Gila River
United States. Army. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Final Report, Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. Washington 1943, p. 253.
Gila River Relocation Center (U.S. government name) was located on isolated desert land in Arizona under conditions similar to Poston. Two new prison cities were built on the Gila River Indian Reservation, Butte and Canal, initially under the jurisdiction of both the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and the Department of Interior’s Office of Indian Affairs, through a Memorandum of Understanding. The WRA leased 16,500 acres and construction began May 1, 1942. In July, a crew of Japanese Americans arrived in advance to assist with setting up the center; the maximum population reached 13,348 in November 1942. Canal camp was the smaller camp, covering a 210-acre site with three blocks running north – south and nine blocks running east – west. Butte camp covered 790 acres with east – west streets numbered from First to Fourteenth and seven north – south streets numbered A through G. Gila River closed on November 10, 1945.