Local author booktalk at Neill Public Library

To:  All media

Contact name/phone/e-mail:  Joanna Bailey / 509-338-3252 / jbailey@neill-lib.org

Event/Date:  National Library Week at Neill Public Library: Local Author Priscilla Wegars, April 16^th, 5:30pm

Local author Priscilla Wegars will discuss her book As Rugged as the Terrain: CCC "Boys," Federal Convicts, and World War II Alien Internees Wrestle with a Mountain Wilderness at Neill Public Library, beginning at 5:30 pm in the Hecht Room on Wednesday, April 16^th.

As Rugged as the Terrain explores some intriguing history that took place at Canyon Creek on the Lochsa River: first, in 1933, as a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp; next, in 1935, as Federal Prison Camp No. 11, a road-building facility for convicts mostly from the Leavenworth, Kansas, penitentiary; and finally, beginning in May 1943, as the Kooskia Internment Camp for Japanese detainees.

Priscilla is the Volunteer Curator of the Asian American Comparative Collection in the Laboratory of Anthropology at the University of Idaho.  She has conducted extensive research into the history of the Chinese and Japanese in the Northwest, and has directed several archaeological projects in the area.

Copies of As Rugged as the Terrain will be available on site through Book People of Moscow as well as Imprisoned in Paradise, Priscilla’s earlier book on the Kooskia Internment Camp.