The National Park Service awarded the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation a $851,826 grant to continue restoring a root cellar built by Japanese-American incarcerees to store produce they grew during World War II.
Cally Steussy is the Director of Interpretation and Preservation with the nonprofit that operates a museum and interpretive center at the former confinement site near Cody.
Steussy said last summer a ramp leading up to the cellar was installed. The grant funding will help stabilize the interior of the 300 foot long structure, eventually allowing the installation of an emergency exit.
“Then the cellar is going to be safe enough for us to start talking about actually, regularly, bringing people down there to actually see because up until now, it wasn’t safe to take people down there; there wasn’t enough space,” she said.
In the future, the nonprofit plans to give tours inside the cellar and install exhibits that share the history of the food program that fed nearly 14,000 people formerly incarcerated at Heart Mountain between 1942 and 1945.
