TITLE: Edison: The Vanishing Act of Wyoming’s Third Largest City
Biography: Carter was born and raised in Cody, Wyoming. Family connections to the Heart Mountain site have led him to volunteer or work intermittently at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center since 2012. After attending Northwest College in Powell, and California State University, Long Beach, Carter graduated with distinction from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 2020. After practicing civil law briefly back in Wyoming, Carter became a PhD candidate in Rhetoric & Political Communication at the University of Kansas in 2022. His primary research interest is in the rhetoric of national identity during the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and afterwards. Since 2023, Carter has been the Community Projects Specialist for the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. He is helping develop relationships between the Foundation, its neighbors, and the local community.
Presentation Summary: This presentation will discuss the history of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center site from after World War II ended in 1945 until the Interpretive Center opened in 2011. Key periods in this history include the incarceration site’s transformation into postwar housing for local laborers, its dismantling and subdivision through a national homesteading scheme, and the eventual development of memorials and a museum. We will also explore what happened to the 468 Heart Mountain barracks after they left the incarceration site and how they still impact the local landscape today.
This project is funded in part by the Wyoming Semiquincentennial grant from the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources office.
