Professor’s work at internment camp rewarded as Amache designated a National Historic Site

Amache, a World War II internment camp that incarcerated over 10,000 Americans of Japanese descent, has been designated a National Historic Site within the National Park Service. 

President Joe Biden signed the Amache National Historic Site Act into law in March, thanks in large part to the work of DU’s own Bonnie Clark. This move means greater protections for the historically important site and the resources needed to maintain Amache. 

Clark, a professor of anthropology, began researching Amache just before the site received state-protected status as a historic landmark in 2005. At the time, the camp remained in its postwar state of de-constructed housing and living facilities. In the years since then, Clark and her team of archaeologists, many of them students, have discovered much more lying just below the surface.

Amache is one of several internment camps in the U.S., which Clark calls “a reminder of what happens when a nation forgets its values.” Torn from their homes and livelihoods, Japanese Americans along the West Coast were forcibly moved to and kept at these relocation camps.

Over the years, Clark’s work at Amache revealed that it contained a productive, beautiful garden community created from the minimal resources then at hand. These are the subject of her recent book, “Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Amache” (University Press of Colorado, 2020).

Clark’s fascination with Amache’s gardens was rewarded over the summer, when a rose bush planted by an Amache resident experienced its first bloom in nearly 80 years. Up until the bloom, there was no way of knowing what color the buds, a vibrant pink, would be.

More news

DU’s dedication to the public good offers personal inspiration

One of the things that drew me to the University of Denver was what I saw as a real focus on real...

At DU, research shapes every dimension of the student experience

For me, research has always been an essential part of higher education. After all, it represents a critical component of what it...

Inaugural Denver Dialogues event models civil discourse 

The Josef Korbel School of International Studies and the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy convened the first Denver Dialogues event on Oct....

New program to train leaders for the outdoor recreation industry

The University of Denver has partnered with the Denver-based VF Foundation to create the interdisciplinary Leadership in Outdoor Recreation Industry (LORI) program,...

Celebrating 40 years of work with neurodiverse students

In 1982, in response to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, two faculty members and seven students founded the University of...

Questions? Comments?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

More stories

DU’s dedication to the public good offers personal inspiration

One of the things that drew me to the University of Denver was what I saw as a real focus on real...

At DU, research shapes every dimension of the student experience

For me, research has always been an essential part of higher education. After all, it represents a critical component of what it...

Inaugural Denver Dialogues event models civil discourse 

The Josef Korbel School of International Studies and the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy convened the first Denver Dialogues event on Oct....