TORRINGTON – The Torrington Rotary Club held their Monday meeting at the Cottonwood Country Club in Torrington. Club member Bob Taylor called the meeting to order shortly after the noon hour. 

“A moment of inspiration, as we come together today, let’s remember why we are here, to serve, to lead, and to uplift others. Rotary’s mission is built on the belief that even the smallest actions can create lasting change,” Taylor said. “As Helen Keller once said, ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.’ Each of us has a unique role to play in making a difference. Through our shared dedication and teamwork, we can continue to transform lives and strengthen our communities. Thank you for being here. Let’s make it count today.”

After a brief introduction of meeting guests, Taylor called for club announcements. Kim Evezich announced there will be no meeting on Monday, April 21, April 28, May 12 and May 26 and June 3. Taylor next moved on to the Ace of Spades and the Happy Basket formalities of the meeting. Rotarian John Maier had an announcement.

“I’m going to probably steal some thunder here. For any of you that don’t know, we’re going to lose a Rotarian,” Maier said pointing towards the window. “Judge Hibben is now the designated district judge in the first judicial district in Cheyenne.”

“I’m happy to share that news. That’s not entirely happy news for me though. It’s not all happy. It’s more than a little bittersweet and a little bit sad. We’re still working through exactly what that means for our family. But it probably means a move down to Cheyenne and that’s sad for us because this has been our home for almost two decades. It’s where we started a family and it’s where we have lifelong friends,” circuit court judge Nathaniel Hibben said. “I’m excited for that but sad.”

Returning to announcements, Taylor noted the club was still in need of a president-elect nominee. With no further announcements and no new business to address, Taylor asked Maier to introduce the presenters for the remainder of the meeting. 

“It is my pleasure today to introduce to you Dick and Liz [Vandel]. Dick wanted me to tell you that he was born and raised in Goshen County, around Torrington. He went to the University of Wyoming, majored in agriculture. He is a Navy Vietnam Vet and he spent 54 years working in the community. He’s an ag banker, a real estate broker, a farm and ranch management – all of those things I’ve had the opportunity to work with him on,” Maier said. “His daughter, Liz, is here to handle the technology.”

After a brief opening statement while Liz set up the slideshow, Dick began his presentation.

“In January of 1943, the United States government authorized the use of prisoner of war labor for military installation,” Dick said. “Then in the fall of 1943, the prisoner of war labor program is established through the operation of the war department, the war man-fire commission, and the war food administration to make prisoner of war labor available to the civilian sector. The Wyoming branch camps were established to provide prisoner labor for the for the area farms and the local lumber timber operations,” Dick continued. “The civilian employees worked with the local military officials and the Department of Agriculture’s Extension Service to obtain the prisoner of war labor.”

According to Dick, the prisoner of war labor program provided substantial leverage to the United States. The United States received payment for the difference between the prisoner’s daily pay and the standard daily wage after the deduction of prisoner transportation and other expenses. 

“We all remember December 7, 1941, and what that meant there. That meant we were in war. The young men and women started to get off the war effort as well as many have moved to the coast and worked in the building of ships and military stuff all over the United States,” Dick said. “So, we just had a mass movement of people from inland on the farms and stuff to these coastal areas to prepare for the war. In 1942, they set up the Provost and Marshal General’s office. This is the prisoner of war program, and how to deal with the it,” Dick explained. “In Wyoming, this has got the map up there now. This shows the base camps we had in Wyoming. The first one was at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.”

Dick further explained the next camp was built in 1943 in Douglas when more prisoners came to the area. 

“The next one was built in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, which is where we started receiving a lot of the people that came here to work on our farms,” Dick said. The Francis E. Warren Base could handle about 900 prisoners. The Douglas base was built between 1942 to 1943, with the grand opening of June the 15, 1943. The cost to build that is about $2 million. They put in 180 buildings. But it could accommodate up to 3,000 prisoners of war. Scottsbluff, it was started in June 1943 and it was active until March 15, 1946. There was about 180-something buildings there and they were in the house approximately 5,000 prisoners there, “Dick continued. “So, now you have these three based camps available. Then as people needed them, then they were sent out to the branch camps.”

“The branch camps here in our area, we had two employees. One that actually started the army. It wasn’t large enough to handle the volume of people they needed here. So, the next one was built at the south end of the sugar factory. That road that used to be the road around to Lingle. Right off of that, there was a school there. It was called the Liberty School. And that’s where south Torrington and some of these kids went to school,” Dick said. “And right behind that, there were two or three dormitories that were built in there to house seasonal help. So, the branch in Torrington, we could handle about 2,000 prisoners,” Dick continued. “Most of the time they were brought here about June of 1944 through November of 1945. By then the war was over. The war was over in the summer of 1945.”

According to Dick, it took a long time for men and women to return to their homes and the were utilized during that time period for work. 

“And here in Torrington, the crop of 1944, it was a huge beet crop. And everybody was concerned, ‘What are we going to do?’ So, at that time, in beet valley with the prisoners here they were able to save the crop and save actually save the economy of our community that year, by having that much of a beet labor and available,” Dick said. “So, it was a good, good program. These prisoners could work anywhere. They could work on farms. They could go, a lot of them went to the orphanage and painted. In the orphanage, they had murals and stuff on the ceilings and paintings there,” Dick explained. “A lot of work to the local butcher shops and slaughterhouses. Some worked for their factory. But I don’t recall any of them working inside the factory. Most of the time they’re out in the rural part of it.” 

Dick explained the owner of the slaughterhouses was never worried about hiring prisoners because it was reported the prisoners were happy to be here and wouldn’t cause any trouble. 

“And they didn’t,” Dick said. “There were no major incidents of any trouble with any of the prisoners over those years.”

The meeting continued right up to the 1 p.m. hour where it was adjourned to reconvene Monday, April 7 at 12 p.m.