Watch Randall Park Talk About Heart Mountain on Drunk History
Drunk History has entirely too few references to the Cowboy State. We've previously covered what crazy Wyoming stories should make it onto the Comedy Central show. If you haven't seen it before, it's pretty simple. Someone (usually a celebrity or historian) will imbibe in copious amounts of alcohol, and then do their best to retell a story from history. That story is then acted out by a star-studded cast, mistakes and all.
This story is being told by Randall Park (from The Office and The Interview) and tells the story of Frank Emi, a second-generation Japanese American who was interred at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in North-Central Wyoming.
At one point, Heart Mountain was he third most populous "city" in the state as fear after Pearl Harbor led to Japanese Americans being transported out of coastal states and to the interior of the US. Frank Emi was famous his leading the Heart Mountain Draft Defiance during WWII, insisting that those being held captive in internment camps shouldn't have to be drafted into the military of their captive country.
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center now sits on the site of the former internment camp and offers a full museum experience to learn the history of one of the darkest points in Wyoming's History.