Chinese Miners Faced Racism, Violence As Mountain West Sundown Towns Excluded Them
In the late 19th century, Chinese miners lived in the Dostal Alley section of Central City in Gilpin County, Colorado. | Courtesy: Gilpin County Historical Society
By Stephanie Daniel / KUNC Linda Jew sits at a table in the Douglas County library near Denver. She’s looking at an old black-and-white photo. “The lady on the top is my mother Wawa,” she says. The monochromatic family portrait features nine people. Three young boys wear suits, while four girls pose in dresses. Their parents sit in the middle. “That’s Willie Chin holding one of the twins,” she continues. Missing from the photo is Willie Chin’s father, and Jew’s great-grandfather, Chin Lin Sou. In 1856, Chin emigrated from China to San Francisco as a young man. He was over 6 feet tall, had blue eyes and eventually worked on the transcontinental railroad. “Because he spoke English so well, they asked him to help organize the Chinese to build the railroads from California to Utah,” Jew says. Thousands of Chinese immigrants laid tracks for the railroads and when that work ended, they needed other jobs.
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October 2021 | Cover Story
Many joined Americans and white Europeans who came west to find gold, silver and other riches, said William Wei, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and former Colorado state historian. “There were a lot of Chinese railroad workers who moved on to become miners,” said Wei, author of Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State. “Not welcomed at all” One of Colorado’s first big gold camps was established in what is now Gilpin County and the towns of Central City, Blackhawk and Nevadaville. Prospectors from countries like Italy, Ireland and England flocked to the area to extract the mineral through hard-rock mining. By 1860, Central City had 10,000 residents. A group of Chinese miners settled in the area, including
