Transpacific Chinatowns in Rural Wyoming: The Archaeology of Chinese Labor, Racial Violence, and Community

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Friday, October 16, 2026 | 6pm to 7:30pm

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The Evanston and Rock Springs Chinatowns were constructed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company after 1869 as they needed labor for the railroad and coal mines. At the same time, Chinese laborers were scapegoated for white unemployment, which culminated in the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Newspapers emphasized that Chinese laborers, mostly men, were “heathens” who sent remittances to family in China. Within this context of anti-Chinese sentiment, a fight broke out between white and Chinese coal miners on September 2, 1885 and white miners led a mob that burned the Rock Springs Chinatown and murdered at least 28 Chinese residents. The Almy community of Chinese coal miners were robbed and driven out with the massacre survivors to the Evanston Chinatown. This talk discusses preliminary results from archaeological collaboration with Dr. Dudley Gardner and Chinese American descendants on the Wyoming Chinatowns, which provide tangible insight into silenced histories of Chinese immigrant labor, transpacific migration, and racial exclusion.

Buried Chinatowns: https://buriedchinatowns.sites.grinnell.edu/

Author Bio

Dr. Laura W. Ng is a historical archaeologist with a research focus on the archaeology of Asian American communities. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University and is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa. She is currently conducting transpacific archaeological research on the Rock Springs and Evanston Chinatowns in Wyoming, which is funded by Grinnell College, the Frison Institute, and the Far Western Foundation.