Leslie and David's Wanderings: 28 June 2019 Fossils and Internmen

We drove over to Hagerman Idaho this morning. For almost the whole 107 miles we were crossing lava fields of various ages (some millions of years old and others only 2,000 years old). In Hagerman is the visitor center for Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. The NM was created in 1988 by President Ronald Regan. We collected our 41^stPassport Stamp, explored the exhibits, and watched the park movie (not worth the time). As it turns out, the visitor center is the only part of the NM worth seeing. The fossil beds are renown for the Hagerman Horse fossils in the rock formations along the Snake River. But fossils of over 200 species were found. The Hagerman Horse fossils are from 3.5 million years ago. So after the last super volcano was in the area (10 million years ago) although there are lava flows from only 10,000 years ago. Back in the time of the Hagerman Horse, the area was on the shores of Idaho Lake. This lake eventually drained and the bones were preserved in the soil from the bed of the lake. The area was eventually covered by lava flows. These lava flows were subsequently washed away and the fossil layer exposed when lake Utah overflowed 15,000 years ago and sent a torrent of water and debris washing through the Snake River valley for over 8 weeks. The fossils were excavated 1929-1932 by the Smithsonian. The complete skeletons of over 20 Hagerman Horse, predecessor to today’s horse, were found. Three of these are on permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The rest of the NM is on the other side of the Snake River from Hagerman. There is a road that runs up through it with two overlooks, one for the fossil beds (but has no explanation of what you are looking at and you can’t see where they excavated) and one overlook of some Oregon Trail wheel ruts (that you really have to use your imagination to pick out). So we can now claim we have seen ruts from both the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail.

Entrance Sign

Hagerman Horse

From Hagerman we went over near Jerome Idaho and visited the Minidoka National Historic Site. We stopped at the temporary visitor center andcollected our 42nd Passport Stamp and explored the exhibits (no movie yet). Minidoka was one of ten interment camps where people who were either Japanese Citizens living in the US (Isei), or US Citizens of Japanese Decent (Nisei) that were in the west coast military exclusion zone, were interred following the declaration of war on Japan. It should be noted that several thousand German civilian citizens, Italian civilian citizens and American citizens of German and Italian decent, were rounded up by the FBI and INS and interred in other camps. Over 110,000 Isei and Nisei were rounded up between February 1942 and April 1942 and shipped out to these camps. Many of these citizens lost their homes and businesses when they could no longer pay the mortgages and the banks foreclosed. A few lucky ones had good friends and neighbors that took over their homes and businesses and ran them during the war before turning them back over when they were released. Most lost everything they had. On arrival at the camps, each was given an army issued cot, a mattress and two blankets. The barracks where they were housed were hastily built with green wood sides (which opened up and warped as it dried) covered with tarpaper. Each barrack building had six apartments, which housed 2-8 people per apartment. Initially toilets were large open pits. Can you imagine going through a Idaho winter under these conditions? The camp was not finished when they started moving the internees in and many were forced to help build their interment camp! At its highest point, over 9,000 were interred at Minidoka. Being the hardworking and industrious people that they were, the Isei and Nisei planted gardens, fixed buildings, made their own furniture and helped each other out. Starting in 1943, Nisei were allowed to join the military and help in the war effort. Some were allowed to move to other parts of the country to work in war factories or to go to college. There were eight guard towers around the camp but they were never manned. Minidoka was considered a quiet camp so the constraints on the internees were not as harsh as at some other camps. Internees could even travel to Twin Falls occasionally to shop or see a movie. Starting in October 1944, the internees were allowed to gradually move back to the west coast. By October 1945 the camp was closed. Each internee was given a one-way train ticket and $25. They were never reimbursed for the loss of their homes, businesses and lives.

The lands the camps were built on were lotteried off in 1946 to returning veterans in 160-acre parcels, and as part of the parcel, each was given two portions of camp buildings to be used as farm buildings. So the barracks were cut into sections and moved to the new farms. The only remaining original building on the Minidoka site was the fire department building.

In 1988, a bill passed congress to pay reparations to the living internees (now down to ~70,000) $20,000 a piece for their unconstitutional internment. That same bill created the NHS.

The Minidoka NHS languished for decades but has recently started being upgraded. They have a temporary visitor center in an old farmhouse and are building a new visitor center (should be finished by the end of this summer), which will have exhibits showing the camp. The foundations of the entrance guard shack and the waiting room (where internees would be processed in and out of the camp) are still visible. The Idaho conservation corps built a replica guard tower and fence line near the entrance. They have managed to buy back two of the original buildings from the original camp and move them to the NHS, but they are still undergoing renovation and were not open to the public.