The Amache National Historic Site: How an abandoned confinement site became the newest US national park
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The Amache National Historic Site: How an abandoned confinement site became the newest US national park
During World War Two, this haunting site was home to more than 7,500 interned Japanese Americans and was 50% more crowded than New York City. Situated in on the barren, windy plains near the Colorado-Kansas border, about a 3.5-hour drive south-east of Denver and its famous Rocky Mountain skyline, the Granada Relocation Center isn't a place where many travellers go. But that may soon change. Abandoned in 1945 at the end of World War Two, the centre (officially called the Amache National Historic Site) only includes a handful of reconstructed and restored army-style barracks, a water tower and a guard tower sprouting from the prairie's dry shortgrass and sagebrush. But look closely, and you'll find traces of the more than 10,000 Japanese Americans who were either incarcerated or processed here from 1942-1945.