Minidoka Banner

"Minidoka" comes from the Shoshone language and is the name of a town located 50 miles to the east. The site was named "Minidoka" because it was located on the Bureau of Reclamation's Minidoka Reclamation Project. The nickname "Hunt" came from the postal designation of a rural area near the camp.

The camp was composed of over 600 buildings, five miles of barbed wire and eight guard towers.
Two thousand Minidoka residents took "agricultural leave" to work in sugar beet fields in Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah during peak harvest and planting seasons. These internees effectively alleviated a labor crisis and saved crops from destruction.

The Fair Play Committee represented the internee organized labor council. The Coal and Hospital workers went on strike, mostly in objection to the low wage scale and the disparity of wages between internees and Caucasian staff.

Nearly 1,000 Nisei from Minidoka served in the military during WWII, as members of the Military Intelligence Language School, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Minidoka had the largest casualty list of the ten relocation centers; 73 Minidoka internees died in military service.

After Minidoka closed, the area was divided into small farms. From 1947-1949, 89 farms were allotted to WWII vets. Each Vet also received two barracks. Fields and canals developed by the internees are still in use today.

On January 17, 2001 President Clinton issued a proclamation establishing Minidoka Internment National Monument as the 385th unit of the National Park System. Today, it is Minidoka National Historic Site.