<Begin Segment 18>

JS: Do you remember going camping while you were in camp?

DM: Yes, we went on a field trip to Mesa Verde National Park, which is, Colorado, we were on the southern, east coast. Mesa Verde was the southern, west coast. Almost to the water, we went on our trip. And that was the most interesting field trip I ever been to. It's called the Mesa... you know where the Indian had a cave (built on the side of the cliff), inside of the cave and on top of the cave they had a little... it's like a village, you know, the whole town people was living in that cave. Because other Indian group comes and attacks them. And they used to grow stuff underneath, and at night, they'd go put [inaudible] and go into the cave. And it's on top of the hill, and then there's a little cave underneath, and there's quite a big drop. And that's where the whole town used to live in there. That's a very nice... I still want to go back to see that again, it's called Mesa Verde National Park.

JS: And so you camped right there? The Boy Scouts went there and you stayed overnight?

DM: Not there. We'd just go there to see.

JS: To see that.

DM: Yeah. But we stayed in one of the worn out barracks, 'cause they want us to clear the barracks down, and that's what we went for. They're tearing the barracks down. And in the spare time, they took us to that Mesa Verde National Park. But the interesting part was from the top, you could go in there, like a tunnel, and they had a big rock, roll, and he rolls like that and then put a block on it so people can come in. It's amazing the way they -- I still want to go see that place again.

TI: It reminds me almost like a castle or a fort in terms of how they...

DM: Yeah, I don't know how many people were staying there, but they said the whole village, they were staying there, nighttime. 'Cause the other people would attack them.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.