Granada, Colorado

A Brief History of Granada

Granada was established in 1873 in southeastern Colorado. Its twentieth-century history became closely connected with nearby Amache, officially the Granada Relocation Center, where the federal government incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II. The camp’s population peaked at 7,318 in 1943, far exceeding that of the neighboring town. After the camp closed in 1945, Granada acquired its developed area in 1948. Local preservation efforts later helped protect the site and its history. Amache became a national historic site through legislation in 2022, preserving evidence of incarceration and the lives of those confined there.