The visitor center has on-site staff for the first time since the National Park Service began developing the location, Hanako Wakatsuki, chief interpreter for the Minidoka National Historic Site, told the Times-News. Now visitors can take guided tours or walk through the camp on their own.

The internment camp incarcerated 13,000 people of Japanese heritage between 1942 and 1945. Two-thirds of them were American citizens, and half of them were children. All were living in Oregon, Washington and Alaska when they were forced to live at the camp.

The temporary visitor center is at the Herrmann house, which was built by the family who homesteaded the property after the internment camp closed. A permanent visitor center is expected to be built in a warehouse building in a couple of years, and the National Park Service is also working to restore a barracks, mess hall and other buildings at the site. Full story.