Lincoln, New Mexico, 13 miles east of Fort Stanton in the Lincoln National Forest
Baca Camp / Old Ranton Ranch (Department of Justice Internment Camp)
Click on a point on the map or in the sidebar to begin.
A | Fountain
A short distance from the Demonstration House is a crumbling stone structure that looks like either a fountain or a small swimming pool. It is, in fact, both fountain and pool. The young women at Camp Capitan used this structure as a “cooling off pool,” according to Forest Service archaeologists.
B | Interpretive Sign
Today, signage exists at Baca Campground to share with visitors the histories of the site. When we visited in December 2021, the sign was ripped—whether by the wind or by the hand of another visitor—such that the part about the Japanese Americans imprisoned at Baca was removed.
Torn informational poster at Baca Camp today, photo courtesy of Seeing Memory. Undamaged informational poster at Baca Camp today, courtesy of Mark Gutzman / US Forest Service
C | Fireplace and Chimney
Near the entrance of the Baca campground today are the remains of a large fireplace and chimney. These were part of the house where Lucy Lepper Shaw, who oversaw Camp Capitan, lived with her husband. Each week, Shaw would invite a different group of girls to live in the house, to learn and practice certain domestic skills—according to U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Mark Gutzman, Shaw and the young women called the house the “Demonstration House.”
D | Wartime Housing for Japanese Americans
In January 1942, just weeks after the U.S. entered World War II, thirty-two Japanese Americans from Clovis, New Mexico were imprisoned by the INS at Baca Camp, the former CCC camp.
Before the war, the entire Japanese American community in Clovis, NM was associated with the Santa Fe Railroad. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, railroad officials ordered the Japanese American men who worked for the company to stop working and remain within their company housing, allegedly for their own safety amidst threats of violence. After more than a month, Border Patrol officers arrived in Clovis on January 19, 1942 and decided to remove the entire Japanese American population. Four days later, in the middle of the night, the group left by car for an unknown destination.
The group of thirty-two consisted of seventeen children and fifteen adults.
Transcript | Courtesy of Densho
When the group arrived at Baca Camp, they had to clean and repair their own quarters. Although there was a mess hall remaining at the site, leftover from the former CCC Camp and Camp Capitan, the families cooked their own meals on wood burning stoves in their quarters. There was no running water in the barracks.
At first, the children were sent to school in nearby Capitan, NM. However, they were forced to withdraw by early February because of hostility and racism from local white residents. Other school districts in the area refused to take the students and the INS was unable to secure a teacher for the camp. As a result, the oldest child Amy Ebihara, who was a junior in high school before she was removed from Clovis, was compelled to teach the other children, using books sent to her by her former principal.
Transcript | Courtesy of Densho
One of the single men was able to secure seasonal work leave at a farm in Utah in April 1942. The rest of the group was imprisoned at Baca for nearly a year while the INS and the War Relocation Authority worked out an agreement about who was responsible for the Japanese Americans. In late 1942, most of the Japanese Americans were allowed to join extended family at WRA camp. The Kimura family of nine left for Poston in Arizona on November 23. The Ebihara family, also of nine, and one other Issei man left for Topaz in Utah on December 15th. The remaining twelve prisoners went to Gila River in Arizona on December 12. No one from the group returned to Clovis, NM.
E | Administration building foundation
In 1935, Camp Saturnino Baca became Camp Capitan, one of the federal government’s National Youth Administration (NYA) programs, part of the Works Progress Administration, that sought to teach young people vocational skills for future employment. Camp Capitan was run by Lucy Lepper Shaw, the first women’s investment counselor at New York-based Banker’s Trust Co., turned the abandoned CCC camp into one of the most successful of the girls’ camps run through the NYA. During the five years of the camp’s existence, two thousand young women from New Mexico and Arizona, ranging in age from 16 to 25, attended Camp Capitan in three month sessions and received training in crafts like colcha embroidery and in vocations like stenography, housekeeping, and masonry.The women built tin chandeliers and wall sconces that remain in use today at White Sands National Monument and sewed flags for every school in New Mexico.
Camp Capitan, late 1930s. Photo courtesy of the National Archives / Confinement in the Land of Enchantment
Camp Capitan used the buildings left behind by the CCC and further developed the 22-acre grounds by adding a stone fireplace and chimney. The girls also built gardens near the fountain and swimming pool at the site. According to Polly E. Chavez, whose mother Ramoncita Gurule attended the camp, family members treasure the work created by their mothers, aunts, and sisters at Camp Capitan. Mark Gutzman, an archaeologist with the US Forest Service in the Lincoln National Forest, shared that descendants of women who attended Camp Capitan carry a lot of love for the site. There has been at least one wedding held at the site, on the remaining foundation pad of one of the old buildings.
Camp Capitan closed down in 1940, when funding for NYA programs in New Mexico was cut. Its memory lives on in the families of young women who attended the Camp, and in the tin light fixtures at White Sands National Monument, about 100 miles away.
Early History
Baca Camp / Old Raton Ranch was constructed on the homelands of the Mescalero Apaches. After years of displacement and land theft, the Mescalero Apache reservation was established by President Ulysses S. Grant on May 27, 1873. Members from two other Apache bands, the Lipan band and the Chiricahua band, became members of the Mescalero Apache tribe when it was reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. More information about Mescalero Apache culture, traditions, history, and futures can be found on the tribe’s website.
In the summer of 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps camp DF-17-N opened at the current site. The CCC camp was quickly renamed Camp Saturnino Baca, after the former Territorial legislator who created Lincoln County in the late 1860s. The CCC camp was short-lived, closing in the winter of 1933-34 because it was declared unfit for winter use by the Forest Service.
Camp Capitan, late 1930s. Photo courtesy of the National Archives / Confinement in the Land of Enchantment
In 1935, Camp Saturnino Baca became Camp Capitan, one of the federal government’s National Youth Administration (NYA) programs, part of the Works Progress Administration, that sought to teach young people vocational skills for future employment. Camp Capitan closed down in 1940, after educating and training more than 2,000 young women from New Mexico and Arizona.
Wartime
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the site at the camp was used by the Border Patrol/Immigration and Naturalization Services to imprison ten Japanese American railroad workers removed from Clovis, New Mexico and their families. A total of thirty-two people were incarcerated at the site for nearly a year before most were transferred to larger War Relocation Authority-run prison camps.
Sketch of Baca Camp by Roy Ebihara. Courtesy of Confinement in the Land of Enchantment
After Incarceration
In the years after World War II, buildings and other structures were gradually removed from the site—perhaps by local ranchers who put the buildings to other use. Baca Camp / Old Raton Ranch became a Forest Service-run campground for hunters.
In 2013, Adrian Chavez, who grew up in Clovis, NM, learned about what happened to the Japanese American railroad workers in a college class. He lobbied local government to recognize the injustice and also tracked down one of the children who was incarcerated at Baca Camp, Roy Ebihara. In 2014, the Pioneer Days Parade in Clovis was dedicated to the Nikkei who were forcibly removed during the war. Roy Ebihara, Fred Kimura, and Lillie Kimura Kiyowaka returned with relatives to serve as honorary grand marshals in the parade. They also received keys to the city.
Roy Ebihara returns to the site.
Photo courtesy of Mark Gutzman / US Forest Service
Fred and Lily Kimura, 2017.
Photo courtesy of Mark Gutzman / US Forest Service
Today, signage exists at Baca Campground to share with visitors the histories of the site. When we visited in December 2021, the sign was ripped—whether by the wind or by the hand of another visitor—such that the part about the Japanese Americans imprisoned at Baca was removed.
Torn informational poster at Baca Camp today, photo courtesy of Seeing Memory. Undamaged informational poster at Baca Camp today, courtesy of Mark Gutzman / US Forest Service
Let’s Dig Deeper
What other histories shaped the people who lived at Baca Camp throughout its existence? How do these histories fit within larger stories of race and justice in the U.S.?
Learn more about the Civilian Conservation Corps, Depression era camps for unemployed women, the Santa Fe Railroad, the histories of African American railroad porters and an example of their long fight for justice, and the fight to include the histories of Chinese laborers on the transcontinental railroad—just for a start. Click on the links to begin your research journey!
Works Cited
For more general information, see our resources page.