Distinctly Montana Magazine

Funs trays have been found at Big Timber and other Chinese sites. tiny pieces of tarpaper, mushy wood, and nails dating to the early 1900s. Chris saw the failure of Poacher Gulch as a “gateway to understanding.” Chinese pioneers mined claims, helped build the railroad, owned businesses and paid taxes, yet endured discriminatory laws and social injustice. Neither accepted nor understood, the Chinese dwindled in numbers leaving hardly a trace. The idea that an absent population could fuel strong and persistent misperceptions shaped Chris’ work over the next several years as he broadened his search. Chris was not the only archaeologist to study Montana’s Chinese. But his significant work tied previous attempts at analysis together. Archaeological collections, unprocessed and long stored away, offered invaluable additions to the record Chris began to compile. Excavations by others in recent years had yielded thousands of artifacts, but raised more questions. And, with- out a Montana collection to serve as a typology, there could be no accurate analysis. Two small collections, from China Gulch and Cinkers (his- torically known as Louiseville) at Cedar Creek in Mineral County, provided that basis. Forest Service archaeologists excavated these sites in 1995. Historic records confirmed that Chinese lived in Cedar Creek during the late 1860s and 1870s. Chris was thrilled to discover this collection as it contained the first Chi- nese artifacts he had seen in Montana. Items typical of west- ern Chinese settlements included celadon and bamboo style semi-porce- lain bowls, fragments of brown-glazed stoneware, and opium cans. At China Gulch, there were curious u-shaped, hand-stacked rock hearths and mys- terious small metal trays the archae- ologists originally called ‘thingies.’ Chris called in an expert. University of Idaho’s Dr. Priscilla Wegars identi- fied the “thingies” as “funs” trays, modified opium cans used to weigh and measure the drug. These wonderful collections, stored away for a decade, spurred Chris on. Over the next few years, he tirelessly traversed the footsteps of the vanished Chinese to remote camps and ghost towns in National Many ceramic artifacts have been excavated from German Gulch near Butte. Forests, urban neighborhoods, and cem- eteries. Slowly Chris began to put some of the pieces in place. Chris led new excavations at Cedar Creek. Chinese hearths yielded clues about the poor quality of life in this remote mining camp where there were 300 Chinese in the winter of 1870. Anal- ysis of pig, deer, and sheep bone fragments found in the hearths revealed that they had been processed—or cooked—at least four different times. This tells a sad China Row at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena includes a pile of bricks that was once a burial burner. story: the people living there were starving, and making do with very little. The hearths found here and elsewhere in Montana are unique to the Chinese. They are not the same as the Italian or Slavic bread ovens, often mistakenly called “Chinese ovens.” Chinese did not make bread. Another large collection of artifacts from German Gulch near Butte, excavated in the 1980s, also lay gathering dust. Chris organized volunteers to catalogue and sort this huge collection. Chris was astonished to discover that the site was a self-contained community. Opium dens, stores, and communal cooking areas offered the best variety of Chinese materials found in Montana to date. The collection included imported foodstuffs like Chinese dates and olives, sheephead fish, and flounder, illustrating a sophisticated trade network. Although the buildings are long gone, one feature at the site—in addition to hearths—is a type of kiln, possibly a crematorium. While there is no physical evidence of human crema- tion, the New Northwest magazine noted in 1874 the cremation of six Chinese at German Gulch. Sojourning Chinese often purchased insurance to guarantee the return of their remains—or perhaps ashes—to native soil should they die abroad. The railroad town of Big A few scattered tombstones in China Row are all that remain of a once-vital ethnic group. Timber attracted Chinese who left their jobs with the Northern Pacific and settled there. In 2008, students following Chris’ lead uncovered a Chinese restaurant and laundry next to a brothel. Historic maps show Chinese busi- nesses and a “female boarding house” operating in the neighbor- hood in the early 1900s. Red light districts and Chinese settlements, both housing outcast populations, were often adjacent. Volunteers unearthed 35,000 artifacts, which comprise Montana’s only known Chinese deposit of the 1930s and 1940s. Among the artifacts are a blu- www.distinctlymontana.com 81

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