Washington – A World War II internment camp on the Eastern Plains and Boulder’s Chautauqua Park have been designated National Historic Landmarks by Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Chautauqua Park will be the first such historic site in the Denver metro area. Other historic sites in Colorado include Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy cadet area and the Rocky Mountain National Park administration building.
The Chautauqua site, founded in 1898, is a signature piece of an educational movement that swept the country in the first part of the 20th century. People gathered at Chautauquas all over the country to take in speakers and entertainers with the simple goal of enlightenment.
The Granada Relocation Center, also known as the Amache Relocation Camp, was the smallest of 10 camps that housed Japanese-Americans forced from the West Coast in the 1940s by the War Relocation Authority. Located in southeastern Colorado near the town of Granada, the camp housed as many as 7,597 evacuees, two- thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. The camp closed in January 1946. It currently includes historic roadways and barracks foundations, as well as a cemetery.
“National Historic Landmark designation recognizes and preserves America’s diverse cultural and architectural heritage,” Interior Department official Kit Kimball said in announcing the designations during a luncheon speech last week at Colorado Preservation Inc.’s annual conference. “These national gems are exceptional places that shed light on our history and help explain our past.”
