Heart Mountain Interpretive Center

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. Photo by Kevin J. Miyazaki, courtesy of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.

Established by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation in 2011, The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is placed on the historic Heart Mountain Confinement Site between Cody and Powell, Wyoming. Visitors to the Interpretive Center experience life at Heart Mountain through the eyes of those Japanese and Japanese Americans who were confined here during WWII. The Interpretive Center provides an overview of the wartime relocation of Japanese Americans, including the background history of anti-Asian prejudice in America and the factors leading to their enforced relocation and confinement. Special emphasis is given to the experience of incarceration, the diverse personal responses of Japanese Americans to their imprisonment, constitutional issues, violations of civil liberties and civil rights, and the broader issues of race and social justice in the U.S. Our collection consists mostly of donations directly from former incarcerees and their descendants. The collection includes art, furniture, photographs, clothing, toys, household essentials all either made or used at the Confinement Site. Our site encompasses the National Historical Landmark, an original Heart Mountain Barrack, Root Cellar, Honor Roll, original Hospital buildings with a smokestack, and walking trails.

As of 2024, the Foundation opened the Mineta-Simpson Institute, an expansion to the Interpretive center as a dedicated retreat space, home for workshops and programming specifically designed to foster empathy, courage, and cooperation in the next generation of leaders. The Institute will also expand the Foundation’s capacity for digital outreach, allowing us to carry our message all over the world. We are inspired in this endeavor by the lives, accomplishments, and—most of all—the friendship of Senator Alan K. Simpson and the late Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, who met as boys at Heart Mountain and spent decades putting aside their political differences to work together and better the lives of all Americans.