Over the past two months, the historic hospital at the Heart Mountain National Historic Landmark has experienced four separate incidents of vandalism.
The federally owned buildings were most recently damaged late last Thursday night, when intruders broke a window and tore away protective plywood from three doors, causing harm to the original historic door frames. Earlier incidents have included graffiti as well as damage to exterior board siding, doors, and windows.
Preservation of the hospital buildings is a top priority of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which has been working with the Bureau of Land Management to purchase the buildings and transfer responsibility for their care from the federal government to the Foundation.
“These structures are deeply personal to those of us whose families were imprisoned here during World War II,” says executive director Aura Sunada Newlin, who is a descendant of Heart Mountain incarcerees. “Our board member Kathy Saito Yuille was born in that hospital. Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi’s mother had her appendix removed in that hospital. Board member Sam Mihara’s grandfather died in that hospital due to negligent care. We are grateful to the Park County Sherriff’s Office for increasing their monitoring of the area. We have now installed our own security cameras, and we are sending out this plea to local community members to help us dissuade youth from desecrating what, for us, is a sacred site.”
Once ownership of the hospital grounds is transferred to Heart Mountain, the Foundation intends to improve security around the buildings to protect from further damage. HMWF ultimately plans to turn the buildings into a permanent exhibit dedicated to life and death at Heart Mountain where 14,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated between 1942 and 1945.
Anyone with information about these acts of vandalism is urged to contact the Park County Sheriff’s Office.