Forgotten History

[BuiltForWandering]

Three weeks ago we needed to get out of town and out of the cold rain and snow ( We had snow in the yard 3 weeks ago and todays high will be 81F. ) So we checked the weather and headed out. Deciding to go southwest to find the sun. We have been wanting to go out into the west desert mainly because of the history, and the remoteness of it. We hit the road in the rain headed to Delta Utah, with the Topaz Internment Camp Museum in our sites for the first stop.

 

[BuiltForWandering]

Arriving at the Museum we had a break in the rain, and welcomed the chance to walk around. Entering we watched 2 short films one of which was home video secretly taken by Dave M. Tatsuno at the time he and his family lived at Topaz. The Museum is small by well done, it’s a reminder of what can happen when fear takes over and the Bill Of Rights is ignored.

 

[Road]

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Three weeks ago we needed to get out of town and out of the cold rain and snow ( We had snow in the yard 3 weeks ago and todays high will be 81F. ) So we checked the weather and headed out. Deciding to go southwest to find the sun. We have been wanting to go out into the west desert mainly because of the history, and the remoteness of it. We hit the road in the rain headed to Delta Utah, with the Topaz Internment Camp Museum in our sites for the first stop.

Fascinating, sad, part of US American history. You know there were ten internment/concentration camps during this period in America?

Hope it's an interesting time and that it dries up for you a bit!

 

[BuiltForWandering]

The next morning we headed out to the camp site, out of town on a gravel road we found the 1 square mile that was the camp from September 11, 1942 to October 31, 1945. The camp was closed after the Supreme Court found that FDR’s executive order to round up approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and relocate them from their homes on the west coast to internment camps was unconstitutional.

This was one of 10 camps in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. Its really was sobering and a little emotional to walk around the old hospital site and the foundations of the kitchen buildings, recreation rooms, and living quarters.

 

[BuiltForWandering]

Fascinating, sad, part of US American history. You know there were ten internment/concentration camps during this period in America?

Hope it's an interesting time and that it dries up for you a bit!

10 Camps in 6 states, I believe there was one by Moab too.

 

[BuiltForWandering]

The rest of the trip went fast, headed back to town to grab some fuel and food. Then back to the dirt, air down, and head into the desert. We stopped at topaz mountain for some hiking and rock hounding, then back to the trail. We decided to take the Pony Express Trail and head north to Dugway. 5 ½ hours of washboard road we made our way to Simpson Spring where we stopped for a quick dinner by the fire over looking the Dugway Proving Grounds. Back to dirt we did find 4 groups of wild horses and 1 lone speed goat. We hit pavement right at dark and The headlight mod I made was worth it, this was the first time I got to try it out away from light pollution. The mod is in the forum under DIY Tahoe, going back to full-size.