A Story of Chinese immigrants in the Old American West

22 July 2010

Baker City Chinese Cemetery

Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Mario Ritter.

Today: Some new music from the West Coast band Wavves.

A question about a colorful bridge in Northern California.

And a mystery from the Old West concerning empty graves, a faraway homeland and long-forgotten papers.

(MUSIC)

Chinese Immigrants in the Old West

MARIO RITTER: This next story is about emptied burial places and an unmet longing for home. It begins with a box of newly discovered documents about Chinese immigrants in the Old American West. Bob Doughty has more.

BOB DOUGHTY: The documents were given to a public radio station in Portland, Oregon by someone who did not want to be identified. The documents list names, dates and places. The names are of dead Chinese immigrant workers. Most died around one hundred years ago.

The information leads to a Chinese burial place in John Day, Oregon, where workers and miners were buried. Christina Sweet works at the Kam Wah Chung State Historic Site. It shows how Chinese communities developed all over the American West more than a century ago. They grew near mining areas and fish processing centers. Now, however, most signs of the towns have disappeared.