Last updated: June 24, 2023
Place
Camp Tulelake
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Hill Rd, Tulelake, CA 96134
Significance:
Civilian Conservation Corps camp, WWII Confinement, POW camp
Designation:
Tule Lake Site
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Amenities
4 listed
Cellular Signal, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board
The Camp was first built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935, but later housed Japanese Americans in 1943 then German Prisoners of War from 1944 - 1946. It is located on Hill Road approximately two miles north of the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.
The site is currently closed to the public and can only be viewed from outside of the monument. Visitors are welcome to take pictures of the buildings and view the road side exhibits from outside the fence.
Rangers are staffed between Memorial Day and Labor day at the visitor center. The visitor center is located 8 miles south of Tulelake CA along Hwy 139 at 44340 Hwy 139. Tulelake, CA 96134. We are the only driveway off the hwy between County Rd 113 & 176.
Camp Tule Lake History
Camp Tulelake was constructed in 1935 to house Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) enrollees. Of the many CCC camps in the local area, Tulelake is the only one still standing.Construction of the 23-building camp began in June by an advance group composed of civilian crews, a foreman, carpenters, and plumbers. The four remaining buildings include: a barracks, the kitchen/mess hall, the garage/storage/shop, and the paint shop.
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt to provide six months to two years employment and vocational training for young men ages 17-28. CCC enrollees were paid $30 a month, $25 of which was sent home or put into a savings account. The CCC program lasted more than nine years and enrolled a grand total of more than 2.5 million men.Enrollees at Camp Tulelake constructed a duck hospital, an administrative headquarters, the supervisor’s residences, and a lookout cabin on the bluff behind the Refuge Visitor Center. Mexican American stone masons constructed over 300 feet of rock wall around the Refuge Headquarters.
Camp Tulelake and the Klamath Reclamation Project
Together Camp Tulelake and Camp Klamath played a large role in the expansion of available land for the Klamath Reclamation Project. They built water control structures of timber and concrete, dug ditches, repaired ten breaks in the canal banks, and increased the Clear Lake reservoir's capacity by about 60,000 acre-feet.As enrollees left the camp to join the war effort the camp was closed during the summer of 1942.
Japanese Americans
Camp Tulelake became a makeshift jail when over 100 men from Tule Lake Relocation Center refused to complete the loyalty questionnaire. The men were first sent to county jails, but a judge determined that they had not broken any laws. The WRA, fearing others would follow the protesters’ example, then confined the men at isolated Camp Tulelake. It was several months before they returned to the reloaction center.
While there, incarcerees completed $2,500 in repairs to the buildings, including installing new stove pipes, repairing the sewer systems, and repairing or replacing doors and electrical fixtures.
After the Tule Lake War Relocation Center was converted into the Segregation Center, farm workers went on strike when a young farm truck driver was killed in a car accident. They demanded better working conditions, and that the food they grew would stay in Tule Lake—which was experiencing food shortages—rather than be shipped to other centers.To break the strike, 243 Japanese American workers were brought from other war relocation centers to bring in the harvest. They were eager to help with the farms’ harvest, especially when offered $1.00 an hour instead of the usual WRA rate of $12.00 a month. Housed in Camp Tulelake, the men never learned that the Tulean farmworkers had gone on strike over unsafe working conditions. The strike failed, and after a few months, the men returned to the other incarceration centers.
Italian and German Prisoners of War
With so many local men and women participating in World War II, the town of Tulelake did not have enough hands to bring in the harvest, so the Tulelake Growers Association petitioned the US Government for help.The federal government replied by sending 150 Italian Prisoners of War in May 1944. The Italian POWs converted the area to accommodate the German prisoners that would start arriving from Camp White (near Medford, Oregon) in June.The Italian POWs lived in tents in the town of Tulelake while they set up fences, barbed wire, latrines, water lines, guard towers, and search lights around the camp.At its peak in October 1944, the camp housed 800 German POWs who helped plant, tend, and harvest onion and potato crops. Without their help and hard work, local crops would not have been harvested before the harsh winter set in.POW’s lived and worked in the area until the camp was closed in 1946. Some even applied for the lottery of local homesteads, but none were drawn.
After the Camp Was Closed
In 1946 the Army transferred the camp back to the Fish and Wildlife Service. At this time three of the barracks were moved to the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge for staff quarters. One section of a building was converted into a muskrat skinning shed. This shed was converted into a covered lumber drying shed in 1963.During the 1950’s many of the buildings were used for storage, and the mess hall was converted into temporary housing.
Pacific Region Sign Shop
Located inside the north end of the remaining barrack, the Regional Sign Shop produced signs for all wildlife refuges in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Hawaii. Sign production started in May 1960 and continued until it closed in December 1974. During its operation the sign shop produced over 6,000 wood, metal, and colored signs.
Restoration Projects
Starting in 2006, the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge Association (KBWRA) received a “Preserve America” grant to begin stabilizing one portion of the barrack. With the help of local volunteers donating over 800 hours the KBWRA was able to re-level approximately 4,000 square feet of the floor, and replaced the deteriorated wood shingle roof with a temporary protective sheet metal roof.In an effort to restore the building to its original look, four windows were reinstalled to their original locations, a stone fire chimney was removed, and non-original interior walls were removed.
Restoration work is ongoing.