Minidoka Internment National Monument: Historic Resource Study

Meger, Amy

The Minidoka Internment National Monument became the 385th unit of the National Park System on January 17, 2001. In Proclamation 7395, President Bill Clinton set apart and reserved federal land for the "purpose of protecting the historic structures and objects of historical interest contained therein."1 According to a planning document, the monument is "to provide opportunities for public education and interpretation of the incarceration of Nikkei (Japanese American citizens and legal resident aliens of Japanese ancestry) during WWII."2 The 73-acre monument protects and manages resources related to the original 33,000-acre Minidoka Relocation Center where the federal government interned 13,078 Nikkei during the war. The Minidoka Internment National Monument lies 21 miles southeast of Jerome, Idaho, on state highway 25, in Jerome County. On the Snake River Plain, the site is closer to Twin Falls than to Boise. In south central Idaho, Jerome County is surrounded by Cassia County and Minidoka County to the east, Twin Falls County to the south, Gooding County to the west, and Lincoln County to the north. National Park Service land in nearby counties includes the City of Rocks National Reserve, 80 miles south in Cassia County; the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, 40 miles west in Twin Falls County; and the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, 60 miles northeast in Butte and Blaine Counties. Agriculture and irrigation projects near the site provide valuable context for understanding the Minidoka Relocation Center. The monument site is near two irrigation canals historically significant to the internment center. The North Side irrigation canal forms the southern border of the monument and formed the southern border of the center. During the war, the center could not draw water from the North Side Canal without the installation of a costly pumping facility. Consequently, the internees at Minidoka constructed a lateral from the Milner-Gooding Canal, located some five miles northwest of the site, to the internment facility. The Milner-Gooding Canal provided water for the internment center and for the crop fields at Minidoka

Minidoka Internment National Monument: Historic Resource Study

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