Highway 395 Part Two of Three Parts
Continuing on in Part two, we explore more of Highway 395 when we visit, Bishop, Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery, and the Manzanar National Historic Site.
Bishop
Like Lee Vining, most of Bishop is on the 395 Highway. Shops, restaurants, other various businesses are right there as you drive by. In all of the stories I have read about Bishop, people raved about their restaurants and their delicious bakeries. If I was hungry I would have definitely stopped for a bite, but this time it was for gas only.
Bishop is one of the larger towns on this lonely stretch of the 395 and sits at an elevation of 4,150 feet. Although the population is just under 4,000, in town and around Bishop there is a lot to do. It is a popular area for hiking with trails galore as well as areas for rock climbing. Other attractions include, Keough’s hot springs, a railroad museum, festivals, plus plenty of off-roading.
Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery
After four days of only catching one fish, we read about the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery and decided if we can’t catch em’, let’s go see em’!
Near the town of Independence, the hatchery is once again not far off from the highway. We drove up to an empty parking lot and saw only two other people that were heading for their car. That should have been our first clue as we found out that the hatchery was closed.
Even on this extremely hot day, we still got out to explore a little. There is a super tall European looking building right at the entrance and close by is a small pond with quiet seating areas along its edges.
We didn’t see any fish in the pond and since we couldn’t get in to the building, we don’t know where the fish are kept.
On research later, that building was actually built in 1916 and features hand-laid stones all around its perimeter.
Although we didn’t get to see this place in full, they do offer tours, fish feedings, a gift shop, displays, and restrooms. If you want to learn more or find out when they are open, visit: https://www.mtwhitneyfishhatchery.org/
In its prime, the hatchery produced over two million fish per year but just like our luck with fishing, we didn’t see any…maybe next time.
It was too bad we went on a day that they were closed but it was time to move on. Speaking of history, our next stop would be the Manazar National Historical Site. It will be a journey back to a dark place in our history.
Manzanar National Historic Site
On an earlier Staycation post, I wrote about the Japanese Fishing Village in Terminal Island, San Pedro. It was a story about Japanese residents who were displaced and sent to Internment camps after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
While driving south on Highway 395, we were surprised to see that there was a former internment camp, at the Manzanar National Historic Site.
One of the old guard towers stands today
The site is about 45 miles south of Bishop and has a huge visitor center with displays, exhibits, facts, and movies about the camp. Quite frankly you can spend a lot of time here as there was a lot to see and learn about in the center alone.
As it turns out the residents of that fishing village that I wrote about, came here along with 10,000 other Japanese U.S citizens. Soon after that fateful day at Pearl Harbor, they were thought to be spies or involved with Japan on the attack. Anti-Japanese sentiment rapidly surrounded the country. Soon, Executive Order 9066 was enacted which sent them all to these military type camps.
With only a few days notice, they had to sell their possessions before they were trucked to various isolated areas. There were ten internment camps in the U.S. and for some of the west coasters; Manzanar was created for them in the remote area of Owens Valley, California.
As the day wore on and the weather got progressively hotter, I was saddened on how they had to live here in such contrasting conditions. Summer temperatures were in the 100’s and in winter it could drop below zero. On this October day it was scorching hot. As I looked over the baseball field or the basket ball court, I couldn’t imagine doing anything but sitting in an air conditioned room…but they didn’t have that luxury.
After we spent time in the visitor center, they allowed you to drive around for a 3.2 mile self guided tour. You could also go by foot but we vetoed that and drove to every exhibit, only because of the heat, and a little bit of laziness.
Just a stone’s throw away from the visitor center sits two reconstructed barracks and a mess hall with exhibits. Hung on the walls were fact sheets about life in the camp.
The barracks and sleeping quarters
The inside of mess hall
An old photo of the lines waiting to get into the mess hall
The housing units encompassed about 500 acres and were at the time, surrounded by barbed wire and eight guard towers. Military police patrolled the area and were housed just outside of the fence.
On the tour, you can see the markers of where the other buildings once stood.
Signs show the rows and rows of barracks that were once here
There were 36 blocks that had 500 barracks and the conditions were crowded. The only furnishings supplied were an oil stove, blankets, cots with mattresses filled with straw, and one single light source.
A display in the visitor center shows the rows and rows of barracks and other buildings
The sleeping quarters
Some of the facts that we read on the wall told about life in the camps. As an example, the original buildings had big slits in them where sand would gush in and fill the rooms. I also gave a brief thought about how many bugs got in between those open areas. I am not a big fan of ugly or harmful bugs like tarantulas and scorpions, so that alone would have been hell for me.
I also had another unpleasant thought about the open latrine that we were also able to visit. Toilets were all in a row with no barrier or partition and not very private. Of course, the showers were the same.
Reading some of the information in the rooms, we discovered that the internees tried to make the best of a bad situation. Taken against their will and losing all of their possessions, despair would certainly be expected. These brave and resilient people established churches, temples, boys/girls clubs, baseball and basketball teams, plus other sports activities.
Under harsh weather conditions, no privacy, imprisoned behind fences, they persevered by creating gardens, ponds, music, and even a newspaper, The Manzanar Press. During the driving self tour, there are markings that told you where everything was at that time.
During camp life they became mess hall workers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, and teachers. Skilled workers were paid the most while non-skilled workers made a lesser wage.
There was a general store, beauty parlor, bank, barber shop, and other things to make life easier.
When the war turned to our favor, they were allowed to leave the camps. The last few hundred internees left in November 1945. Many had spent three and a half years at Manzanar.
This is a very historical exhibit on Highway 395. It is not the best part of our history but it is a time that many don’t want forgotten so that we never do something like this again.
I cried writing the story about how the Fishing Village residents in San Pedro were removed from the homes they loved. Now I see where they were taken and my heart goes out to them even more.
This is a must see if driving the 395.
Staycations California 