A scenic drive from Baker City to John Day, Oregon
June 19, 2007.
We are staying at Mountain View Travel Park in Baker
City. $24.79 FHU, shade and a nice enough RV-Park. It must
be a former KOA since they charge extra for everything, $2 extra for
wifi, $2 extra for larger sites, you get the picture.
This was a slow day for us and we got a late start. At first we were
undecided about what we wanted to do but finally settled on heading
out to John Day since we had not been out that way. So John Day it
was. By the way John Day is the name of a small east Oregon town.
Common teasel
We left Baker
City on SR 7 which is the same road we took to Sumpter the
other day. Near Sumpter at the east end of Phillips Reservoir we stopped
to look for eagles. The eagles and Canada geese we had seen earlier
in the week were no where to be seen. Such is life, nothing remains
the same.
While there Joyce attempted to get some pictures of the common teasel's
brown flower heads we have been seeing in wet areas generally with
cat tails.
Common teasel
I think she took a good picture of them in this shot. Does anyone
recognize what this flower is? Reader, Gene Carpenter wrote to tell
me these are common teasel a weed found in much of the southwest that
some people dye and use in flower arrangements. Much thanks to Gene.
Between 5 to 10 miles past Sumpter on SR 7 we enter a beautiful valley
with lush green grass and many old buildings like this barn.
Houses were in the valley also but this is another of the old barns
lingering from a much more prosperous era.
Ghost town of Whitney, Oregon
We have stumbled upon a ghost town. The town was Whitney. It was
a rail road town. When the railroad stopped running the town was abandoned.
After looking around I would say the town was "all but abandoned".
Ghost town of Whitney, Oregon
Someone was living in this old place. Note that there is no electricity
running to the place. There is no sign that electricity has every
been in the town. Each house has an outhouse so there probably isn't
any running water either.
Sumpter Valley Railway
The
Sumpter Valley Railway is the one that operates out of the State Park
in Sumpter. Where on summer weekends tourist can ride on this
narrow gauge train pulled by a steam engine.
Ghost town of Whitney, Oregon
This is another old house in the ghost town of Whitney that someone
was actually living in. Note again there is no electricity and you
can see the outhouse out back.
Ghost town of Whitney, Oregon
If you look closely you can see firewood neatly stacked on both sides
of the door behind the wooden lattice.
This is a picture of those rock fence post that we are seeing all
over this area of Oregon.
This is another old barn. This one might actually be being used.
Ah, look at this geology. It is a perfect anticline.
The rocks here make a perfect arch like it had been drawn with a protractor.
It takes awesome forces to bend rock like this.
The fault line creating this appears to be just right of the center.
SR 7 ends when in meets US 26 halfway between Sumpter and John Day.
We continued toward John Day on US 26.
We crossed over a mountain pass (Dixie Pass) and down into another
valley not far from Prairie City.
Strawberry Mountain
The mountain to the south is probably Strawberry Mountain.
Strawberry Mountain
Again, I am guessing that this is Strawberry Mountain south of Prairie
City.
Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum
One of the things we thought we would visit in John Day was the Kam
Wah Chung & Co. Museum.
When we arrived this is the sign we found.
Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum
The Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum (this building) was constructed
as a trading post on The Dalles Military Road in 1866-67. It served
as the center for the Chinese community in Eastern Oregon until the
early 1940's.
This is the original building and it now contains thousands of artifacts
and relics that illustrate the many former uses of the site. It was:
a general store, run by Lung On; an office for the famous herbal doctor,
Ing (Doc) Hay; a Chinese temple; a gathering (and gambling) place
for Chinese people throughout the region; as well as home to the proprietors.
There were hundreds of thousands of Chinese people that came to this
country seeking relief from famine, overpopulation, and the loss of
industry due to cheap goods from the West. By the time of the 1879
census, there were 960 whites and 2468 Chinese inhabitants of the
gold mining region of Northeastern Oregon.
This is Kam Wah Chung's home and store, as seen from the side.
In 1887, two young immigrants, Ing Hay and Lung, purchased this building.
They lived there from 1948 and 1940 respectively. They were an important
part of Eastern Oregon history. The development of the economy and
culture in the region is still represented in the Kam Wah Chung &
Co. Museum. Originally, the building was intended as a trading post
on the main East-West highway of the period. Doc Hay and his partner
Lung On sold large amounts of mining supplies and staple foodstuffs
to the miners, both white and Chinese. As the community changed, the
men sold canned goods, notions, tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes. Many
of the goods were imported from China. There is evidence that Chinese
money was exchanged between the immigrants and it was probably used
to purchase goods from their former homeland. During the prohibition,
Lung On sold "bootleg" whiskey. Examples of these types
of goods are still in the Museum.
Doc Hay
The building served as the office of Doc Hay. He was the most famous
Herbalist between San Francisco and Seattle in his day. He was a master
of pulse diagnosis. Doc Hay could tell his patients what was wrong
with them just by feeling the pulse in their arm. Then he would prepare
an herbal mixture from local plants and herbs from China. Doc Hay
was blind. When he shut the building up in 1948 to go to the nursing
home, Doc Hay left behind over 500 different herbs, many that have
never been identified.
This is what the building looks like from the back side.
When we saw that sign saying the museum was closed we thought we
had missed everything but on our way out of the parking lot we spotted
a state park building on the other side of the street that was housing
most of the information ----that saved the day for us since we have
driven 90-miles.
In the State Park building we were able to read and see many displays
that helped us understand about the Chinese population in the northwest
in the 1800 and into the 1900s. Chinese of this era did all manner
of work even owning stores. In 1904, Jim Low opened a general merchandise
store in McDermitt, Nevada. While Jim traveled the High Desert country
selling supplies to isolated ranches, his wife Chew Fong ran the store.
Customers ranged from buckaroos and miners to Paiute Indians. The
Paiutes called Chew Fong, "Bee Duh," meaning "auntie,"
as a token of their regard.
The migration of Chinese to the American West was driven by the lure
of opportunity. Initially, it was hoped-for quick riches of the gold
rush, later the opportunity for steady wages working on the region's
railroads, and in the agricultural, manufacturing and fishing industries.
However, after arrival and initial employment in these low paying
jobs, many enterprising individuals began to go into business for
themselves, providing goods and services within Chinatown, as well
as to the community at large.
Typically, the businesses operated by Chinese entrepreneurs included
stores selling Chinese goods and supplies, restaurants, laundries,
small farms, and woodcutting enterprises. "China bosses,"
individuals who spoke English and had a sharp business sense, often
accumulated considerable wealth contracting with western industries
to provide Chinese labor. Chinese medical practitioners, such as Ing
Hay of John Day, Wing Luke of Seattle, and ah Fong of Boise, often
made the transition from treating only Chinese laborers to being successful
and respected within the entire community.
Some Chinese became fishermen. By 1857, Humboldt Bay, California
had a Chinese fishing village. In the 1880s, Chinese shrimpers exported
more than a million pounds of shrimp meat and shells to China and
Japan, making California the most productive of America's shrimp-producing
states.
Because of immigration laws, there were very few Chinese women allowed
into America. Many Chinese males lived and died as bachelors. Any
Chinese marriage was a major cause for celebration.
I wonder what kind of laws we had that only allowed men into the
country? Do these laws still exist? It would seem that thousands of
men with no women would be a problem that could be seen by those making
the laws. What am I missing? Was this no women law applied to all
nationalities applying to enter America? Questions, Questions, so
many questions. There are so many things you do not learn in history
classes formulated to teach "jaded" history.
The values that the Chinese immigrants brought with them to the new
world facilitated the passage of their descendants into mainstream
America. Although small numbers of tenacious, elderly Chinese men
continued to reach their goal of returning to China after years of
labor in the West, younger generations began to look upon the region
as their home. Children of first generation immigrants were American
educated, upwardly mobile, and assimilated rapidly into western communities.
Initially, Chinese who died were buried for a brief period, then
their bones were shipped to ancestral burial grounds in China. However,
as more Chinese chose to remain in the West, their permanent resting
place was often the corner of a community cemetery equipped with a
brick altar for burning funeral offerings.
The Pacific Coast was the entry point for most of the Chinese immigrating
to the American West. The first Chinese to labor on the Pacific Coast
arrived in 1788. By the mid-1800s, significant numbers of Chinese
had entered ports in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Many Chinese immediately followed the rivers inland to the mining
regions. Other Chinese stayed on the coast and plied familiar maritime
trades. Chinese-style "junks" fished off California shores
for abalone in the 1850s. By 1870, there were Chinese fishing villages
scattered along the entire length of the the Pacific Coast from British
Columbia to Baja, California.
Chinese laborers were in high demand in the coastal industries. They
were prevalent in canneries in British Columbia. Oregon and Washington,
shingle mills and coal mines in British Columbia, and cigar factories
in San Francisco. Until anti-Chinese labor unrest forced time from
their jobs in the 1800s, they labored in the logging camps and lumber
mills throughout the Puget Sound region. Almost no industry and no
part of the economy on the Pacific Coast was left untouched by the
resourceful Chinese laborers.
As the inland valleys of the West developed, Chinese labor became
critical. Chinese laborers were recruited and managed through a "China
boss," who had to speak passable English, in addition to several
Chinese dialects, and above all, be a shrewd businessman. It was his
job to provide Chinese labor crews to employers.
By the 1800s, 75% of the seasonal labor in California agriculture
was Chinese. In the Sacramento Valley, Chinese laborers built levees
and cleared the tule swamps to create one of the West's richest agricultural
regions. They cleared land and planted the vineyards and orchards
that established the California wine and fruit industries. Both the
Oregon and Washington hop fields depended on Chinese labor.
Inland cities and towns relied upon enterprising Chinese farmers
who marketed vegetables to local households, restaurants and groceries.
In the Willamette and Rogue River valleys of Oregon, Chinese laborers
cut dense brush and hauled stone from the fields to create productive
farmland. The many existing, neatly stacked stone walls in these regions
are ever-present reminders of their work.
One temporary Chinese community complete with tents and outdoor kitchen
equipment followed the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad
as it progressed through California's Sierra Nevada Mountains and
eastward across the deserts of Nevada and Utah.
While the Chinese labored in America, cut off from the comfort of
marriage and family by immigrations laws, most Chinese lived in anticipation
of their eventual return home. During their sojourn, they did their
best to reconstruct the familiar elements of their traditional society
in this new land.
Their exclusion from western communities fostered the development
of both urban and rural Chinatowns. Within these "Chinatowns,"
there developed a communal spirit that assisted them in maintaining
their cultural identity.
A critical element of any culture, and particularly of Chinese society,
is its foods. Therefore, it was natural for the Chinese to raise or
import traditional vegetables, fruits, fish, and poultry. Wherever
they went, the Chinese took with them their stir-fry utensils, woks,
and ceramic jars of sauces and spices.
The Chinese adapted their lifestyles to the varied climates and terrain
of America. In the gold fields, they often lived communally in dugouts
or tents. In the Snake River Canyon of Idaho, they lived in crude
stonewalled huts dug into the ground along the river banks and roofed
with canvas. However, they continued to favor traditional clothing
and personal items of daily life, holding fast to these remnants of
their distant homeland while working in the most remote corners of
the American West.
In many western communities the Chinese laundry was a familiar and,
no doubt, welcomed sight in the West.
A few Chinese families existed. Those were the extremely fortunate
ones. Many sizable Chinatowns grew and died without ever having a
Chinese child born in them. I still wonder about the emigration laws
that created this situation. I hope someone can explain this to me.
Some Chinese became cooks. At the turn of the century, the ZX was
one of eastern Oregon's largest ranches. Throughout the era, a number
of Chinese cooks presided over this cookhouse and the outfit's chuck
wagon on roundups and trail drives.
The Chinese and Indians had disagreements just as did the Americans
and Indians. In 1864, over fifty were massacred by Paiutes while on
their way to the Owyhee mines on Jordan Creek, near Jordan Valley,
Oregon. The place is known as the Chinese massacre site.
While some Chinese worked as Chuck wagon cooks occasionally, they
also worked as cowboys on ranches, such as "Buckaroo Sam"
who worked on the Sproul Ranch in eastern Oregon.
Chinese laborers operated "hydraulic giants," high pressure
water hoses for washing away earth to expose gold-bearing rock. The
devices were cheap to operate and moved a great deal of soil, but
were inefficient. Other Chinese often picked over the "leavings"
and recovered much more gold than was recovered in the initial process.
We all know about the Chinese laborers contribution to constructing
the transcontinental railroad. After more than two years of labor
the Central Pacific Rail Road reached the community of Winnemucca,
Nevada. Then, on April 28, 1869, a Chinese track crew with the Central
Pacific laid ten miles of track in twelve hours, beating the old Union
Pacific record by two miles.
In Astoria Chinese worked in a Salmon cannery. Chinese were introduced
to the Oregon salmon canning industry in 1871, and turned it into
a major industry. Salmon canning in Washington state was second only
to wheat as a moneymaking industry.
As we might expect some Chinese worked as household servants. A Chinese
servant, especially a cook, was a valued and prestigious part of many
upper-class urban American households.
From the earliest days of western exploration and settlement, the
Chinese labored with skill and energy in a wide variety of occupations.
In 1788, sea trader John Mears brought 30 Chinese to Nookia Sound,
in British Columbia, to construct the sloop (Northwest America,) the
first sizable ship built on the Pacific Coast. Individual Chinese
were present in Spanish California in the early 1800s. However, it
was the discovery of gold in 1848 that attracted the first large migration
of Chinese to America.
In the early days of the gold rush, Chinese miners worked the streams
alongside forty-niners from throughout the world, but hostile discrimination
soon forced them from their claims. Soon large gangs of Chinese were
working as contract labor construction untold miles of ditches to
bring water to dry diggings and working hydraulic mining operations.
Outside the mining regions, they built levees, drained swamps and
cleaned fields to create the region's prosperous agricultural industry.
They labored in shoe factories, iron foundries, lumber mills and the
garment industry.
For over half a century, they worked in fish canneries of California
to Alaska. They constructed the western half of the first transcontinental
railroad through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the deserts of Nevada
as well as the subsequent rail routes and roads that created the region's
transportation network.
Other Chinese worked as garment workers. The first Chinese garment
worker was hired in San Francisco in 1859. by the 1870s, 70% to 80%
of the garment workers were Chinese. In 1876, there were two thousand
Chinese in the "sewing trades" in San Francisco.
Until Chinese labor diked the river and drained the tule swamps beginning
in 1850, the Sacramento Delta, now one of the world's richest agricultural
areas, was an uninhabitable marsh. By the late 1860s, thousands of
Chinese agricultural workers labored in the area.
Gold had been discovered in California in 1848. By 1870, many of
the miners in California and the majority of those in Oregon and Idaho
were Chinese. As we all know the discovery of gold throughout the
West spurred economic development. Chinese labor was in demand in
the growing, lumber, fishing and construction industries. Soon Chinese
labor was building the great transcontinental railroad which tied
together the North American West. As this project ended, Chinese railroad
workers migrated deeper into America, building smaller rail lines
throughout the region. They went into other industries, ranging from
garment making, cigar manufacturing, lumber milling, borax and quicksilver
mining to salmon canning and glass blowing, as well as into agriculture
on farms and ranches throughout the West.
Between 1876 and 1890, steamships brought an estimated 200,00 Chinese
to American west coast ports. Most immigrants were poor and had to
borrow the money for their voyage through the "Credit Ticket
System."
Passage one-way to America was around $50, but with the high rate
of interest, it cost the immigrant about $120. One estimate suggests
that American and British steamship companies made $11 million in
steerage fees paid by Chinese laborers. The immigrants, like many
newcomers, were often swindled. The money they had borrowed for their
journey created a form of virtual slavery to the firms which advanced
their passages. In 1852, Chinese aboard the ship Robert Brown bound
from Amoy discovered that they had been brought aboard under false
pretenses, killed the ship's officers and returned to China. By 1862,
American law forbade American ships from engaging in the infamous
coolie trade because of the many abuses.
Upon their arrival at Pacific Coast ports, the Chinese found local
employment, or began a second journey to the railroad camps, mining
regions and industries in the inland valleys, mountains and deserts
of the West.
Initially welcomed for their labor, the Chinese soon began to meet
prejudice and discrimination. Between 1852 and 1880, an increasing
number of laws and local restrictions had limited the civil rights
and job opportunities for Chinese in the West. Between 1885 and 1965,
a series of laws restricted Chinese immigration. During this period
the journey to America was limited to a privileged few. However, in
recent years, more equitable treatment during immigration has tempered
the experience of Chinese newcomers, who have come to America in search
of opportunities in the West.
Chinatowns were established in San Francisco by 1850, Portland by
1851, Seattle by 1860, and Vancouver by 1870. Soon Chinatowns could
be found throughout the West.
By 1880, as the Western development era slowed, the demand for Chinese
laborers waned. The smaller remote Chinatowns slowly died out as many
Chinese withdrew to the urban Chinatowns in fear of anti-Chinese violence.
In addition to greater security, the Chinatowns offered many obvious
advantages to the Chinese: familiar supporting institutions, a hope
of marriage and family life, and opportunities to pursue familiar
pastimes. These communities were generally dominated by successful
China bosses and merchant families.
Chinatowns often provided services for the surrounding communities.
Chinese gardens produced fine vegetables for local housewives. Gambling
halls contributed such familiar American pastimes as keno, which began
as the Chinese game, "white pigeon ticket." Restaurants
were popular destinations for visitors. Chinatowns, because of their
exotic nature, held a special allure for outsiders.
In the Western deserts Chinese worked at many occupations from mining
to building railroads to farming. Signs of their presence remain throughout
the West in numerous place names like the ubiquitous China Creek found
in most states of the region.
Traditional Chinese agricultural techniques proved useful in this
hostile and intractable environment. In the desert outside Winnemucca,
Nevada, is a fold in the low hills called "China Gardens"
where Chinese took advantage of run-off waters to grow vegetables
to sell in the local settlements.
The desert also had unique industries related to surface mining which
came to depend on the familiar Chinese labor gangs. They were also
employed by many of the ranches in the High Desert, cooking for the
buckaroos both at the ranch and from the back of a chuck wagon.
By the closing years of the 19th century, the Chinese population
centers in the desert began migrating to the large urban Chinatowns,
changing the rural communities significantly. What had been lively
centers of Chinese miners, railway workers, and laborers became isolated
pockets of aging bachelors.
Ok, enough of the Chinese influence on western history. It was time
to leave John Day and head back to Baker
City. The route takes us through beautiful valleys such as
this one between John Day and Prairie City.
Irrigation makes these valleys so lush and beautiful.
Prairie City, Oregon Lumber Mill
Prairie City has a large lumbermill.
Prairie City, Oregon Lumber Mill
We stopped so I could watch operations but virtually nothing was
happening.
Prairie City, Oregon Lumber Mill
The mill is obviously an operating mill but no machinery is operating
and no employees can be seen.
Prairie City, Oregon Lumber Mill
Lumber mills create huge piles of scrap bark and sawdust.
Prairie City, Oregon Lumber Mill
We have seen large 18-wheel trucks hauling finished lumber from this
mill on the way over here today. We have also seen logging trucks
delivering huge ponderosa pine logs to this mill. We just don't see
any at the moment.
For those interested Prairie City had a small museum and a connecting
RV-Park.
Summit of Dixie Mountain at Dixie Pass in Oregon
After leaving Prairie City US 26 heads up and over Dixie Pass. Whatever
you do in this area is going to involve climbing a pass every 15 to
20 miles.
Igneous intrusions or dikes
This basalt outcropping is in the process of creating a line of hoodoos.
Igneous intrusions or dikes
In this area basalt intrusions or dikes
have created a field of hoodoos.
These odd looking shapes were formed deep within the earth when molton
rock forced its way into cracks and crevices of the overlying rock.
The overlying rock being softer has eroded away exposing the much
harder basalt.
No sooner than we pass one of those desolate hoodoo
fields than we round the corner and a beautiful valley unfolds before
us.
Until next time remember how good life is.
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
