Before the Utah town of Hideout and the Jordanelle Reservoir existed, there was a community called Keetley Farm. The site, now underwater, was once home to Japanese Americans seeking safety during World War II.
The Topaz internment camp, used during World War II to incarcerate thousands of Japanese Americans, is a relatively well-known piece of Utah’s history.
Fewer Utahns know the story of Keetley Farm, created by a handful of families who fled from California’s Bay Area to Wasatch County to avoid being sent to a camp.
Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and U.S. military leaders ordered that all people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, must leave the West Coast.
At first, it wasn’t clear how quickly families had to evacuate. But in late March of 1942, the situation dramatically changed, as Tom Endo explained.
Read the full story at KPCW.org.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
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