The concerns expressed by state officials when the announcement was made that Wyoming was going to get a detention camp for Japanese Americans never materialized. Japanese American internees did not stay in the state after the war, save for a few who married into Japanese American families already established in the state. No detainee collected welfare from the state of Wyoming, as Gov. Smith suggested may happen. Concern about the expense to be incurred by the state for the detainees also failed to happen, except for one internee sent to the state penitentiary. The mentally ill patients were sent back to California. The benefits of the camp to Wyoming included irrigating approximately 2,000 acres of virgin bench land making it a permanent asset for the state. As part of this irrigation work, a section of Shoshone Irrigation Project canal at Heart Mountain was waterproofed; CROPS TOTALING 6,375,818 POUNDS, BESIDES PORK, POULTRY, AND EGGS, WERE ADDED TO THE STATE’S WARTIME PRODUCTION; AND MUCH SEASONAL LABOR WAS SUPPLIED AT A TIME WHEN THE NEED WAS DESPERATE. It may be assumed that a substantial part of the more than $5,000,000 spent for camp construction entered the state’s trade channels. Cody and Powell benefited from Caucasian payrolls earned at the detention camp. In March 1943 it was reported that there were 86 employees and their dependents living in Cody and drawing an annual income of $203,880. At the same time 30 workers and their dependents representing as annual income of $76,000 were living in Powell. Jerry Housel, project attorney in 1943, estimated that the STATE RECEIVED FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF MORE THAN $500,000 A YEAR FROM THE CAMP. The 14,054 Japanese who came and went during the life of the camp left some money in the state despite discrimination against them in Cody and Powell. IMPACT OF HEART MOUNTAIN on the DETAINEES. It has been suggested that the incarceration of Japanese Americans away from the West Coast may not have happened ten years later. The Japanese American community was young. The majority of the papulation was only school age and their parents, by law, weren’t citizens. Had they been older, they may have been able to stand up for their rights. Others have suggested that perhaps it gave strength to the Japanese American community, and dispersed them throughout the country, getting them out of their tight communities on the West Coast. There can be no arguing that it left deep psychological damage to many of those detained. The depression suffered by many of those incarcerated. Particularly by the older members of the detainees, isn’t remembered enough, for they all too often truly suffered in silence. Some detainees were never able to rebuild their lives after having lost everything, including their dignity. Suicide, tragically, was their answer to the depression. For as many detainees were responses. For the interned nisei, they had a variety of reactions to the experience. A former detainee notes; “As for writing history from the viewpoint of the evacuees is very difficult to say the least. Japanese people, as a rule, are quite reticent to speak of personal problems.” Followed by thoughts from 10 other detainees.