Shoshone Falls and Minidoka Internment Camp

It's been a long, cold winter. It seems like we haven't been anywhere in months, other than Pocatello and Rexburg. This past weekend, with some nice, sunny weather, we ventured a little further. We went all the way to....Twin Falls! The cool thing about Twin Falls, though, is it is usually about 20 degrees warmer than Idaho Falls. Saturday saw the temps get into the 50s, which was very nice. Also, we had two destinations in mind: Shoshone Falls and the Minidoka Internment Camp National Monument. After lunch, and spending some time in the park near the historic Perrine Bridge, which spans the Snake River, we headed out to Shoshone Falls.

After Shoshone Falls, we made our way to the Minidoka Internment Camp. What's left of the camp is located approximately 15 miles north of Twin Falls. After Pearl Harbor, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in ten different internment camps in California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arkansas. The largest number of internees went to Minidoka, on the wind-swept plains of southern Idaho. Most of the camp boundaries now lie within private property, and very little of the camp remains. There are ruins of a guard house and the "reception" room where internees waited to be processed. Archaeologists have uncovered a garden in the shape of a V that internees planted and maintained. There are several housing units still standing and a warehouse building. Other than that, most of the camp is nothing but a distant memory.

The relocation and internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans is certainly one of the darkest periods in American history. It's a part of our history that in many cases, attempts have been made to erase it. However, through the efforts of many, including the National Park Service, this story is being told, and will continue to be told, in the hopes that something like this never happens again. The Minidoka camp is a very endangered spot, and very little of the original camp remains. Hopefully we can preserve this very important piece of American and Idaho history.

More information on Minidoka and other internment camps can be found here:
http://www.nps.gov/miin/index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/archive/miin/home.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ce9.htm
Friends of Minidoka:
http://www.minidoka.org/