Delta, Utah.
Not exactly a destination. This small town is located on the western side of Utah, about 90 miles from the Nevada border. It's technically not on the loneliest road in America, as that is only in Nevada, but as there is nothing much on Hwy 50 from Delta to Ely, it's sort of the unofficial start of the loneliest road.
We stayed in Delta because we were going from north of Salt Lake City to St. George and this seemed to be about half way. And it's a bit off the beaten track. And almost everywhere we've stayed, we've found that there are some interesting things to see nearby. Delta was no exception. We discovered that Delta was the location for a World War II era internment camp for American citizens of Japanese ancestry.
Over the course of our travels, we have encountered numerous internment camps: n Twin Falls, Idaho; and Missoula, Montana; and Fort Stanton, New Mexico; and now in Delta, Utah. Some sites are now national monuments, with some of the original buildings restored. And some have been left to deteriorate, which is the case at Delta.
The camp here was called Topaz, and when it was fully populated with 8,000 imprisoned Americans, it instantly became the 4th largest city in Utah. Topaz was located about 10 miles outside of the town of Delta, and not on the main road, which is Hwy 50. It's on gravel roads, so you don't exactly stumble on it. You have to want to visit it in order to find it.
There's not too much left of the 42 blocks with 12 barracks each and other buildings, or the 6 guard towers, or the barbed-wire perimeter fence. There are some foundations of buildings left, and some old rusty metal equipment, and signs indicating where various buildings were. But it's a bleak, windy, inhospitable place. We asked ourselves why the government thought that they needed guard towers and a fence, when it certainly was the case that anyone heading out on their own would not be likely to make it very far.
One of the things that stood out to us about this camp was that they used the term "Concentration Camp" on some of their signage rather than the less emotion-charged "Relocation Camp." The site falls under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (see details here), and we've seen a trend in recent years for the Park Service to be a bit more honest about some of the darker times in our nation's past, revising how they refer to the treatment of Native Americans, for example, and now how they refer to internment camps. It's a welcome change.
This sign, located in Delta, nicely sums up the experience at Topaz. No sugar-coating, no attempts at justifying the awful things done to fellow citizens. Just an honest assessment of a horrible mistake.
I'm hoping that we don't run across any more of these camps. The story is always pretty much the same and it doesn't end well. I hope we as a nation can learn from this.
