Lava Beds Nat'l Monument and WW II Internment Camp

Sunday, August 10, 2013

Got up early this morning and drove down Highway 36 into California to visit the Lava Beds National Monument. It was about 50 miles, a nice day trip.

Before arriving at the Monument, we drove through the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge and stopped at the Visitor’s Center. Phil thought the GPS had gotten us lost, so he wanted to verify our directions. The Visitor’s Center was up on a hill overlooking Tule Lake and the wetlands that are home (temporary and permanent) to many types of birds and waterfowl.

We were not lost, so we continued on our way to the Monument. Long before we entered the park we were traveling through huge lava flows.

The Indians called this “The Land of Burnt-Out Fires,” and it covers over 46,000 acres on the northeast corner of Medicine Lake Volcano. There are more than 450 lava tube caves, the greatest concentration in North America. There is a road going through the park, but in order to see most of the tubes, you must hike. We are not hikers, but there is one tube that is close to the Visitor’s center, it is lit and has a concrete floor for safe walking.

The inside of the tube cave is interesting, but at one point we had to duck so low, going on hands and knees might have been easier.

Phil thinks it was about 150’ long, it ran downhill, then ended, so we had to retrace out steps.

It was a hot summer day, about 90 degrees outside of the tube, but inside it was a cool 60 degrees, felt really good!

After a little more investigation around the Visitor’s Center, we headed back into the town of Tule Lake to check out the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. A fancy name for Japanese Internment Camps, there were two here in this area; the Tule Lake Segregation Center, (which held 18,789 of the 120,000 men, women and children held in relocation centers throughout the U.S.) located in Newell, CA and Camp Tulelake, located just west of town. Camp Tulelake originated as a CCC camp in 1935 and was transformed into a Segregation Center in 1943. Due to the harsh conditions of the Center, strife and controversy arose. This led to the construction of a stockade, with a jail, and the implementation of martial law.  Not one of America’s finest moments!!  In 1944 it was converted into a prisoner of war camp. Remodeled by 150 Italian POW’s, it held 800 German POW’s to work in the Tulelake Basin helping local farmers harvest and tend to their fields.

The Visitor’s Center has on display a section of one of the buildings, the equivalent of a 2 bedroom apartment

and might have held 2-3 families. It’s no wonder there might have been discontent. Also on display was one of the guard towers,

as well as several farm implements from that era. It was very interesting.

Before heading home, we stopped in the only place we could find open for a quick bite to eat. It was a small dairy bar type of place, kind of like the one close to the Jr High I frequented after school when I was a kid.