On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which gave permission for the War Department to relocate Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the western United States to concentration camps. In March 1942, with the aid of US Census data and military support, the newly minted War Relocation Authority (WRA) forcibly moved more than 100,000 people into hastily conceived “evacuation” camps.

In Arizona, the hurriedly constructed Poston and Gila River Centers emerged: the Poston camp near the town of Poston in the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and Gila River camps south of Phoenix in the Gila River Indian Community. Built on Native American reservations, without the approval of Tribal Governments, the Gila River camps took only a few months to construct. Although the Gila River Indian Tribal Council rejected the Federal Government’s proposed lease twice, it narrowly approved the contract and the occupation of the land by the WRA camps. The lease agreement indicated that in lieu of payment, the WRA agreed to cultivate 8,500 acres of tribal land--a commitment the WRA never completed. The camps at Gila River came to be known as the Rivers Camps--named after Jim Rivers, the first Akimel O'otham killed in the First World War.

Canal Camp opened in May of 1942. Several hundred uniformly constructed tile roofed wood structures were to be the homes, offices, and entertainment spaces for approximately 14,000 people over the course of the next three years.

No insulation or air cooling units were provided to the majority of the structures, along with rudimentary furnishings. The barracks buildings were 20 x 100 square feet, with each building separated into four apartment rooms, each room large enough to house 3 to 4 people as a family unit.

As the smaller of the two Rivers camps, Canal was only intended to house 5,000 people. As soon as the camp was complete, approximately 6,700 internees were transported by train from the Turlock Assembly Center near San Francisco to the town of Casa Grande. The train cars available were old and frequently had no air conditioning or other comforts. Internees were then crowded into old buses and trucks for the 16-mile trip from the train station to Canal Camp. With only a few vehicles available, multiple round trips had to be made from train to camp, leaving those on the trains under armed military guard during the heat of the day to wait for the last leg of their journey.

Conditions were miserable. Water, gas, and electricity shortages plagued Canal Camp throughout the summer. Dust storms and monsoons were common through the hottest months and the overcrowded population struggled to adapt. Summer daytime temperatures soared, regularly exceeding 100 Fahrenheit through the months of July and August.

With little relief from the scorching heat, some internees dug out cellars under their barracks while others collected scrap materials and built rudimentary evaporative “swamp” coolers they installed onto the buildings. Ice water was supplied from the mess halls through a spigot sticking out of the wall. Ice was in short supply, so mess hall workers would put ice blocks inside the drinking water tank allowing a supply of cool drinking water without risk of the ice being stolen.

Many of the internees were farmers from California. While unfamiliar with the climate and soil of the Arizona desert, they worked with local farmers and learned to grow vegetables. With plenty of open land and access to the Gila River water from a nearby canal (for which the Canal camp is named), a successful agricultural program developed. By mid-1943 local newspapers reported that Rivers camps produced about $1 million worth of food, the majority of which supplied fresh produce to camps throughout the US. As a result of the camp’s farming success, a drying plant was created to preserve excess produce and was added to the list of camp-based industries.

Over the first year, the Rivers camps were praised repeatedly in local papers for their successful industries. The US Navy praised a small plant of 50 men at the camps for their efficient model ship manufacturing plant. Turning out around 100 ships per month, the models were used by the military in training exercises.

Over time, conditions in the camps improved, largely through the coordination and efforts of the internees themselves. With the relative freedom to self-govern inside the camp, block councils were developed to focus on day-to-day issues. A leadership council consisting of one representative from each block also convened for the purpose of working with the administration. Also, administrators of the camp hired internees to organize recreational activities. A library and school provided limited educational opportunities and a movie theater and a baseball diamond provided entertainment and recreation. The community planned festivals and events; they organized church services, theater groups, scout troops, and women’s clubs. Such activities fostered a sense of community for the interned Japanese Americans.

Playing sports became a very important pastime, with baseball being a particular favorite. Kenichi Zenimura, a baseball player who set about building a baseball diamond on a vacant patch of land at the camp, became instrumental in developing a 36 team league in camps throughout the country. His passion for baseball and his influence in the community earned him the title Father of Japanese-American baseball. A memorial to him and the league stands at Nozomi Park in Chandler, AZ.

In 1943, as a response to continued accusations of special treatment by the WRA, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Rivers camps to see the conditions for herself. She found the conditions uncomfortable and commended the internees on their resourcefulness. Not long after her visit, she began campaigning to disband the internment camps as soon as possible. The First Lady’s campaign was not well received by many, including Arizona’s congressional representatives.

Because the Military Zone 1 was designated the coastal states, if released, the internees would be unable to return to their homes. As alternate resettlement plans were discussed many Arizona residents, spurred by prejudice and fear, became distressed over the prospect of Rivers internees settling in Arizona. As a result, an appeal was made to the Undersecretary of War by Senators Carl Hayden, E. W. McFarland, and Representatives John R. Murdock and Richard F. Harless, requesting that Arizona be added to the Military Zone 1, thus blocking Japanese-Americans from settling within the state’s borders, citing a possible risk of violence.

In the end, the camps did not close until after the war was over. By November 16, 1945, all Japanese-Americans who had been incarcerated in the Rivers camps had returned to their home states to rebuild their lives only to find their homes and businesses sold off. The buildings and all reusable materials were removed from the camps, leaving little of value and broken concrete slabs behind, making the sites difficult for the tribes to redevelop. Former internees erected a memorial, but access to the site is limited. As the Gila River Indian Reservation holds sovereignty over the land, permission must be granted before visiting. In 2001 the US Park Service recommended an off-site memorial be erected to commemorate those Japanese-Americans who died in World War II, as well as those who survived the harsh years in captivity in Arizona. An official Federal monument has yet to be built.

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Located in downtown Phoenix, the Arizona State Capitol draws on several architectural styles, including federal and classical elements. Its symmetry, windows, roofline, and center entrance call forth architecture from the so-called Federal era of the 1780s through the 1930s. The dome and column reflect classical stylings of ancient Greece and Rome. The materials for the building are largely indigenous to the region, including locally-sourced copper and granite.

Completed in 1901, the State Capitol served as the center for territorial government before statehood. In 1912, the building then became the main hub of state government for many years until the State Legislature moved to an adjacent building in 1960 and the Governor's Office relocated in 1974. In 1978, the Capitol was opened as a museum with the inauguration of Governor Bruce Babbitt.

Lack of funding shaped the development of the Capitol building. The original plans called for making the it a replica of the US Capitol building in Washington DC. The territory planned for an elaborate dome and a larger footprint. The cost of constructing an extensive dome exceed the budget of the territory, so the territorial government commissioned a smaller copper dome instead. The plans changed several times before the building was finally completed.

Curiously, the Arizona State Capitol is the only state capitol that lacks a cornerstone. Cornerstones are usually the first stone set in construction of a building's foundation. The cornerstone is typically a symbolic masonry stone that stands out from the rest of the building. This ceremonial stone is largely a Judeo-Christian tradition that traces its roots back to the Old Testament.

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When the U.S. government sought a home for German U-boat sailors taken as prisoners-of-war during World War II, it found the ultimate contradictory landscape for the young mariners from the verdant nation along the Rhine: Phoenix's Papago Park.

The exotic red sandstone buttes and prickly Sonoran Desert flora of the park may have seemed inhospitable at first, but the German submariners quickly adapted to life in the desert. In fact, the involuntarily land-based naval personnel enjoyed relative autonomy in their daily activities at the somewhat lackadaisically-run camp, permitting them to engage in productive activities such as farming--as well as more sinister endeavors, such as planning a water-based getaways despite their location in the arid Salt River Valley. Accustomed to the mighty rivers of Europe, the POWs logically assumed that the Salt and Gila rivers shown on maps of the Valley could lead them to the Colorado River and onto freedom in Mexico. However, this hope was discovered to be nothing more than a desert mirage, as described in the tale of "The Crazy Boatmen."

This prison break was deemed "The Great Papago Escape" though it did not last very long. The prisoners tunneled out of the prison on the night of December 23rd, 1944 and 25 German POW fled into the desert. The men would make a break into the desert and attempt to head for Mexico, 130 miles from the camp, though all were recaptured without spilling blood.

The last man recaptured was the man who started it all, Captain Wattenberg, he was captured a month after the initial escape on January 28, 1945.

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The prisoner of war camp that once stood in Papago Park was the site of stories like that of the ill-fated 1944 escape attempt of the "Crazy Boatmen," who planned on floating hand-made boats down the rivers they saw on their maps of the Valley. Though the bone-dry riverbeds thwarted the boatmen's plans, tales like theirs adorn the memories of the POW camp. However, for most of the inmates life at the camp was more mundane.

One former POW, Heinrich Bangert recalled being a "former sailor prisoner in Papago" and that many of his friends had come from "Africa Corps, at Litchfield Park No6." He remember that we "had been a fine time in Papago, we cropped a lot of cotton and played a lot of handball. I remember it very well. I still have the old colored fold wallet." (See the comments below for Mr. Bangert's reminiscences.)

Opened in January 1944, the prisoner of war facility was situated on land just north of Papago Park along what is now 64th Street. Prior to being put to use as a POW camp, the grounds were used as a training facility for American soldiers and, briefly, a compound for Italian POWs. In contrast to the raging battlefields of Europe, life inside the camp walls proved pleasantly safe and peaceful for the nearly 1,500 German sailors detained out of their element in the arid Sonoran Desert. While perhaps surprising to many of the incarcerated U-boaters, the parched terrain they viewed from their wartime home yielded significant quantities of long-staple cotton --a much-needed commodity for numerous essential military supplies including tires and uniforms.

Cotton, however, is a labor-intensive crop. This presented a serious challenge for many Valley farmers supplying the federal government with bales of their fibrous bounty. Ironically, many of the German detainees housed at Papago Park stepped in to assist with the cotton harvest. Some estimates credit POW labor with picking 90% of the Valley's cotton crop, thereby ensuring a steady supply of the raw material used in the effort to defeat their home country and, indirectly, aiding in the Allied victory that released the German submariners from their accommodations in the Arizona desert.

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If you encounter, on your wanders through the Valley, any particularly ornate or captivating iron flourish--roses atop a gate, or a handrail shaped like a peacock--there is a very distinct possibility that Doc Cavalliere, blacksmith-turned-soldier-turned-craftsman, had a hand in it. George R. "Doc" Cavalliere returned from World War II with a skill that would renew the family blacksmith business and add to Scottsdale's flourishing arts and crafts movement: ironworking.

Doc spent his childhood learning the blacksmith trade from his father, shoeing horses, forging tools, and repairing field equipment for surrounding farms and ranches. He also shined shoes at the barber shop, cleaned the spittoon at Johnny Rose's Pool Hall, and worked at Sterling's Western Store (now Saba's Western Store), where he earned the moniker "Doc." When World War II began, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, became a Technical Sergeant, and served on the European front throughout the war. When he wasn't working, he visited neighboring villages. In Italy, he met a local blacksmith who taught him intricate ironwork, creating roses, flourishes, and other metal wonders.

When Doc was discharged in 1945 he took over the blacksmith shop. As Scottsdale's agricultural roots faded and cars began to replace horses, Doc began marketing his newfound skills at the shop. He quickly became well-known for his metalworks, gaining a reputation among Scottsdale's artists and elites. He did the ironwork for the sprawling McCune Mansion in Paradise Valley, and he provided works for master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Gunsmoke actress Amanda Blake. Whenever Senator Barry Goldwater came into town, he had a project for Doc. The down-to-earth Scottsdale blacksmith was friend to some of Scottsdale's most illustrious artists and celebrities, but he wasn't the bragging type. You wouldn't find him at glamorous galas because he wasn't the hob-nobbing sort.

Doc was extraordinarily creative, the epitome of a self-made man. His ironwork adorned Scottsdale street signs, inns, and public spaces. He created the iconic western silhouette, based on famous local cowboy Harvey Noriega, that graced the official City of Scottsdale seal. Doc's ironworks, inspired by his deep love for his hometown and for Arizona, exemplify the simple, yet dramatic motifs that contribute to Scottsdale's western image.

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America entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Civilians across the country proudly signed up to serve their country. Parts of Papago Park were leased to the federal government in 1941 to build a desert combat training camp. The military came in and built barracks and a facility, but the training would only last until 1942 when the War Department took all of Papago Park except for the Desert Botanical Garden and Hunt Bass Hatchery to build a POW camp. Papago Park transformed into Papago Park POW Camp or Camp Papago Park.

The camp’s first visitors arrived in 1943 from halfway around the world. They were Italian captives, but soon the camp would be primarily dedicated to housing Nazis. This was apart of a larger system across the U.S. that brought POWs to American soil to prevent prisoners from escaping and to keep them as far away as possible from the battlefield.

Camp Papago Park did not do a great job of preventing escape. In 1944 25 Nazi POWs made an escape by tunneling underground for over 200 yards. This was known as the Great Papago Escape and it was the largest POW escape from an American facility during the war. The escape is not unlike the famous camp breakout that inspired the classic movie The Great Escape. Unfortunately, this escape was not led by Steve McQueen, but by Nazi war prisoners on American soil. Luckily for Americans, the desert proved to be enough of a prison itself because all the escapees were eventually recaptured simply because they found themselves in the middle of the desert with no food or water and no place to go.

The POW camp would last until the end of the war, but the military did not leave Papago Park until much later. A section of the park was used for a veterans’ hospital until 1953 and then more land was sold off to the public in 1955. The end of the war era meant the beginning of a new era for Papago Park

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