Topaz

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Topaz
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One half of a restored barrack at the museum site
in Delta. Realistic view of where and how the
Japanese-Americans lived for 3.5 years in the
Great Basin Desert. Some furnishing inside.
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All the buildings at the site have been removed.
Foundations and concrete slabs are found
throughout the camp. It is 640 acres, one
section measuring one-mile square. The
government purchased 19,000 acres to farm, mostly
dryland, and for animal facilities.
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A scattered site of artifacts and relics.
Strangely mystifying, like sitting still at Chaco
Canyon and listening to the wind tell the story.
You can see Jane Beckwiths truck out in the
background.
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Much of the area as salvaged by area farmers when
the camp closed down. They dug up the cast iron
pipe (water and sewer) and left trenches
throughout making travel up and down the
geometric campsite difficult. A tree grew and
died many years ago.
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About 8,000 people lived here, behind the
barbwire they installed to keep themselves
captives of the US government. Their homes were
standard and the landscape allowed to uniquely
express who lived where. Lots of rock gardens,
few flower gardens. Alkaline soil, little
organic content, no water.
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The front door stoop/step/threshold made by an
interment Japanese American shows how they tried
to make a prison camp their home. Right out the
front doors you find the best artifacts as the
mothers would clean and sweep everything out the
front door.
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A road to nowhere but the fence. Imagine 60 year
ago, along this road were rows of clapboard
barracks adorned with simple individual
expressions of the earth.
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The monument at the entry, built in 1976,
continues to experience vandalism and disrespect.
Look closely to see the four-wheeler tracks
jumping the monument.
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People have even been know to write their
congressman to protest wording on the monument
and I dont believe they are Japanese Americans.
Most of the support for this historical site
comes from California, not locals or statewide.