Preserving Chinese History in Utah

CRWDA has been working with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office (USHPO) for years on multiple projects concerning the history of Chinese people in Utah.

In May 2021, CRWDA board members accompanied BLM and USHPO on the first archaeological project at Terrace Utah to preserve important artifacts.

From outside a small excavation pit, Karen Kwan and Margaret Yee watch as a researcher carefully extracts a scrap of linen clothing from the buried ruins of a house. A few yards away, another researcher brushes dirt from a ceramic bowl intricately painted with bamboo and floral motifs.

Terrace was established by Chinese railroad workers in 1869, when construction crews were racing to connect the eastward and westward tracks of the railroad 70 miles from here at Promontory Summit. Eventually, simple wood structures rose on both sides of Main Street, housing hotels, clothing stores, restaurants, railroad machine shops, even a 1,000-volume library specializing in science, history and travel literature. Because water was scarce, engineers constructed an aqueduct from hollowed-out timber, funneling water from mountain springs that were miles away. At its peak, the town was home to some 500 residents, and it welcomed hundreds more each year, mostly rail and wagon-train travelers.

In 1903, Terrace burned in a fire, and after the railroad was rerouted 50 miles south—straight across the Great Salt Lake—the following year, the town was abandoned. But researchers have returned, seeing the ghost town as an ideal site to learn not only about the workings of a remote railroad town but especially about the immigrant community that thrived here. “Terrace had all the different activities that you would expect in a frontier town,” says Michael Sheehan, an archaeologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. “But it wasn’t just a railroad town. It was a microcosm that offers a glimpse into class, ethnicity, even international relations.” For descendants of Chinese railroad workers, such as Kwan and Yee, the research also allows them to recover a part of their heritage that was thought lost to history. “Archaeology like this is important,” Kwan says, “because it puts the individual back into the picture.”

On the May 2021 trip, the team found the first Chinese home on the Transcontinental in the entire nation.

Read More on the Smithsonian Magazine

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On Friday September 3, 2021, Dr. Chris Merritt (Utah SHPO) and Archeologist Mike Sheehan (BLM) led a group of invited guests and CRWDA members on a 30-mile tour of a section of the historic Transcontinental railway route north of the Great Salt Lake.

Among the 18 participants were many first-time visitors. These included BLM State Director Greg Sheehan, Utah State Representatives Joel Briscoe and Elizabeth Weight, Ross Chambless (Utah House Minority Communications Director), Karen Krieger (Project Manager Utah Division of Arts and Museums), Zoey Nelson (Archeologist Intern with Utah Division of State History), Ms. Yang Wen Jin (Eastern Trends newspaper), and Dean Hirabayashi (CRWDA).

Director Sheehan was greatly impressed by the support and interest concerned citizens like members of CRWDA show in our shared history. Representatives Briscoe and Weight, both retired teachers, were fascinated by the untold story of our Asian pioneers, and both plan to pursue better ways of telling their stories.

In his fascinating and informative presentations, Dr. Merritt shared with us some of the most impressive features of the Transcontinental route through Utah. Among these, one of his favorites is a magnificent 3-span, wooden trestle bridge still standing after 152 years of heavy use, harsh weather, and wildfires.

Through the joint efforts of the BLM, the Utah SHPO, and Representative Karen Kwan, a protective barrier and new signs were posted to help preserve the site. Unfortunately, the signs already have been vandalized.

We stopped at the ghost town of Terrace once home of the largest Asian community in Utah. This was a major repair and supply depot repairing locomotives for all of northern Utah. It is here that Mike and Chris have used both professionals and volunteers to ‘dig into’ the lives of the earliest Chinese pioneers in Utah.

​Chris and Mike explained that our understanding of the Chinese workers at Terrace and beyond is changing with every new discovery.

A great lunch was provided by CRWDA members Margaret Yee, Yu Li Lin, and Siu Lin Santee.

As our tour continued, Chris showed us surviving features of the railroad including culverts and bridges from 1869, huge fills, and 2 deep cuts through the ridges- all features needed to keep water from washing out the road and to keep the level of the roadbed under 1.5% no matter what.

Chris also showed us an area where cadaver dogs indicated a site where there may be several unknown burials. The dogs brought from out of state are specially trained to find sites where people were once buried. With the aid of voluntary contributions, CRWDA hopes to help Chris bring the dogs back in 2022 to further investigate and possibly find the last resting spot of some of the earliest Asian residents of Utah.

Our final stop was at Kelton, a railroad town that provided not only a shipping point for area ranchers but also a vital link for gold miners in Idaho. Supplies for the miners were offloaded there and put on wagons that followed the Bear River Valley all the way north to the gold fields.

This was a great tour. It was both informative and entertaining and we all valued this chance to touch the past. CRWDA thanks the BLM for its commitment to preserving this special place for all Americans. We also thank Mike Sheehan and Chris Merritt for sharing their expertise with all of us.  

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