“El Milagro” Plans for New Beginnings
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A former labor camp used to house migrant workers in Twin Falls will take on a new life to preserve this piece of history in our community.
“Japanese Americans came out here from Minidoka and Manzanar. Prisoners of war, A group of Jamaicans came here, of course, Mexicans, Mexicans from Texas Southern, southwestern United States and Bracero,” Russ Tremayne, a local historian, said about who was in “El Milagro.”
The “El Milagro” labor camp was built in 1939 on South Washington Street in Twin Falls.
It was a community, made up of several barracks, bathrooms, and garden houses, home to hundreds of farmworkers at a time.
Today...not much is left.
“These three buildings here the barracks just around the corner, the door, the comfort center, which is a bathroom, and you can show a picture of two sides, one for men, one for women. The barracks didn’t have running water, so it’s a community bathroom,” Tremayne explained.
Tremayne said this piece of Magic Valley history needs to be preserved and taught, “Migrant workers are a vital, fundamental part of Idaho history, and this camp was designed to facilitate the efforts of farmers to do their work.”
That’s why the Community Council of Idaho is turning the camp into a learning center.
“Restoring the buildings from the outside and giving examples of what they would have looked like,” Terry Blom from the Community Council explained.
Once restored, Blom said they plan to use this center as a way to teach the community about “El Milagro” and the history that followed.
“They represent the beginnings of struggles in this country for migrant seasonal workers, that eventually led the United Farmers Workers movement, Tremayne stated.
The Community Council also wants the center to benefit not only the Magic Valley, but the entire state of Idaho, “It will become a research center that looks at the history of the farm workers, but it will also look at the history of social and economic injustice in the United States,” Blom explained.
They hope to open the learning center sometime next year.
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