The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and teaching the history of the Heart Mountain World War II Japanese American confinement site. The Foundation works to ensure that the stories of the more than 14,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned at Heart Mountain during World War II are remembered and honored.
During World War II, the U.S. government forcibly removed and incarcerated more than 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. Heart Mountain, located between Cody and Powell, became one of ten confinement camps established under Executive Order 9066. At its peak, the camp held more than 10,000 people. The Foundation’s mission is not only to preserve the physical site, but also to educate visitors about civil liberties, constitutional rights.
A centerpiece of the Foundation’s work is the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, an award-winning, Smithsonian Affiliate museum that opened in 2011. The museum is situated near the original camp site, and features immersive exhibits. Visitors learn about daily life in the camp, the emotional and political impact of incarceration. Exhibits focus on the many ways Japanese Americans responded to their imprisonment including, military service, resistance movements, and efforts to rebuild their lives after the war.
The Interpretive Center also preserves surviving structures and landmarks from the original camp, including a restored barrack, a root cellar built by incarcerees, and the Honor Roll memorial recognizing Japanese American soldiers from Heart Mountain who served during WWII. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
The opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center on August 20th, 2011 marked a defining milestone in the history of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. For many years, the Foundation had worked toward the goal of creating a permanent place where the stories of the more than 14,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated at Heart Mountain could be preserved, shared, and remembered. What began as a vision grew into a reality through the dedication of former incarcerees and their families, foundation members, local homesteaders, community volunteers, donors, and countless supporters who believed these stories deserved to be told.
Long before the museum welcomed its first visitors, the Foundation’s original curator, LaDonna Zall, devoted years to collecting artifacts, preserving personal histories, and leading tours of the former camp site. Her efforts, along with those of many others, helped lay the groundwork for an interpretive center that would honor the lived experiences of those incarcerated while educating future generations about the consequences of prejudice, fear, and the loss of civil liberties.
Opening day was a celebration decades in the making. More than 800 guests gathered at Heart Mountain, including former incarcerees, their descendants, elected officials, donors, volunteers, and supporters from across the country.
The ceremony featured keynote remarks from Daniel Inouye, whose own service as a decorated veteran and lifelong advocate for civil rights underscored the significance of the day. His words celebrated the perseverance of those who endured incarceration and recognized the opening of the Interpretive Center as a lasting commitment to ensuring that the lessons of Heart Mountain would never be forgotten. Since opening day, the museum has welcomed visitors from around the world, continuing its mission to inspire reflection, foster dialogue, and remind future generations of the importance of protecting justice and democracy for all.
The opening of the Mineta-Simpson Institute on July 27, 2024, marked another transformative chapter in the history of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The Institute established a center dedicated to civic engagement, democracy, and the enduring values embodied by the extraordinary friendship between former Secretary Norman Mineta and former Senator Alan Simpson.
Norm and Al met during a Boy Scouts event at the Heart Mountain camp. What began as an unlikely friendship grew into a lifelong bond that transcended politics, geography, and background. Mineta, a Democrat, and Simpson, a Republican, went on to distinguished careers in public service, becoming nationally recognized examples of mutual respect and bipartisan collaboration.
The Mineta-Simpson Institute was created to carry that legacy into the future. The space includes a permanent exhibition exploring the lives, friendship, and public service of Secretary Mineta and Senator Simpson, tracing their journeys from wartime adolescence to national leadership. Through personal artifacts, photographs, and interactive experiences, visitors discover how two young men whose lives intersected because of wartime incarceration became champions of bipartisan cooperation and lifelong advocates for public service.
The Institute also provides a home for educational programming, leadership development, and public dialogue that encourages visitors—especially students—to explore the responsibilities of citizenship, the importance of civil discourse, and the value of finding common ground across differences.
Bringing this ambitious vision to life was made possible through a landmark $3.175 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, the largest single gift in the Foundation’s history. The grant supported the creation of the Institute and its exhibition, ensuring that the inspiring legacy of Mineta and Simpson will continue to educate and inspire future generations.
The restoration of our historic root cellar has enabled our foundation to build an exhibit dedicated to the farmers who made the soil of Heart Mountain bloom. In the high desert of northwestern Wyoming, the cellar is a vast, semi-underground structure hidden beneath the wooden air vents that can still be seen standing near farmland where the Heart Mountain concentration camp once stood. It is also the only cellar from the ten main Japanese American camps that has survived almost completely intact to the present day.
Once restoration is complete, the cellar will house an exhibit explaining the pivotal role that agriculture played at the Heart Mountain camp. This exhibit will draw visitors into a time when Japanese Americans feared that they would starve if they could not turn desert scrubland into productive farms. Food insecurity was one of the greatest challenges at the Heart Mountain camp. False reports of food hoarding fueled political pressure to stop food support to the camp. These concerns added urgency to the plan to establish farms on the undeveloped land surrounding the camp to supplement the food supply. The incarcerees eventually built two giant root cellars to store what they grew. They succeeded through ingenuity and expertise in adapting to the harsh climate and short growing season. At the end of the war, they left behind newly developed land for homesteaders and local communities to use, along with farming techniques pioneered by the incarcerated farmers.
The ADA accessible walkway through our historic root cellar has been funded in part by Wyoming Humanities’ Culture Grows grant. When completed, the root cellar exhibit will welcome visitors into its cool, underground depths for a historic view of the incredible work of the incarcerated Japanese Americans.
To contribute to the Root Cellar project, donate here: https://heartmountain.org/join-give/ Heart Mountain Foundation and Interpretive Center are Culture Grows grantees of Wyoming Humanities, and are moving through the year with 14 other cohort members.
