Heart Mountain
United States. Army. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Final Report, Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. Washington 1943, p. 255.
The Heart Mountain Relocation Center (U.S. government name) was located on the terraces of the Shoshone River in northwestern Wyoming, near Powell and 127 miles to the east of Yellowstone National Park. Construction on the site began on July 15, 1942 with residents first arriving on August 11, 1942. The Shoshone River flowed northeast on the eastern boarder of the concentration camp with a central area split between two terraces. The temperature in this rugged climate ranged from highs over 100 degrees to 30 degrees below zero, with a frost season from September through May. The prisoners’ residential area, hospital, administrative area, and other city buildings such as the post office and fire station, were on the upper terrace. On the lower terrace, next to the railroad, the warehouse, motor pool, root cellars, the animal farms, the sewage disposal plant, the military police, and several other buildings were located. The maximum population reached 10,767. The center closed on November 10, 1945.