Colorado State Digital Archives

I know... this is WAY off topic here (even more than usual)... but I had to do some research at work and stumbled upon the Colorado State Digital Archives.   Now I have been to the actual archives but it isn't quite like the archives of DC fame -  it isn't really a place where you can go view the actual returned check for the purchase of Alaska or Monica Lewinsky's dress.    It is just a collection of offices and they aren't really displaying anything - it is a place you can go to look up old court records, death records or real estate plats.  That being said I never knew they had an electronic archive so as you might expect I have been obsessed with this archive for about two weeks... god I love the internet.
 
 D-Day Radio Broadcasts can be played here

Digital Colorado Postcard Collection, here

Funny the only mention of the Sand Creek Massacre is in John Evan's "Summary of Governor's Term"

Did you all know that there was once a Japanese Internment Camp in Colorado... I didn't....

Aerial Photo of Granada Center from the Water Tower - Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado. Photo by Joe McClelland , 6/20/1943

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war against Japan many Americans believed that the Japanese-Americans were spies or traitors. In fact, very few Japanese-Americans were disloyal but the hysteria revolving around the war led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War to set up military areas where Japanese-Americans from the West Coast would be sent until their loyalty was proven and they could work and live outside the camps.

Evacuees were first sent to assembly centers in California, Arizona, Washington and Oregon. People with as little as 1/16 Japanese blood could be sent to these centers. The Japanese-Americans had as little as 6 days notification to dispose of most of their property and possessions before they were transported.  Many were forced to sell property at well under market value while assets of the Japanese immigrants (the Issei) were frozen leaving them with few possessions or savings.  

The federal government then transferred these internees further in-land to such camps as one near Granada, Colorado. It was located 140 miles east of Pueblo in southeastern Colorado. Since the postal designation for the camp was “Amache” it was called both “Granada” and “Amache”. It was in operation by August of 1942 and officially closed October 15, 1945. At its maximum population it held 7,318 people.  

Here is a link to the Colorado State Archives that document the interment camp.    They called it a "recreation center" in the government documents... there are great letters included in this collection documenting the Colorado Governor Ralph Carr's disapproval of the camps and the war hysteria...