Priscilla Wegars, Ph.D., Volunteer Curator
Laboratory of Anthropology
University of Idaho
P.O. Box 441111
Moscow, Idaho 83844-1111 USA
208-885-7075
pwegars@uidaho.edu
Boise - Morris
Hill Cemetery
Japanese and Chinese gravestones and shrine/burner.
Burley - Bureau
of Reclamation (Minidoka Concentration Camp
Materials)
Some planning documents and plat maps are housed here.
Cottonwood - The
Historical Museum at St. Gertrude
Clothing and other objects that once belonged to Polly Bemis. Artifacts
from local Chinese residents.
Eden - Minidoka Concentration Camp. See Minidoka Concentration Camp.
Grangeville - Bicentennial
Historical Museum
Polly Bemis's wedding ring, plus artifacts from local Chinese
residents.
Hope - May
Den's Gravestone
Gravestone of May Den, 1890-1925, in English and Chinese, in the town
cemetery, and gravestone of her husband, Louis Den.
Hunt - See Minidoka Concentration Camp.
Idaho City - Boise
Basin Museum
Items related to Idaho City's former Chinese residents.
Idaho City - Granite Creek Heritage Trails: Hong
Lee Placer
Placer mine operated by Chinese miners during the 1860s and 1870s.
Idaho City - Pon Yam House
Home of Pon Yam, a prominent Idaho City Chinese merchant and conflict
mediator.
Jerome County - Idaho
Farm and Ranch Museum (Minidoka Concentration Camp Barracks)
One barrack building interprets the Minidoka Concentration Camp
experience.
Located in Jerome at the crossroads of Highway 93 and Highway 84.
It is some 18 miles from the Minidoka Concentration Camp site.
Jerome County - Jerome
County Historical Museum
In Jerome. Contains bound WWII Northside News and Minidoka
Irrigator newspapers, Minidoka Interlude souvenir book, and
some artifacts.
Lewiston - Chinese at the Confluence: Lewiston's
Beuk Aie Temple
Permanent exhibit at the Lewis-Clark Center for Arts & History,
Fifth and Main streets. Honors the early Chinese of Lewiston,
ensuring
that the achievements of "Lewiston's other pioneers" are recognized and
remembered for the benefit of future generations. Illustrated
booklet
available.
Lewiston - Chinese
Gravestones
In a section of Lewiston's Normal Hill Cemetery, near 13th Avenue and
4th Street.
Lewiston - Prospect
Park
Site of turn-of-the-century Chinese cemetery, on Prospect Avenue
overlooking
the Snake River. Graves all relocated. Interpretive sign.
Lowell - Kooskia Internment Camp Site
The camp was located six miles above Lowell, at Canyon Creek. Today,
little remains of this World War II camp (mid-1943 to mid-1945) for
Japanese
aliens who helped construct portions of U.S. Highway 12. The
Apgar
picnic area, one-half mile further east, was once the site of Kooskia
Internment
Camp employee housing.
McCall - McCall
Ranger District Office
Exhibit of Chinese artifacts from the Warren Mining District.
Minidoka
Concentration
Camp
Off Highway 25 and Hunt Road, near Eden. Euphemistically called
a "Relocation Center," it housed more than 9,000 Japanese and Japanese
Americans, most of them forcibly removed from the Seattle and Portland
areas. It is
not at or even near the town of Minidoka. Portions
of a stone guard house and a stone visitors' waiting room remain;
several
plaques have been installed in more recent years. The Friends
of Minidoka have another Web site. To visit a barracks
building,
see Jerome County - Idaho Farm and Ranch Museum.
Minidoka
Internment National Monument
Minidoka Relocation Center. See Minidoka Concentration Camp; Minidoka Internment National Monument
Minidoka War Relocation Authority Camp Site. See Minidoka Concentration Camp; Minidoka Internment National Monument
Moscow - Asian American
Comparative Collection
Housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology at the University of Idaho.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean artifacts; bibliographical materials; and
slides.
Pierce - Chinese Cemetery
Depressions indicate where former burials were exhumed. Contact
city for more information.
Pierce - Pierce Free Public
Library
Exhibit of Chinese artifacts.
Polly Bemis Ranch. See Salmon River - Polly Bemis's Cabin and Grave
Potlatch - Japanese
Gravestone
The city cemetery has a gravestone, dated August 30, 1917 (5th year of
Taisho period) marking the burial
location of a former resident of Japanese ancestry.
Salmon - Lemhi
County Historical Museum
Exhibits include artifacts from Salmon's former Chinese residents,
plus a "Chinese Room" of objects (clothing, talewares, pipes, swords,
knives,
and tapestries) collected in China and elsewhere in Asia during the
1920s
by a couple from nearby Leesburg.
Salmon River - Remains of Chinese
Mining
Hydraulic workings, man-made reservoirs, rock dwellings, and Chinese
artifacts attest to the presence of Chinese miners on the Lower Salmon
River.
Salmon River - Polly Bemis's Cabin
and
Grave
Idaho Chinese pioneer Polly Bemis lived in this cabin on the Main
Salmon
River from 1922 to 1933. She is buried nearby. Easily accessible only
by
jet boat from Riggins. Slide
lecture available.
Silver City - Chinese
Settlement
Chinese artifacts are visible on the ground in Silver City's
former
"Chinatown."
Twin Falls - Twin
Falls Public Library
Research materials on the Minidoka Concentration Camp, including
newspaper
articles, a diary, a thesis on the camp, and Journey to Minidoka
paintings
by Roger Shimomura, c. 1983.
Warren - Chinese
Cemetery
Depressions indicate where former burials were exhumed.
Warren - Chinese
Gardens and Old China Trail
Upper terraced gardens; trail leads down to others near the South Fork
of the Salmon River. Information available from Payette National
Forest,
McCall, and from Warren Ranger Station.
Warren - Warren
Ranger Station
Outdoor display panels discuss local Chinese history.
Warren - Winter Inn
Local tavern has display cases containing labeled Chinese artifacts.
Butte - Mai Wah Society
Building that once housed the Wah Chong Tai Co. store and the Mai Wah
Noodle Parlor. Exhibits during the summer months.
Butte - World
Museum of
Mining
Outdoors; buildings depict a Chinese apothecary shop and a
Chinese
laundry (displays inside; look through the windows).
Helena - Montana
Historical
Society
Houses major items from Butte's Mai Wah Noodle Parlor. The Paul
Eno collection includes clothing, household goos, photographs, and
phonograph
records.
Nevada City - Replicated
Chinatown
Contains a store and several other buildings, complete with contents,
from Chinese businesses in other communities.
Virginia City - Museum
The local museum contains many Chinese artifacts.
Gold Creek - Island Mountain
Townsite
This placer mining community began about 1873, and was 76% Chinese
by 1880.
Astoria - Columbia River Maritime
Museum
Exhibits illustrate maritime ties with Asia, and Asian cannery workers.
Baker City - Chinese
Cemetery
Contains depressions where previous burials were exhumed, and one
marker
for a burial that still remains. Cemetery probably contains other,
unmarked,
burials. Reconstructed shrine/burner.
Baker City - Mt.
Hope Cemetery
Contains about 15 gravestones, some in Japanese, of Japanese nationals
and Japanese Americans who died in Baker City during the 1920s and
1930s.
Also several gravestones indicating burial locations of deceased
Chinese
American residents.
Baker City - National
Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Chinese names appear on a page reproduced from the 1870 Baker City
census; several Chinese artifacts.
Baker City - Oregon
Trail Regional Museum
Artifacts from local Chinese residents.
Bend - High Desert
Museum
One exhibit recreates a Chinese store.
Granite - Ah
Hee Diggings
Sixty acres of hand-stacked rock tailings left by Chinese placer
miners.
Also known locally as the "Chinese Walls." Illustrated site
report and slide
lecture
available.
Hell's Canyon - Chinese
Massacre
Cove
In 1887, Caucasian thugs massacred at least 31 Chinese miners at Deep
Creek on the Oregon side of the Snake River. Inaccessible except by jet
boat
from Lewiston.
Huntington - Clark's
Cafe Sign
Sign painted on brick wall of building for long-gone business; sign
states, "All White Help," meaning, no Chinese.
John Day - Kam
Wah
Chung & Company Museum
Former Chinese store and herbal medicine shop housing a vast array
of Chinese artifacts.
Medford vicinity/Applegate Valley - Gin
Lin Mining Trail
Remains of Chinese hydraulic mining near Applegate Lake within the
Rogue River National Forest.
Ontario - Four
Rivers
Cultural Center and Museum
Includes exhibits on local Japanese Americans as well as on the World
War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Japanese garden in
progress.
Pendleton - Chinese
Graves and Burner, Olney Cemetery
The Chinese section, on the southwest side, has some 23 gravestones
and a brick burner.
Pendleton - Pendleton Underground
An interesting tour of downtown Pendleton basements. However, some
guides call them "Chinese tunnels" thus perpetuating a stereotype for
which
there is no basis in fact. See "Ongoing
Research" for a discussion of so-called "Chinese tunnels."
Portland - Oregon Nikkei
Legacy
Center
A museum and cultural center honoring Japanese Americans in Oregon.
Union Creek - Chinese
Mining Site
Three-tiered, rock-walled, water delivery channel, originally fed by
two earthen dams.
Delta - Great
Basin Museum
Numerous artifacts from the Topaz Concentration Camp.
Delta - Topaz
Concentration Camp
140 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Today the site contains
roads, rock walls, manholes, concrete slabs, rubble, and miscellaneous
artifacts.
Auburn - White
River Valley Museum
Exhibit of Japanese farmhouse, c. 1915.
Long Beach - World
Kite
Museum & Hall of Fame
Our of 1400 kites, the museum has 700 kites from Japan, China, and
Malaysia. The collection of 300 Japanese kites is considered the
most complete outside of Japan. There are also some Indonesian
kites.
Displays rotate.
Port Townsend - Antique Mall
Basement reportedly has a display of Chinese artifacts relating to
1880s Chinese
residents.
Port Townsend - Diamond
Point Quarantine Station
Many Asian immigrants were detained in this facility, or passed through
it, between 1893 and 1935. It is now mostly demolished.
Port Townsend - Jefferson
County
Historical Society Museum
The Chinese in Port Townsend; artifacts of the Zee Tai Company, a
Chinese mercantile establishment, as well as historic photos and a
discussion of the opium trade.
Seattle Chinatown Historic District. See Seattle - International District
Seattle - International
District
Historically, the home of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino
immigrants.
Places of particular interest include the Bing Kung Association, the
Bush
Hotel, Canton Alley, the Chinese Bulletin Board, Chinese Cultural
Service
Center, Chinese Information & Service Center, Chong Wa Benevolent
Association,
Danny Woo International District Community Garden, Hing Hay Park,
Jackson
Street Colonnade, Panama Hotel,
Tai Tung Restaurant, Tsue Chong Noodle Company, and
the
Yick Fung Company.
Seattle - Kubota
Garden
Japanese immigrant Fujitaro Kubota created this 20-acre garden in
1927. Located at 9817 55th Ave. South, the garden "blends Japanese and
Japanese American garden concepts with native Northwest plants" (David
Takami, International Examiner,
31[9]:14, May 5-18, 2004).
Seattle - Wing Luke Asian
Museum
Contemporary and historical exhibits of Asian and Pacific Islander
groups.
Stevenson - Columbia
Gorge Interpretive Center
Exhibit of Japanese household objects.
Tacoma - Reconciliation Park
Site of Chinese commemorative park near early Chinese settlement
burned in 1885 during anti-Chinese riot.
Vashon Island - Mukai Farm
and Garden
Owned by Denichiro Mukai, and later by his son, Masa, this was once
the largest strawberry farm in the U.S. Denichiro's second wife,
Kuni, created the Japanese garden. It is the only one surviving
that
is known to have been designed by a Japanese immigrant woman.
Walla Walla - Chinese
Gravestones and Shrine/Burner
In the city cemetery.
Vancouver - Wing
Sang Company building and Yip family artifacts in Vancouver Museum
The Yip Sang Building is at 51 East Pender Street. Over 300 related
artifacts are housed in the Vancouver Museum.
See Links for
additional information.