Affiliate Profile
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation operates a museum and interpretive center on the site of one of the 10 War Relocation Authority incarceration sites for Japanese Americans during World War II. Between August 1942 and November 1945, more than 14,000 Japanese Americans lived at the site. The Foundation has created the Mineta-Simpson Institute, which is dedicated to extending the values displayed in the public service of Secretary Norman Mineta and Senator Alan Simpson, who first met as Boy Scouts behind the barbed wire at Heart Mountain in 1943. Beyond its physical facilities, the Foundation conducts workshops for educators around the country, creates books and videos and generates programming about the Japanese American incarceration and other social justice issues. Heart Mountain looks forward to collaborating with the Smithsonian and its affiliates around the country to extend knowledge of this part of American history.