Tule Lake Segregation Center

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Tule Lake Segregation Center is a historic district on the northeast side of California Highway 139 in Newell, Modoc County, listed in the National Register in 2006. Construction began in 1942, and the district is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A, C and D, with national-level significance in architecture, Asian ethnic heritage, politics and government, law, and social history. Its period of significance runs from 1942, when construction began, to 1946, when the segregation center closed.

Physical character

Many of the surviving buildings are wood frame, with board walls and roofs covered in tarpaper, raised wooden floors, and gabled ends with rectangular vents. The Stockade is a 250-by-350-foot enclosure with four guard towers, four barracks, a mess hall, a latrine, and a wooden board fence, with a jail just north of it. Reinforced concrete walls and guard tower foundations remain from a perimeter originally secured with barbed wire and chain link, and the district also retains an elevated 200,000-gallon water tank, two sewage treatment plants, and seven wells.

Historical context

In 1943 a truck transporting internees overturned and killed one internee, and the Stockade was built the following year, in 1944. The center closed in 1946, and California registered the site as State Historic Landmark No. 850-2 in 1975. A monument was erected beside State Highway 139 in 1979.