What once used to grow fruit and vegetables.
Established in 1942 on a former fruit orchard in New Denver, the Orchard was the first Japanese Canadian internment camp in the Slocan Valley, housing nearly 1,600 people in 275 tar-paper shacks. The camp closed in 1946, but many original and renovated camp structures remain in the areas from Galena Ave to Third Ave including the Kyowakai Hall which the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre is built around.
Located adjacent to the camp was the Sanitarium for tuberculosis patients, built by Japanese Canadians who were paid meagre wages. It housed local internees suffering from the disease and other patients from across the province, adding another layer to the hardship experienced in New Denver during the war years.
The camp remained in operation until 1946, when internees were once again forced to leave, pressured either to move east of the Rockies or “repatriate” to Japan. Today, some original features of the Orchard remain, ranging from buildings that have seen little change to others that have been combined, relocated, renovated, or updated beyond recognition. Despite these changes, the legacy of the Orchard endures in the very fabric of the town, through the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre in New Denver, and in the stories preserved by surviving families.
