Heart Mountain Interpretive Center Putting Food on the Table

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center will host a special program, "Putting Food on the Table," on Saturday, March 24. The talk will focus on the Heart Mountain Agriculture Program, which provided all the food for the World War II era Wyoming concentration camp. 

The story of the Heart Mountain Agriculture Program is a remarkable one. When Japanese American incarcerees first arrived at Heart Mountain, they relied on government shipments of food. These frozen and non-perishable items made for bland and unhealthy meals. In the spring of 1943, the camp’s Japanese American farmers and white staff took on the seemingly impossible task of growing food for thousands of people on land that had never been irrigated or cultivated.

Museum Manager Dakota Russell, who will give the talk, says that Heart Mountain was blessed with a wealth of agricultural talent. “James Ito and Eiichi Sakauye, who coordinated much of the program, were trying out some really cutting-edge techniques,” Russell says, “and Gijia Kitazawa provided all the seeds from the store he had to leave behind on the West Coast.” The agricultural program was so successful that, by 1945, Heart Mountain was sending surplus produce to Japanese Americans incarcerated in other states. Russell says the men and women of the agriculture program are unsung heroes, and he is excited to spotlight their efforts at this upcoming event