{"id":1843,"slug":"fort-missoula-alien-detention-center-missoula-montana","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Fort Missoula is the held — the 'alien' that's the legal term, the 'not WRA' that's the distinction's weight. The 'Italians' is the worked — the 'Bella Vista' that's the camp's nickname, the 'seamen' that's the prisoners' trade. The 'Issei' is the heard — the 'loyalty hearings' that's the courtroom's work, the 'none charged' that's the verdict's truth.","The 'first' is the ranked — the 'before Pearl Harbor' that's the timing's mark, the 'leaders' that's the arrested's kind. The 'Mansfield sat' is the judged — the 'history professor' that's the board member's job, the 'future senator' that's the man's fate. Fort Missoula is the kept — the 'T-1' that's the courtroom's building, the 'restored' that's the hearing room's state.","The file keeps Fort Missoula: the held aliens, the worked Italians, the heard Issei, and the kept courtroom.","Fort Missoula is the archive's Montana file — the internment that wasn't called internment."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Fort Missoula is the archive's Montana file — the camp that held the 'dangerous' who were never charged.","A fort keeps its courtroom — the file's suggestion being that Missoula's hold is the legal: the 'alien' that's the category's loophole, the 'hearings' that's the process's form, and the 'Bella Vista' that's the prisoners' irony."]}],"name":"Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center","aliases":[],"type":"DETENTION_CAMP","type_label":"Detention Camp","cats":["DARK_HISTORY"],"groups":["dark-history","institutions"],"desc":"Preserved barracks interpreting wartime civilian detention.","full_desc":"A detention camp in Missoula, Montana, opened in 1941, Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Preserved barracks interpreting wartime civilian detention. It sits in the archive under dark history. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Missoula","county":null,"state":"Montana","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":46.874359,"lon":-114.026136,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":1941,"year_closed":1944,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Historic camp within larger Fort Missoula complex. New replica storage barracks is not public exhibit space. Sunday hours not stated by retrieved page.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.8,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"Fort Missoula held Italian nationals and Japanese Issei men during 1941–1944. A restored original barracks opened as an exhibit in May 2025. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula","url":"https://fortmissoulamuseum.org/visit-the-barracks/","publisher":"Historical Museum at Fort Missoula","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[{"name":"Restored barracks exhibit opens","type":"RESTORATION","date_start":"2025-05-31","date_end":null,"description":"In May 2025 the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula opened 'Far From Home: The Internee Experience' inside an original detention barracks — the same type of building that held Italian and Japanese civilian internees during WWII, when Fort Missoula confined more than 2,000 'enemy aliens,' including Italian merchant seamen and Issei community leaders.","evidence":"RESTORATION","source":{"name":"Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula","url":"https://fortmissoulamuseum.org/visit-the-barracks/","publisher":"Historical Museum at Fort Missoula","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}}],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"opening_hours":"Museum lists Tuesday–Saturday 11:00–17:00; closed Mondays","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:21+00:00","source":{"name":"Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula","url":"https://fortmissoulamuseum.org/visit-the-barracks/","publisher":"Historical Museum at Fort Missoula","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula","url":"https://fortmissoulamuseum.org/visit-the-barracks/","publisher":"Historical Museum at Fort Missoula","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":0,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}