Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread w/ Brown Butter Icing & Heart Mountain’s WWII Root Cellars

With names like Topaz and Jerome, ten “relocation centers” were hastily built under the auspices of the WRA in the plains, swamps and deserts of seven inland, remote states. These sites were Tule Lake, California; Manzanar, California; Poston, Arizona; Gila River, Arizona; Topaz, Utah; Minidoka, Idaho; Granada, Colorado; Rohwer, Arkansas; Jerome, Arkansas; and Heart Mountain, Wyoming. (8)

Each center’s location was intentionally planned. At Heart Mountain, internees were transported into the camp on the Burlington Railroad from Billings, Montana, approximately 1-1/2 hours away. The camp sits halfway between the nearby communities of Powell (11 miles to the northeast) and Cody (13 miles to the southwest). Local government officials, who didn’t necessarily want Japanese internees in their towns, were satisfied with its proximity. But more so, the nearby Shoshone River provided a consistent water supply, providing water for Heart Mountain Relocation Center’s 46,000 acres of farmland and 740 acres of housing.

Named for Heart Mountain eight miles to the west, the construction of Heart Mountain Relocation Center began on June 15, 1942. Over two-thousand workers, directed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, built 650 buildings and structures to house, feed, hospitalize and oversee all facets of the camp. Buildings were quickly constructed with green lumber frames, covered with black tar paper. (9)

Within a matter of months, what was once sage-brush desert was transformed into a neatly arranged camp surrounding by barbed-wire fences.

The first internees arrived by train on August 11, 1942 from their previously assigned Assembly Centers. Heart Mountain’s distinct profile would have watched over them. After disembarking and processing into camp, internees walked up the hill to see what they were in store for the duration of the war. From eight watchtowers, military police with the U.S. Army 331st Escort Guard Company monitored every movement in camp. A total of 124 soldiers and three officers were stationed at Heart Mountain until the end of 1944.

One of these incarcerees was artist Estelle Peck Ishigo from Oakland, CA. In 1929, Estelle, a Caucasian woman, married her Nisei husband Arthur Ishigo in Mexico. California’s strict interracial marriage laws prohibited their union. When EO 9066 was given, Estelle didn’t have to follow Arthur to the relocation center, but she did. While interred with Arthur, Estelle was commissioned by the WRA to draw camp life in Heart Mountain. Her subsequent drawings serve as a contrast to the WRA photographs taken during this time.

(Arthur and Estelle Ishigo photo c. 1928. Photo: University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Estelle Ishigo Photographs, Accession Number 10368, Box 1, Folder 1.)

Frank Hirahara, another incarceree, from the Yakima Valley in Washington State spent 1942 to 1945 in Heart Mountain. Frank’s father, George, saved the money he made from jobs on and off camp to purchase cameras, photo equipment and dark room supplies from mail order catalogs. George then built a dark room below their family barrack and a photo studio. Frank served as Heart Mountain High School’s Tempo photographer and photo editor. (10) In addition to WRA photos and Estelle Ishigo illustrations, Frank’s photos of high school and everyday life in Heart Mountain are also shared here. You can read about Frank’s many amazing accomplishments on his obituary here.