Geology students at Iowa State were housed in a barracks once used to incarcerate Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain in Wyoming during World War II, reports the Iowa State Daily.
The barracks are now located west of Big Mountains in Wyoming and were leased from the city of Greybull, Wyoming for $1 a year. These particular barracks became part of the geology field camp where the Iowa State students stayed as part of their field studies.
Other barracks from Heart Mountain were simply given away.
“Many of them were given to returning veterans and they used them as outhouses on their farms,” said Carl Vondra, a geology professor.
Outhouses? Apparently many of the buildings were in bad shape and were considered unlivable without significant repair.
You can learn more about use of the barracks and why the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation received an award for its work with the buildings in the Iowa State Daily.
