We are happy to welcome commercial tours to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and to our National Historic Landmark site! There is a lot for commercial tours to explore: an award-winning interpretive center that includes a vast permanent collection, a dedicated theater, a gallery for special exhibits, and a gift shop; the grounds include original “camp” structures such hospital buildings and a Heart Mountain barrack, as well as an interpretive walking trail and a military honor roll. Learn more about the interpretive center and historical site here.
Please read through the information below, where a number of answers to common questions are listed. To schedule your tour or for any other questions, please contact our Museum Manager, Cally Steussy, at callys@heartmountain.org.
FAQ
Contact our Museum Manager, Cally Steussy at callys@heartmountain.org to book.
Tour directors and drivers are free; please contact Cally Steussy at callys@heartmountain.org for quotes, scheduling, and any other questions about group rates for commercial tours.
We are open from 10:00am to 5:00pm every day during our summer hours and Wednesday though Saturday during our winter hours. If you would like to book a visit when we are not regularly open, we will do our best to accommodate your schedule.
Yes. Our main driveway is large enough to accommodate a bus and there is plenty of space to load/unload passengers before parking further back. The driveway to the walking path and memorial is a large loop that allows a bus to drive around and park along the edge of the sidewalk by the entrance. The road to the hospital area is large enough to accommodate a bus but does require a tight turn-around.
The short drive to the barrack building is not large enough for a bus and has only one handicapped parking space. The barrack is accessible to ambulatory visitors via a short walking path from the front entrance of the HMIC. This path is well-maintained and marked.
- The Interpretive Center has:
- ADA-compliant doors, walkways, and bathrooms;
- a single transport chair that can be used by visitors on a first-come-first-serve basis;
- audio translations of interpretive panels in English, Japanese, Spanish, and German; and
- subtitles on the introductory video in the same languages.
- The Original Barrack has:
- handicap parking; and
- an ADA-compliant access ramp and entrance.
- The Memorial and Setsuko Saito Higuchi Walking Trail:
- has a paved wheelchair-accessible path that is mostly over flat ground; and
- an introductory sign with Braille
- The Honor Roll and Hospital Grounds do not meet ADA standards at this time.
Group visits to the HMIC typically run around two hours (including drive time to/from Cody). We try to be flexible and help meet your time constraints but we recommend allowing for an hour and a half in the Interpretive Center. More time would be required for any other areas you wish to visit while on site.
- Drive to/from Cody: 15 minutes
- Drive to/from Powell: 10 minutes
- Interpretive Center (staff introduction, film, self-guided tour): 90 minutes
- Original Barrack (outdoor access, self-guided): ~ 20 minutes
- Walking Path & Memorial (outdoors, self-guided): 30 minutes
- Original Hospital Buildings (outdoors, self-guided): ~ 30 minutes
We typically begin with a brief introduction in our theater (approximately 15 minutes depending on questions) and a short 15-minute film, then everyone will be able to go through the museum and gift shop at their own pace (typically 50-60 minutes). When you are ready for everyone to gather back together to load the bus, we can make an announcement and help gather any stragglers.
The original barrack visible along the drive to the Interpretive Center is open to the public, weather permitting, during our summer hours. Visitors are encouraged to walk to and inside this structure to learn about camp structures during and following WWII.
If a group seems to be wrapping up early, we recommend driving up the hill to the 1/4 mile walking path and memorial to give everyone a feel for the scale of the camp when it was open. Doing this 1-mile round-trip drive to the top of the hill without getting off the bus adds around 10 minutes to your total visit. To have a group walk around the entire interpretive trail takes an additional 20+ minutes.
Also on top of the hill (and partially visible from the highway) are the only remaining structures from the hospital complex in camp. While the walking path has interpretation about the structures, visitors also are able to go up to, and around the buildings, but not inside. There is a non-maintained path to the hospital’s iconic red brick boiler chimney that runs alongside the other remaining two buildings.
Yes, with a little preparation. We sell copies of our introductory film that can be shown on the bus ahead of your visit so that the introduction onsite only takes 10 minutes once everyone is seated. This effectively cuts your visit to just under 60 minutes.
Yes, we offer customization for commercial tours. If you have the time to see the different areas of our site outside of the Interpretive Center, you will have a chance to delve into the history and culture of Heart Mountain while standing where the camp stood.
In addition, each tour includes an introductory presentation by a knowledgeable, trained staff member. As much as we are able, we help your group understand the story of Heart Mountain in the context of the theme of your tour and the ages of your participants. Whether that means delving into the experiences of the different generations in camp or following the legal history leading up to incarceration, we are willing as long as we have time to prepare and enough staff people to do so.