Public Invited to New National Monument Unit Dedication

Date: July 3, 2009

Tulelake, CA – The Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Tule Lake Committee will hold a dedication ceremony of the new Tule Lake Unit of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at 10:00AM, on Friday July 3rd in Newell, CA. The public is invited to attend the dedication ceremony, as well as a memorial service that will follow at 11:00AM. Between Noon and 1:00PM the jail building of the former Tule Lake Segregation Center will be open for public tours. 

The dedication is being held in conjunction with the Tule Lake Pilgrimage, an event held each year on the 4th of July weekend and dedicated to recognizing the over 18,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated at the Tule Lake Segregation Center during WWII. Over 400 persons are attending the 2009 Pilgrimage. The dedication site is in Newell, CA, approximately seven miles south of Tulelake at the intersection of California Highway 139 and County Road 176. Parking will be available on site, accessible from County Road 176.

On the evening of July 4th the Pilgrimage will conclude with a cultural program beginning at 7:30PM at the Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls, OR. Admission is $10.

On December 5, 2008 President Bush designated the former Tule Lake Segregation Center and Camp Tulelake (former Civilian Conservation Corps, Prisoner of War camp and Japanese American confinement sites) as one of nine areas included with the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. The Tule Lake Unit is managed cooperatively by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The other units of the National Monument are located around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and on the Aleutian Islands of Atka, Attu and Kiska in Alaska.

The Tule Lake Unit’s temporary Visitor Center is located in the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fairgrounds Museum in Tulelake, CA. Site tours are given as requested through the summer. The contact number for the Tule Lake Unit of the new monument is [phone]. Information can also be obtained from nearby Lava Beds National Monument [phone] or www.nps.gov/labe