Public Opinion Is Wanted On Efforts To Designate Camp Amache A National Park

GRENADA, Colo. (CBS4)- A former Japanese internment camp in southeastern Colorado could become a national park. The National Park Service is hosting a meeting to get input from the public.

Camp Amache is found near Grenada, in southeastern Colorado.

Over the last several weeks, lawmakers representing Colorado are pushing for a bill to make the camp's history more visible to the general public. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Reps. Ken Buck and Joe Neguse introduced the Amache National Historic Act to make sure the camp is more than a footnote in history.

Gov. Jared Polis sent a letter to the National Park Service to express his support for the designation.

About 7,500 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes in the 1940s, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens.

The Amache site was one of 10 illegal internment camps created during World War II.

The National Park Service is hosting virtual public meetings about a special study for the proposed designation. The next one is Thursday evening.

• Thursday, May 27, 2021
  6:00 pm to 8:00 pm MST / 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm PST
  Link: https://brown.zoom.us/j/95324800472
  By phone: (877) 853 5247, Meeting ID: 953 2480 0472