In the 1910s, Japanese Americans began settling in Alamosa, Conejos, and Costilla Counties, finding occupation as laborers. Land Developers began to entice numerous Japanese Americans to migrate from California with a purpose of agricultural land development bringing their agricultural practices, and their cultural and religious practices.
Throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Japanese Americans established permanent residences in the Valley, in which they practiced Buddhism and conducted Buddhist services out of each other’s homes. Construction of the Buddhist Temple in La Jara, Colorado began in 1936 with a cost of $4,000. The lot the temple was built on was donated by William S. Braiden. In 1937, the temple opened, serving as a place of worship and of community gathering for decades for the Japanese American population of Alamosa, Conejos, and Costilla counties. The temple also served as a Japanese cultural and language institute for Nisei (first generation of Japanese born in the United States) children and teenagers.
Japanese Americans contributed immensely to the agriculture of the valley. They harvested crops like lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage throughout Alamosa, Conejos, and Costilla Counties. They shipped these crops on the railroad from large packing sheds in Fort Garland, Blanca, San Acacio and La Jara. The San Luis Southern Railroad was built specifically to haul produce from Jaroso to Blanca with a few stops in between.
Throughout World War II, a traumatic period for Japanese Americans, Executive Order 9066 prevented Japanese Americans from meeting forcing the shuttering of doors and windows to their temple. After the war, some families stayed in the valley, but many families moved back to California, or north to the Front Range, ultimately closing the doors to the temple permanently in 1993.
Today, the temple is privately owned and now serves as triplex apartments.
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