Granada War Relocation Center The Granada War Relocation Center ( also Camp Amache ) was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeast Colorado about a mile west of the small farming community of Granada , south of US 50 . The camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18 , 1994 , and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10 , 2006 . History . The Center was one of ten that were created by the administration of President Franklin D . Roosevelt , following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Hawaii on December 7 , 1941 . The camp opened in August 1942 and had a maximum population of 7 , 318 persons . Nearly all of those interned at the camp came from the West Coast of the U . S . , mostly from the Los Angeles area . Each person was only allowed to bring one bag , therefore , many people were forced to sell what they could or give away their possessions before being forced out . This also included pets . The camp ' s unofficial name quickly became Camp Amache , named after a Cheyenne Indian chief ' s daughter , the wife of John Prowers ( the county where Camp Amache is located is named after Prowers ) . This name change was due to a mail mix - up between the town of Granada and the camp . The Camp Amache residential area is spread across a low hill , which prevented the flooding and mud problems which plagued other internment camps . It was surrounded by barbed - wire fencing , with eight machine - gun towers located all around the camp . However , all eight towers were rarely manned at one time , and the guns were never used . The camp had a police department which was actually worked by Japanese Americans living at the camp . Colorado Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr was one of the few to welcome the Japanese to Colorado , going against the current anti - Japanese sentiment of the times . Camp leaders , internees themselves , set up a separate " Amache District " for Boy Scouts at the camp . These Scouts still flew the American flag , notwithstanding the treatment they and their families had received from the government , as seen in the photograph at left of a Boy Scout Memorial Day parade at the camp . Sources indicate that the high school football team lost one game in three years . One noteworthy event was when the Amache football team played the undefeated football team from Holly , Colorado , which is located just east of Amache on U . S . 50 . This game was unique because Holly actually agreed to come up to the camp and play Amache on their home field . One of the Holly team players was Roy Romer , who went on to become Governor of Colorado . The Amache team won this game by a score of 7 - 0 , the only touchdown coming from a trick play , thus the Amache team can claim to be undefeated on their own field . Present - day . Today the camp is a lonely , desolate place on the high prairie , covered by scrubby vegetation and small cacti . All but one of the buildings were removed , many having been sold at auction and hauled off . The sole remaining original building is a pumphouse beside the main water tank , both of which are still in use . Cement foundations of most of the buildings remain , and the site is largely undisturbed , though the land was sold at auction ( rather than being returned to the original owners ) . Signs have been posted to show locations of schools , laundries , dining halls , clinics , fire station , etc . The highway signs identify the site only as Camp Amache . In the southwest corner of the camp is a small cemetery and memorial dedicated to the Japanese Americans from there who volunteered to fight in Europe in World War II . Nisei from all the camps were in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , the most decorated unit of its size in American military history . A large stone memorial with men ' s names engraved in it sits in the cemetery in memory of those who died defending the U . S . in the 442nd . The graves at the cemetery are only of children who died while at the camp . Since 1990 , the Amache Preservation Society , a Granada high school group , has worked on preservation of the site and its documents . As a school project , Granada Undivided High School students have set up a museum for the Granada War Relocation Center . On December 21 , 2006 , President George W . Bush signed H . R . 1492 into law guaranteeing $ 38 , 000 , 000 in federal money to restore the Granada relocation center and nine other former Japanese internment camps . In media . Author Sandra Dallas uses Granada as the basis of her fictional work " Tallgrass " .