not only fed Heart Mountain, but other internment camps across the country.
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is open every day in the summer (mid-May to October 5), and Wednesday through Saturday in the off season (October 5 – mid-May). Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
How Many Japanese Internment Camps Were There?
Heart Mountain and its imprisoned 14,000 residents weren’t the only Japanese Americans targeted during World War II. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in 10 centers like Heart Mountain across the United States. Today, several have been turned into national park sites including Minidoka in Idaho, Manzanar in eastern California and Amache in southern Colorado.
Despite the tragic circumstances of their confinement, camp residents did their best to bring a semblance of normality to Heart Mountain. Children went to school and formed scout troops, families went to church and adults worked various jobs throughout the center from farming to medical care to reporters at the Heart Mountain Sentinel newspaper.
When the draft was called for nisei–second generation Japanese Americans–in 1944, more than 800 men from Heart Mountain were required to serve in the U.S. military. Even in the face of their horrible treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, these men served honorably, becoming part of the 442 Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.
When the Japanese exclusion act ended in 1945, the residents of Heart Mountain found themselves with nowhere to go. The center would close within six months, but all that was offered to incarcerees was $25 each and a train ticket to anywhere in the U.S. Wyoming had passed laws preventing Japanese Americans from owning land or voting in the state so remaining wasn’t an option. Going back to their homes on the West Coast often wasn’t either, as they’d been sold along with businesses and possessions. Plus, just because the exclusion act ended didn’t mean the racism of many Americans did.
When Heart Mountain closed, the barracks were sold off to anyone who could remove them for $1 apiece. The land was divided into subplots and given to white homesteaders via a lottery system. Soon, there was hardly anything left of Heart Mountain. Decades after the center’s closure, ranchers and farmers began to notice Japanese people driving around the area, on occasion. After learning the history of their land, locals decided to do something to memorialize the spot and get to know the former incarcerees who were returning to revisit this painful chapter of their lives. Eventually, the Heart Mountain Foundation was created and opened the interpretive center in 2011.
Today their work spans so much more than just the center. From facilitating workshops with educators around the country to help ensure these histories make their way into classrooms, to advocating for the preservation of liberty and civil rights in America today, the foundation’s work is integral to ensure these stories and lessons don’t get forgotten.
This atrocity is one of the few acts that the United States government has formally apologized for. When President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, he formally apologized on behalf of the government, creating a public education fund on the subject and offering $20,000 apiece in restitution to those who were incarcerated.
“It’s important for visitors to realize that the people who were imprisoned here had done nothing wrong,” says Heart Mountain director of communications and strategy, Ray Locker. “There was no trial, no due process. Even those with 1/16th Japanese ancestry were incarcerated. Because of who their great grandfather was. We want visitors to draw positive lessons from history to make sure we don’t ever do this again.”
For More Information:
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center
1539 Road 19
Powell, WY 82435
(307) 754-8000
heartmountain.org