Heart Mountain Chronicles: The History of a Japanese Relocation Center

Most books and articles about the Heart Mountain Relocation Center focus on recounting the experience of the 14,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly confined at a remote location in Wyoming during World War II. How did they adapt? What hardships did they endure?

By contrast, Ben and Jim Murphy have chosen to focus their research on the physical, operational and administrative infrastructures of the Heart Mountain camp itself. The result is a remarkable, pathbreaking and much needed book.

The value of this fact-filled volume cannot be overstated. It will serve as an indispensable resource for future scholars, historians, researchers and it will enrich the already great work being done by staff of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation's Interpretive Center and Museum. Beyond that, the Chronicles is written so clearly and illustrated with such fascinating photographs, it will be enjoyed by even the casual reader who wants to learn a bit more about what had once been the third largest city in Wyoming.

This is the fascinating story of a temporary city, its infrastructure, its people, and all the accompanying community services that were created from scratch in a very short time with very few resources.

Included are many previously unpublished photographs and blueprints.

The authors lived at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center with their parents from April 1948 until November 1950, occupying barracks that once housed Japanese residents. Their father, B.D. Murphy was a civil engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation who used the deserted Center as the headquarters of the Shoshone Reclamation Project."Jim and I decided to research that unusual place where spent some of our growing-up years. Heart Mountain wasn't a very pretty place; the barracks remaining when we lived there looked pretty flimsy. How did those people from California ever survive living there in that harsh weather? We decided to find out. Since we had lived there and had a general idea of how it was built, we focused our interest on the infrastructure; whose idea was it to build such a place? Why was it built where it was? Who designed it? Who constructed it? Who were these people that were imprisoned? What did they do all day while locked up? Where did its prisoners come from and where did they go? Hopefully, in answering my own questions I will have been able to answer others' questions about this dreadful place" - Ben Murphy.

Renée is an editor and graphic designer with over 30 years experience in publishing. Her experience includes a variety of roles in the publishing industry: publications manager for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, art director in the Instructional Products division at Apple Inc., book cover designer for Brooks/Cole, and as an associate professor of graphic design at Northwest College in Wyoming.