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Address Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, US-12, Kooskia, ID 83539, USA | ||
Kooskia internment camp field school 2013
The Kooskia Internment Camp (/ˈkuːskiː/ KOO-skee) is a former internment camp in the northwest United States, located in north central Idaho, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Kooskia in northern Idaho County. It operated during the final two years of World War II.
Originally a remote highway work camp (F-38) of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, it became Federal Prison Camp No. 11 in 1935, run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It was converted in 1943 to house interned Japanese men, most of whom were longtime U.S. residents, but not citizens, branded "enemy aliens." So remote was the camp in the western Bitterroot Mountains, fences and guard towers were unnecessary. It was run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice.
A current archaeological project of the University of Idaho in Moscow, the site is 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Lowell on U.S. 12, on the north bank of the Lochsa River at an approximate elevation of 1,600 feet (490 m) above sea level. The two-lane federal highway was completed in 1962, connecting to Montana at Lolo Pass at 5,233 feet (1,595 m) and eastward to Missoula.