1935-1942
Civilian Conservation Corps
This camp was built and staffed by the CCC, an organization that was established during the Great Depression by President Franklin Roosevelt to reduce unemployment and to preserve the nation's natural resources.
CCC workers took on many local projects, including building new headquarters and a stone overlook for Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, reconstructing the Clear Lake Dam, and constructing canals, dikes, roads, and rock walls.
1943
Japanese Americans
For several months in 1943, over 100 "disloyal" Japanese Americas were separated from the interment center at Newell and were housed at Camp Tulelake.
Internees cleaned up the camp's buildings and grounds, installed new windows, and repaired electrical fixtures and plumbing.
During this time many Japanese Americans also worked at the Wildlife Refuge headquarters, maintaining the landscape and buildings.
1944-1945
Italian & German POWs
Several months after the Japanese Americans were moved from the buildings, the camp came to life again as housing for Italian and German prisoners of war.
The Tulelake Growers Association requested that POWs help local famers harvest crops, in order to offset the critical shortage of field labor during World War II.
In May of 1944, 150 Italian prisoners converted the camp into a full-blown POW camp that held up to 800 German prisoners between June 1944 and the end of the war.
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