Michael R. Mackey was born in 1957 and grew up in Powell, Wyoming. He worked in the oil and construction industries before beginning his academic career in his 30s. He received an Associate of Arts and an Associate of Science degree from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. Mackey then transferred to University of Wyoming where he completed his Bachelor of Arts (1992) and Master of Arts (1993) in History. As part of his undergraduate thesis, Mackey contacted individuals of Japanese descent who had been moved to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center under Executive Order 9066. After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, both Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from their homes into concentration camps (often referred to as "internment camps"). Heart Mountain Relocation Center was located between the cities of Powell and Cody, Wyoming, and housed more than 10,000 people of Japanese ancestry between 1942 and 1945. Through his research and correspondence, Mackey amassed several first person accounts and recollections of the Heart Mountain site. After completing his thesis, Mackey continued to write about Heart Mountain and the incarceration of Japanese Americans, writing and editing numerous books and articles. In 1995, Mackey also organized a symposium on Heart Mountain entitled “After 50 Years: Japanese American History: The Heart Mountain Experience.” Mackey has also written books on Wyoming history, and published his first book, Black Gold: Patterns in the Development of Wyoming’s Oil Industry in 1997. Mackey continues to write in Wyoming, where he lives with his wife, Laurie.

Executive Order 9066:

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the incarceration from 1942 to 1946 of approximately 120,000 adults and children of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were United States citizens. They were expelled from their homes and placed in incarceration camps without due process and in violation of their civil rights. These camps were euphemistically referred to as “relocation centers” or “internment camps”. After decades of advocacy by the Japanese American community, in 1988 the United States issued a formal apology and began redress to survivors of Japanese incarceration during World War II.