Trip ideas while visiting Cody in Wyoming
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is a National Historic Landmark and museum located between Cody and Powell, Wyoming, at the base of the striking Heart Mountain peak. The center tells the story of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, one of ten camps where approximately 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. This remarkable museum preserves the memory of those who were held here and explores the enduring themes of civil liberties, discrimination, and resilience that continue to resonate in American life.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center opened in August 1942 and operated until November 1945, imprisoning over 14,000 people of Japanese ancestry at its peak population. The camp became the third-largest community in Wyoming during its operation, complete with a hospital, schools, churches, and a newspaper.
The confinement conditions at Heart Mountain were extraordinarily harsh. Families lived in tarpaper barracks with no insulation, enduring Wyoming winters where temperatures routinely dropped to 30 degrees below zero. Each barrack housed multiple families in single-room units with a pot-bellied stove for heat, and residents faced dust storms, inadequate medical care, and overcrowded living spaces. Despite these conditions, the incarcerees built a functioning community with gardens, baseball teams, scouting programs, and cultural organizations that demonstrated remarkable human resilience under extreme duress.
The Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee emerged as one of the most significant acts of civil resistance within the camps. In 1944, a group of young Japanese American men who had been drafted into military service organized a draft resistance movement, arguing that they should not be forced to serve a country that had imprisoned their families. Sixty-three resisters were convicted in the largest draft resistance trial in American history, and their story speaks powerfully to the profound moral contradictions of the incarceration.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation was established in 1996 by former incarcerees, their descendants, and local community members with a mission to preserve this history. The Interpretive Center opened to the public in August 2011, built on the actual site of the original camp. The museum was designed by architect Douglas Nelson to evoke the barracks form while providing a modern, contemplative space for learning and reflection. The center has since become one of the most respected sites of conscience in the American West.
The museum grounds include original camp-era structures that have been restored and relocated to the site. A barrack from block 18 was moved back to the grounds and rehabilitated to show visitors the actual living conditions faced by Japanese American families. A guard tower reconstructed from historical photographs stands as a stark reminder of the surveillance and confinement that defined daily life behind barbed wire. These physical artifacts connect visitors directly to the lived experience of those who were held against their will.
Visitors begin their experience in the main exhibition gallery, which presents a comprehensive narrative of the incarceration through photographs, artifacts, oral histories, and interactive displays. The exhibits trace the full arc of the confinement story, from the prewar lives of Japanese American communities on the West Coast through the evacuation, incarceration, resistance, and eventual release and healing. The museum challenges visitors to consider how fear and prejudice can undermine the constitutional protections that define American democracy.
A self-guided walking tour allows visitors to explore the camp footprint and see what remains of the original relocation center. Interpretive panels placed throughout the grounds mark the locations of barracks, mess halls, latrines, and the camp hospital, helping visitors visualize the scale and layout of this temporary city. The tour route includes views of Heart Mountain itself, the iconic peak that dominated the horizon and gave the camp its name, providing a dramatic natural backdrop throughout the visit.
The barrack exhibit offers an immersive experience that conveys the harsh realities of camp life. Visitors can enter a restored original barrack and see the sparse furnishings, the pot-bellied stove, and the minimal personal space that defined daily existence. The cramped quarters powerfully illustrate how families managed to maintain dignity and community bonds under conditions designed to strip away both.
The honor roll and memorial pays tribute to Japanese American soldiers who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, the most decorated units for their size and length of service in American military history. Many of these soldiers volunteered for service directly from Heart Mountain while their families remained imprisoned. Their extraordinary patriotism and courage in the face of their country’s betrayal is one of the most moving and complex aspects of the incarceration story.
The center offers guided tours led by trained docents who provide deeper insight into the stories of individuals and families who lived at Heart Mountain. Docents share personal narratives and historical context that bring the exhibits to life, answering questions and facilitating meaningful discussions about the camp experience and its contemporary relevance to civil rights, immigration, and national security in American society today.
Original camp artifacts on display include suitcases, clothing, hand-carved furniture, artwork, and everyday items that incarcerees brought with them or created during their confinement. The museum’s collection features crafts made from scrap materials, camp newspapers, and personal letters that document the full range of human experience within the camp. These objects serve as tangible witnesses to the creativity and determination of people who refused to be defined solely by their imprisonment.
The photography collection preserves an extraordinary visual record of camp life through images taken by both official War Relocation Authority photographers and incarcerees who managed to secretly document their experience. The photographs capture daily routines in the barracks, children attending camp schools, families gathered for meals, and community events including baseball games, dances, and religious services. These images humanize statistics with individual faces and stories that visitors carry with them long after leaving the site.
The award-winning documentary film shown in the center’s theater introduces visitors to the history of Heart Mountain through the voices of those who lived it. The film combines archival footage, interviews with survivors, and historical narration to provide an emotional and informative overview of the incarceration experience. Many visitors find the film an essential starting point for understanding the full weight of what happened at this remote Wyoming site.
The grounds surrounding the interpretive center offer walking trails through the high desert landscape of the Bighorn Basin, with interpretive signage linking the natural environment to the camp experience. The trails provide opportunities to observe sagebrush steppe ecology, native grasses, and wildlife including pronghorn antelope and mule deer that roam the area. The wide-open spaces and big skies of the Wyoming basin create a stunning natural context for the memorial site.
The Heart Mountain Nature Conservancy manages a separate trail system that ascends the slopes of the mountain itself, offering the opportunity for a more challenging hike to the summit after visiting the interpretive center. The Heart Mountain summit trail is a strenuous route that rewards hikers with panoramic views across the Bighorn Basin, the Absaroka Range, and the Beartooth Mountains. This iconic peak visible from every corner of the relocation center adds a powerful dimension to any outdoor experience in the area.
Educational programs at the center serve students, teachers, and adult learners through workshops, curriculum materials, and special presentations. The foundation’s education team works with school districts across Wyoming and the nation to ensure that this history reaches classrooms, fulfilling the center’s mission of using the past to teach lessons that remain urgently relevant today. Programs include virtual field trips for schools unable to make the journey to the remote Wyoming site.
The interpretive center hosts the annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, which brings together hundreds of former incarcerees, their families, and supporters from across the nation. This gathering features panel discussions, cultural performances, interfaith services, and guided tours led by those with direct connections to the camp’s history. The pilgrimage has become an essential tradition for preserving memory, fostering reconciliation, and ensuring that younger generations understand this painful chapter of American history.
The Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, administered by the National Park Service, has provided significant funding for the preservation and interpretation of the Heart Mountain site. This federal program was established by Congress in 2006 to support the preservation of sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. Heart Mountain has received multiple grants that enabled the restoration of historic structures, development of educational programs, and creation of exhibits for visitors from around the world.
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in downtown Cody houses five world-class museums exploring western art, natural history, firearms, Plains Indian cultures, and the life of Buffalo Bill Cody. Visitors to Heart Mountain can combine their visit with this premier museum complex for a full day of cultural and historical exploration. The contrast between the frontier mythology celebrated in Cody and the civil rights history preserved at Heart Mountain creates a uniquely complete portrait of the American West.
Old Trail Town preserves an authentic collection of frontier buildings relocated to Cody from historic sites across Wyoming and Montana, including cabins used by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This attraction offers a vivid counterpoint to the Heart Mountain experience, representing the era of western settlement that preceded the World War II period by several generations. Together, these attractions tell the layered history of the Bighorn Basin.
The Buffalo Bill Dam and Visitor Center, located six miles west of Cody on the Shoshone River, was once the tallest dam in the world. Completed in 1910 as part of the federal irrigation project that made settlement of the Bighorn Basin possible, the dam offers exhibits on the engineering history of the region. The dam represents the same era of federal investment that, decades later, would bring the relocation center to the very landscape the dam helped create.
The Cody Nite Rodeo runs nightly from June through August at Stampede Park, offering visitors a quintessentially western experience after their day exploring area museums and historical sites. The rodeo has operated continuously since 1938 and features bull riding, barrel racing, and bronc riding under the Wyoming night sky. This celebration of western culture enriches any visit to the Cody area with genuine small-town rodeo atmosphere.
The Memorial Walk is a contemplative path that winds through the sagebrush landscape, featuring stone markers and interpretive elements honoring those who were incarcerated at Heart Mountain. The walk provides space for quiet reflection while offering sweeping views of the Bighorn Basin and the surrounding mountains that framed the camp. The stark beauty of the high desert landscape creates a powerful contrast with the human suffering that occurred here.
Summer from June through August is the peak season for visiting the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, with the longest operating hours and the full schedule of special programs and guided tours. Wyoming summer days are warm and sunny, with temperatures typically in the 70s and 80s, providing ideal conditions for both indoor exhibits and outdoor exploration of the camp grounds. The annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage takes place in late July, bringing former incarcerees and their families together for a profoundly moving weekend of remembrance and community.
Spring from April through May offers quieter visitation and the beauty of the high desert greening up after winter dormancy. Temperatures range from the 40s to 60s, and visitors may encounter spring wildflowers including prairie phlox, yellow bells, and biscuitroot across the sagebrush landscape. This season provides a more contemplative experience with fewer crowds, though Wyoming spring weather can change rapidly on short notice.
Fall from September through October brings crisp, cool weather and spectacular landscape colors as the cottonwoods along the Shoshone River turn golden yellow. September temperatures typically hold in the 50s and 60s, making this the most comfortable season for walking the camp grounds and exploring outdoor exhibits at a relaxed pace. The autumn light across the Bighorn Basin creates especially beautiful conditions for photography of the interpretive center and the dramatic Heart Mountain silhouette.
Winter from November through March offers a solitary and powerful experience for visitors willing to brave Wyoming cold, with snow covering the camp grounds and the mountain in a quiet blanket that deepens the reflective atmosphere. The interpretive center operates on reduced winter hours, typically open from Wednesday through Saturday, and visitors should check the schedule in advance. Winter temperatures frequently drop well below freezing, requiring serious cold-weather gear, but the stark contrast between the tranquil winter landscape and the difficult camp history creates a deeply meaningful visit for those who make the journey during the quiet season.