The Archaeology of Gardening at Amache

Introduction During World War II, over 120,000 people of Japanese descent were removed from their homes along the west coast of the United States, and interned in the country’s interior. The internment camps themselves are significant resources for better understanding this pivotal, yet shadowed history. The Granada Relocation Center— better known as Amache—is located in southeastern Colorado. Home to over 10,000 internees between 1942 and 1945, the site of Amache contains remnant landscaping, largely intact building foundations, and surface artifacts. In part because of its archaeological integrity, in 2007, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest federal recognition of a historic site in the U.S. Amache’s cultural landscape, especially gardens and other elements that are the result of internee labor, have been identified as particularly valuable for long-term site interpretation and development. Because about half of the people interned at Amache were gardeners or farmers from California, the gardens can reveal how internees were applying their expertise to a new environment, the High Plains. Gardens were also an important way internees transformed the stark military landscape of the camp.