Construction of an exhibit to show off the old root cellar at Heart Mountain Internment Camp can continue toward completion after the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center received county approval for a special use permit to build a 6,000 square foot exhibit within the 12,000 square
foot cellar. 

The approval comes soon after the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation received a more-than $300,000 grant to assist in the creation of the new permanent exhibit. 

The massive root cellar was used to hold the produce grown on the camp’s farm by incarcerated farmers during World War II. 

When the almost 11,000 Japanese Americans were first incarcerated at Heart Mountain in 1942, they lacked water to irrigate their crops, and the prisoners were forced to eat substandard Army rations, according to a prior foundation release. When the incarcerees completed the irrigation channel to the camp site, they were able to grow enough food for the Heart Mountain population.

The foundation began restoring the root cellar almost a decade ago after a local homesteading family, the Jolovich family, donated the property.

Logan Christie, director of operations at Heart Mountain, said the exhibit will be only accessed as part of guided tours. There will be 18 parking spaces built to handle visitors to the exhibit, a short drive from the main museum. While that’s two less spaces than normally required for the SUP, planning and zoning staff said they’d recommend approval of the slightly smaller amount of spaces — the exhibit visitation will be controlled. 

“We don’t anticipate the traffic substantially increasing,” Christie said. 

Guided tours are expected to become available in early 2026 and the new exhibit will be installed by the end of 2027.