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REM: And what did you think of Minidoka, first impression when you saw it?

RTM: Well, the thing is, I mean, that's the first time I ever left the state of Washington was to get on a train to go to Minidoka. And the thing was that we stopped at Eden Station where, just a little outside of where Minidoka camp was. And the train stops out there in the middle of nowhere, and then they say, they, "Well, this is where you people get off." And you get out there and look around, there's nothing but sand and sagebrush there. And the only thing that was there that was of any luxury was these tour buses from Sun Valley, Idaho.

REM: Luxury tour buses?

RTM: Well...

REM: They, they were going to transport you in the Sun Valley Resort Company's buses?

RTM: Buses from there, from the station to the camp itself. That was quite an experience. Minidoka was carved out of sand and sagebrush there. The sagebrush grew about eight, ten feet high, so the soil there was very rich. Anyway, when you scraped the top off of that, take all the vegetation off, there's nothing there but sand. And every time the wind blew, there was a sandstorm and you could hardly see. It was...

REM: You weren't in camp long before you volunteered to go to work.

RTM: Well, soon after we got into camp and settled down little bit, I mean, there was a call for some farm release workers to go out and harvest spuds and sugar beets in the area. And so the first opportunity that came along, a group of us got together and decided that we would like to go to the harvest. And we went to a place called Aberdeen, Idaho. And because we have an Aberdeen, Washington, you know that kind of give us a connection with home, actually. So we went out there. Must have been first part of October that we went for the harvest. And we stayed there through Christmas, and we came back in the camp after Christmas.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.