Maria Cantwell: “Another piece of this legislation that I have worked on with my colleague, Congressman Inslee of Bainbridge Island in…”

“Another piece of this legislation that I have worked on with my colleague, Congressman Inslee of Bainbridge Island in our State, is to preserve an area known as the Eagledale Ferry Dock site on Bainbridge Island as a unit of the national monument designation under our national park system. People may say, well, why designate this particular area? During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps, and the first place from which they were forced to leave and to go to the internment camps was from this site on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. On March 30, 1942, 227 residents of Bainbridge Island were asked to report to this ferry dock site and were taken to internment camps in Minidoka, ID, and Tule Lake in northern California. So this is what this lands bill is about. It is about protecting wilderness and making designations of sites that should be remembered. So I am very proud we got this bill off the floor, and I hope we will see immediate action by the House.”