John Day, OR rest day

I am all caught up blogging, but the next few towns are very small. Tomorrow is a very long day (70 miles) and Anne and I are planning to go an extra 6 miles out of our way to see the John Day fossil beds. We are in three different places tomorrow night so the Internet may not be an option.

Today I cleaned my bike and went to the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site. At the time of the gold rush the area had a large Chinese community. All that remains of "China town" today is the building in my picture, the Kam Wah Chung "Golden flower of Prosperity" & Company. The building was built in 1870 and the upper half in 1890. Two young Chinese immigrants "Doc" Hay and Lung On bought the building's lease in 1888. Then it became a successful place of business, a frequently visited herbal medical office, a bunk room, and kitchen. Doc Hay established an herbal medicine practice that became known throughout eastern and central Oregon. He treated both Chinese and white patients at his clinic until 1948. Lung On, who was well educated and fluent in English, became a successful merchant and landowner.

Early on, they had to bar their windows and doors with steel because the local cowboys would often get drunk on the weekends and shoot up China town. By 1900 these two men had won the respect of the town and the violence stopped. Both men became very wealthy. They had families in China but sent very little money to their wives and children and made no attempt to bring them to the United States. An act was passed in 1884 barring any Chinese women and children from coming to the US. The government wanted the men to work and then go home, figuring that if their families were back in China they wouldn't stay long.

Both Doc Hay and Lung On did not go back, did not help their families out much, and became very successful. They are buried in the town cemetery instead of having their bones sent back to China as was the custom of the day. They felt that Oregon was their home and they wanted to remain in John Day. (Maybe they thought their wives and kids would throw their bones away!)