M&T Alpine-Tales: Manzanar and Movie Mountains Day

We met another Washington couple staying here at Boulder Creek RV Resort. The Fords invited us to go along with them to do some local sight-seeing today.

We visited Manzanar, the WWII internment camp for Japanese people living along the West Coast. This is one of several camps established after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by the signing of executive order 9066 by President Roosevelt in February 1942.
Thus began the dark and sad period for 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were born in the US, to be uprooted and relocated to different camps.
Manzanar, close to the town of Independence (which I find rather ironical) is one such camp.
When I read the book Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, a memoir about her family's experiences during their internment here, I particularly remember how she described the wind constantly blowing, and dealing with sandy and dusty conditions. The barracks buildings were hastily constructed and never weather-proofed or insulated, so the dust and also the freezing cold in the winter was a constant torment. Being here today, I could well imagine what conditions must have been like, particularly because we experienced very blustery days here too.

Originally, Manzanar, the Spanish word for apple orchard, was an agricultural settlement from about 1910 on. The farmers who settled here grew apples, pears, peaches, potatoes, and alfalfa sprouts. Meanwhile, around 1905, the Los Angeles Water Department began acquiring water rights in the valley (a continuing sore point for the locals), slowly buying up land rights to this area. In 1913, the LA Aqueduct was completed, but land buying continued so that by 1929 LA owned all of Manzanar's land and water rights. In 1942, the US Army leased 6,200 acres at Manzanar from Los Angeles to establish this center to hold 10,000 Japanese Americans, until the center closed in 1945.

Manzanar National Historic Site was established to preserve the history of the internees. We watched the documentary movie then visited the various exhibits. Afterwards, we took the car tour around the perimeter of the grounds. All that remains today are plaques marking where the various buildings once stood. One guard tower remains, a reminder that no matter what one calls Manzanar - in some literature, it is referred to as a relocation rather than an internment center - the truth of the matter is that these 10,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were given no more than a week to pack up and move, many losing their homes and businesses. They gathered at various collection centers before being transported under guard to this remote location surrounded by a barbed wire fence and patrolled by guards.
War is a cruel fact in our lives, and many, like these Japanese Americans, were caught in the crossfire through no fault of their own. I admire these internees for their industry and fortitude under adverse and often intolerable conditions imposed on them simply because of who they were. They made the best of of their difficult situation, maintaining as normal a life as possible. Manzanar was in effect a model settlement, with schools, an orphanage, hospital, community center, church, temple, gardens and orchards. However, I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like after their release, to have to return to civilian life, in the country that singled them out as being a potential enemy. Not all were fortunate to return to their homes and businesses, many encountered unfounded prejudice, and found life very difficult and challenging beyond the barbed wire fence.

one of the wooden barracks that housed the internees who shared space with little privacy

the grounds of the camp, with the Sierra Nevadas towering behind, yet one more
barrier hemming the internees in

the cemetery for 15 of the 150 people who died here - the rest were cremated

Our next stop was the Alabama Hills, which is where all those wonderful Westerns as well as many other movies, TV series, and ads were filmed. I didn't really know what to expect but actually seeing the rock formations in person was quite amazing. The gigantic boulders, and the strange shapes were fascinating and quite unexpected.

We drove along following a self-guided tour indicating the various film locations. No wonder Hollywood continues to use this incredible location provided by nature. From a geologist's perspective, this must surely also be an incredible find, suggesting the turmoil and massive seismic events that helped shaped this area.

As a matter of fact, in March 1872, Lone Pine experienced a violent earthquake, similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco quake. It destroyed the town and killed 26 people. It also resulted in a fault scarp 20 to 30 feet high and a depression that filled with water to become Diaz Lake. Lone Pine, it appears, has quite a rocky history;)

The photos below, while giving you an idea of what we saw, hardly do the landscape justice, which in reality is far more impressive in size and scope. During our travels we have seen a lot of massive rock formations and many here rival those.