Asian American Comparative Collection: 
Significance of Asians and Asian Americans in Idaho History

Gold discoveries in Idaho beginning in 1860 eventually attracted many Chinese, as miners or as providers of support services such as laundries, restaurants, and stores. In later years, many worked on the railroads, either in the initial construction or on later track maintenance. Still others were doctors, interpreters, hotel keepers, or gardeners. By 1870 Idaho Territory had some 4,000 Chinese residents, about 28.5% of the total population. People of Japanese ancestry began coming to Idaho by the 1890s. They worked mainly on the railroads and in agriculture, although some ran restaurants and laundries.  Census records provide additional occupations for Idaho's Chinese and Japanese residents.

On the national level, anti-Chinese feelings culminated in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. It prohibited any new Chinese laborers from arriving. This and other racist laws, not repealed until 1943, meant that all immigrant Chinese, as well as people from other Asian and Southeast Asian countries, were forbidden from becoming U.S. citizens, no matter how long they had resided here, how well they spoke English, or how "Americanized" they had become. Even Chinese pioneer Polly Bemis, married to a Caucasian American man, Charlie Bemis, could not become a U.S. citizen.

Male Chinese laborers who entered before 1882 generally could not bring their families over after that date. They became known as a "bachelor society," but of course most were not bachelors at all. Once the gold played out in Idaho, they moved to larger towns to work, or returned to China if they could afford to do so; sadly, however, many died here without ever seeing their families again.

Once Chinese immigrant numbers had dwindled enough that they no longer were an economic threat to Caucasian workers, they attracted less and less anti-Chinese sentiment. Some remained in local communities into the 1920s and 1930s, and longer in cities such as Boise and Lewiston. One man, called "Ah Sam," was even known as the "honorary mayor of Warren."