AMACHE

NAME: Amache COUNTY: Prowers County ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Hot summers-afternoon thunderstorms. Cold winters-snow often. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Spring-autumn, probably.

COMMENTS: It is south of Granada, Colorado in Prowers County. The nearest major town is Lamar, CO, which is probably half an hour west of Granada and Amache. The site is now owned by a rancher and used for grazing cows. The last time I was there was a few years ago. The rancher who owns the land allows people to visit the site during the day, but closes and locks the gate at sundown. (We were on the property when he came around and did that, had to work out another way out driving over some fallen barbed-wire fence.) REMAINS: Building foundations, roads

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and Franklin D. Roosevelt subsequent Executive Order 9066, Japanese Internment Camps were created across the American West. Natural-born American Citizens and immigrants with as little as 1/16 Japanese heritage were forced to go to these camps for no reason other than the fact that their parentage. Amache operated from August, 1942 until October, 1945. At its largest, Amache had 7,318 prisoners. The community had a fire and police department and built their own high school. For more information please visit http://www.amache.org/ . Submitted by: Madelyn Marsh

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