This study develops themes to explain the monument's history and to show the center as one of several land uses over time. Organized chronologically, the themes within the study include early Idaho history, prewar settlement and development, racism and discrimination, camp life, and postwar settlement and land use. The role of the federal government is recurring and dominant within these themes. The government created the wartime relocation centers deep in the American interior on federal land. However, Minidoka reaches beyond a federal land use study. Studying the site within a broader agricultural, military, and ethnic history enriches and clarifies the story.