Peek in the Park: New Wayside Exhibit
By Emily Teraoka, Park Ranger, Minidoka National Historic Site
This August, NPS staff installed 25 outdoor wayside exhibits along the park's walking trail. These waysides are updates of the originals created in 2011, which provide interpretation about camp life and historic structures throughout the park. Changes to the waysides include a new graphic design, updated terminology (i.e. using "incarceration" instead of "internment"), and newly digitized historic photos.
The historic photos are the product of a 2018 Friends of Minidoka project. Working in partnership with Densho, FOM digitized nearly 1,000 photos from the National Archives that illustrate the community built by Minidoka incarcerees. This sense of community largely influenced changes to the text as well. Since many of the original waysides focused on the facts and figures of the camp's operation, NPS staff sought to bring Japanese Americans' personal experiences to the forefront by referencing historic journals and survivors' testimonies.
The new waysides are accessible from the park's 1.6-mile walking trail, which is open daily from sunrise to sunset.
