Climbing the Chimney

Today was AWESOME!!! I got to go to the top of the chimney during work today!

Here's the backstory:

When WWII was over, the internment camp was disbanded. The barracks buildings were sold to homesteaders for $1. The area of camp where the Japanese lived has since been turned into farmland, and there are very few traces that the camp was ever there. A small portion of the camp was left where the camp administration was....and a couple of buildings, including part of the hospital complex are still standing. The boiler room section of the hospital is still standing and it has a large chimney attached to it. Back in the 80's this land was transferred over to the Bureau of Land Management, who still owns it. Down below this area is where the museum is located. The museum sits on land that was part of the camp, but is down at the bottom of an embankment. I guess a better way to describe it is that the barracks buildings where the Japanese lived was up on a terrace-like landform.

Anyway, over the years, the chimney has started leaning further and further, so it now looks similar to the leaning tower in Pisa. The Park Service has provided a grant to stabilize the chimney so that it doesn't lean any further.

Today I got to climb up the scaffolding to the top, which is about 75 feet high. It was so cool!

 

You can really see what a difference irrigation makes! The area in these 2 pictures is where the barracks buildings and main part of camp were. The 2 buildings in the corner were part of the hospital complex. That is Heart Mountain in the background.

 

One girl always wondered why it was called Heart Mountain. After the war she finally saw a picture of it from the Cody side, where it has more of a heart shape. She was in camp here and only ever saw it from this angle.

 

Irrigation vs. No Irrigation

 

That is the museum down there. You can see the edge of the plateau which drops down a fairly steep cliff to main level below. The main highway is past those trees on the other side of the museum. The musuem was built to look like the barracks buildings. Pretty neat!

 

 

I didn't get to stay up there very long...they were getting ready to do something with new concrete or something so I didn't get to stay but a few minutes. They told me to come back when they aren't so busy so hopefully i'll get some more pictures from up there.

 

In other news, Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad! Can't wait to see you in a few weeks!