The Topaz Museum

Plans for the Topaz Museum began in 1991, when a local Delta family donated half of an original Topaz recreation hall that they had purchased after Topaz closed in 1945. The building had been used on the family farm as a storage shed. After the building was donated, an ad hoc committee, now known as the Topaz Museum Board, was formed to restore the building to its original wartime condition.

Through generous donations from the community, the recreation hall was successfully restored and preserved in 1994. Eventually, the Museum Board acquired half of an original recreation hall that was used as the Boy Scout lodge. The first iteration of the Museum opened in 2015 with about seventy-five works of art from former Topaz inmates. Since then, the Topaz Museum has continued its preservation and education efforts by opening a permanent museum in the town of Delta, carefully curating important Topaz objects and artifacts, and buying land at the Topaz site. Today the Topaz Museum owns, maintains, and protects all forty-two blocks at the former Topaz site. Because of the Topaz Museum’s commitment and dedication to preservation, protection, and education, the Topaz story will will continue to be shared with generations to come.