Heart Mountain Site
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Heart Mountain press releases provide updates on upcoming events, new exhibits, and news from the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and Interpretive Center; for high-resolution archival and contemporary images, visit the Media Kit or contact info@heartmountain.org, and for news from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium (JACSC), click here—recent and past press releases are available below.
July 27, 2026
A longtime member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF) board and a leader in the Cody hospitality industry received awards at the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage over the weekend. Kathleen Saito Yuille, a board member who was born while incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II, received the Douglas W. Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award […]
July 20, 2026
Shigeo Yamada, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, will lead a list of special attendees and speakers for the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage from July 23-25. Almost 400 guests are registered for the Pilgrimage events that will run Thursday through Saturday at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Wynona Thompson Auditorium and the Cody Holiday Inn. […]
June 29, 2026
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF) and the University of Wyoming (UW) have signed a Cooperating Agency Agreement that will enable each institution to share resources and plan future collaborations. Under the agreement, UW will provide HMWF staff with professional development and undergraduate or graduate credit opportunities, such as credited courses and online workplace training, […]
June 26, 2026
Educator workshops about the Japanese American incarceration at the Mineta-Simpson Institute attracted teachers from around the country who learned how to teach the subject through primary sources, detailed accounts and historic artifacts. From June 14-19, 30 teachers participated in the first Maurice Walk Memorial Workshops sponsored by the Walk family foundations, and on June 22 […]
June 19, 2026
The fate of modern dance pioneer Michio Ito, who was sent to Japan on the exchange ship Gripsholm in 1943, is the subject of a new article in the upcoming edition of Kokoro Kara, the magazine of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Written by Shirley Ann Higuchi and Ray Locker, “The Framing of Michio Ito” shows how Ito […]
June 8, 2026
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation has received a $96,129 planning grant from Serve Wyoming to develop its “Kids Cultivate” program to educate children about agriculture and train future docents for the interpretive center and other buildings on the site. “Kids Cultivate” will be a three-day summer learning experience for entering 4th graders. The program will be offered multiple […]
May 20, 2026
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has given two grants worth $11,636 to the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation to restore the historic honor roll containing the names of incarcerated Japanese Americans who served in the military during World War II. Heart Mountain’s Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin accepted partial payment at the state conference […]
May 11, 2026
The Patriotism of Protest: Draft Resistance in Confinement, an exhibit featuring the history of draft resistance at Heart Mountain, will open Sunday, May 17, at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. Sixty-three resisters were tried together in June 1944 in the largest mass trial in Wyoming history. Another group was prosecuted and convicted in early 1945. The […]
May 1, 2026
Members of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium (JACSC) are grateful for the National Park Service’s release this week of funding opportunity notices for two critical programs. Congress had approved spending $4.655 million for the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) and Japanese American Confinement Education (JACE) programs for the 2026 fiscal year, but the terms […]
April 23, 2026
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation thanks Wyoming’s congressional delegation, Interior Department officials and others for their work to expedite the transfer of the property where the site’s historic hospital buildings are located to the foundation from the federal government. Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin, Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi, Vice Chair Doug Nelson and Ray […]
April 10, 2026
The first public event and educator workshop supported by a National Park Service grant will be conducted in September in Missoula, Montana, leaders of five Japanese American confinement site organizations determined during their inaugural meeting April 4-6. Exiled to the Rockies brings together the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF) with the Amache Alliance of Colorado, Friends […]
April 6, 2026
The Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) program of the National Park Service has had overwhelming bipartisan support since its creation 20 years ago. The program has developed the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and institutions throughout the country. That’s why we are concerned about the administration’s failure to include funding for JACS in the budget proposal […]
