Camp Amache Open House July 7

Camp Amache Main Entrance

For several years, the University of Denver (DU) Amache Project has been focused on researching, interpreting and preserving the tangible history of Amache, one of ten WWII-era Japanese-American internment camps. In 1942 the War Relocation Authority acquired 8,000 acres of land (the site would grow to 12,000 acres) in southeastern Colorado.  The camp was named Amache, after the Indian wife of Colorado pioneer John Prowers, for whom the county that now hosted the Amache Relocation Camp was named.

The Amache Relocation Camp was officially closed on October 15, 1945 following the end of World War II. The land was eventually sold and the buildings dismantled for the lumber.

This past May, U.S. Senator Cory Gardner attended an annual pilgrimage of Japanese-American relatives of those who were sent to Granada for the duration of the war.  Gardner said he recently introduced the Amache Study Act, co-sponsored by Colorado legislators Congressman Ken Buck and Senator Michael Bennet, legislation that would direct the Department of the Interior to conduct a special resource study at Amache.  The act will help eventually declare Amache a national park, placing it under the care of the National Park Service.

This summer, the University will be leading a month of field research at Amache and the Amache Museum, located on US Highway 50 in Granada.

The public is invited to some activities on that day:

8am to Noon: Watch archaeologists as they uncover the history of Camp Amache, on-site.  Take a tour, learn about the site survey and watch active excavations.

1pm to 5pm: Visit the Amache Museum.  View the new exhibits and collections and work with objects in the field lab.