2022-07-01 - Sojourners in the Oregon Siskiyous by Jeffrey Max
==============================================================
LaLande
=======
Adaptation and Acculturation of the Chinese Miners in the
Applegate Valley 1855-1900
Abstract
========
The subsistence pattern of the Chinese sojourners exhibits little
acculturation in food habits, personal grooming or drug use, but
substantial adoption of Euro-American clothing and footwear.
Environmental adaptations include the utilization of wild plants and
animal foods on a limited basis. Generally, the day-to-day
subsistence activities of the Chinese showed very little
acculturative behavior.
The technological pattern of Chinese mining activity shows a rapid
appropriation of Euro-American methods and and equipment. Since the
Chinese immigrants had no native mining tradition to inhibit this
borrowing, the technological pattern is the most acculturative and
adaptive aspect of sojourner culture.
The Chinese were able to function and thrive in an unfamiliar setting
without forfeiting the bulk of their native culture.
Introduction
============
The core of this study is based on archaeological data recovered from
Chinese mining camps in the Applegate Valley of Jackson County,
Oregon.
(No Chinese language sources have been consulted.)
(In order to maintain consistency with the quoted material, this
paper uses the pre-1979 standard English spellings of Chinese
place-names; for example, Kwangtung and not "Guangd'ong," Peking and
not "Beijing," etc.)
This Chinese refusal to assimilate both frustrated and fascinated the
Euro-American observer who remarked that the sojourner "mixes with
other people as oil mingles with water... It must be pointed out
that within China itself the various ethnic groups retained their
cultural lifeways with extreme tenacity.
Part I: Background: Historical and Environmental Setting
========================================================
History of Chinese Immigration to the Western United States
===========================================================
Chinese legend tells of the "Fu-sang" wanderers who, at some time in
the Middle Kingdom's distant past, sailed across the great ocean to
the east and discovered land. ... some Chinese arrived on the west
coast of New Spain during the last half of the sixteenth century.
They became so numerous in the port of Acapulco that by 1600 that
place was known as "ciudad de los Chinos." In 1788 Meares' colonists
at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, included nearly fifty Chinese
carpenters, coopers and other artisans. They helped to build the
British fort and constructed the schooner North West America from
native timbers. Immigration of major proportions, however, did not
occur until the mid-nineteenth century, when thousands of Chinese
flocked to the United States to participate in the rapid economic
development of the Western frontier.
... the American Immigration Committee officially recorded the first
Chinese immigrant to the U.S. in 1820.
The Chinese of Hong Kong and Canton rapidly christened America as Gum
Shan, the "Mountain of Gold," and the initial trickle of immigrants
to California grew into a steady stream. Although the early San
Francisco immigration and custom house figures are incomplete and in
some instances conflict, historians seem to agree that some 4,000
Chinese had arrived by the end of 1850, and that between 1851 and
1852 the number increased to over 20,000.
Roots of the Sojourner Phenomenon
---------------------------------
Who were the Nan Yangthe Overseas Chinese and why did they come to
America? The answers can be found by posing a more basic question:
from where did they come?
During the nineteenth century virtually all of the overseas Chinese
(i.e., those going to Southeast Asia, Indonesia, etc., as well as
those sailing to North and South America) came from the provinces of
Fukien and Kwangtung on the south China coast. An overwhelming
majority of the migrants to North America (probably in excess of 95%)
came from Kwangtung Province, and of these by far the largest portion
originated from the Pearl River Delta country in and around the
provincial capital of Kwangtung ("Canton"). To narrow the geographic
focus even further, it is estimated that between one-half and
three-quarters of today's Chinese-Americans are descendants of
sojourners who left villages in the districts of Toi'shan (a.k.a.
Hsin-ning, or in older publications, "Sunning") and Chung shan.
Toi'shan District (a district being a political subdivision roughly
similar in function and size to a county in the U.S.) contributed a
larger share of immigrants to the United States than any of the six
other districts from which the bulk of the remaining Chinese came.
In short, nearly all of the Chinese who lived in the United States
between 1850 and 1900 came from an area in China not much different
in size than Jackson County, Oregon.
The people of Toitshan and other districts of the Pearl River Delta
had been gradually acclimated to the idea of foreign travel--far more
so than other Chinese. As early as the Jesuit Francis Xavier's
aborted attempt to enter China at Toi'shan in the sixteenth century,
the area had become the focus of European religious and mercantile
interest. At mid-century a number of internal processes and events
had created severe disruption to the social and economic fabric of
south China, making overseas emigration into a means of personal
survival for many natives of Kwangtung.
A very densely populated region, the [Pearl River] Delta had reached
its human carrying-capacity by 1750-1800 and had entered a period of
socio-economic stress.
Growing out of this environmental and economic stress were symptoms
of profound social unrest.
The Tai'ping uprising degenerated into an extremely bitter and bloody
conflict (estimates put the death toll at about 20 million) which
raged across the south China landscape for over a decade.
As if this were not sufficient, the 1860s witnessed a series of
violent internal conflicts among competing clans and ethnic groups in
southern Kwangtung. Hostility between the Pun'ti ("native people,"
long-term residents of the Pearl River Delta) and the Hakka ("guest
people," more recent immigrants to the region from the north) became
especially intense within Toitshan and the rest of the Sze
Yap--leading to the construction of walled, pueblo-like villages by
the Hakka for defensive purposes. (Some of the so-called early "tong
wars" of the California gold fields were actually continuations of
the Punti-Hakka feud.)
Diaspora to a New Land
----------------------
Even if the hope for great wealth was slim, wages in the United
States were far better than those available in China. The most one
could expect in Kwangtung was about ten cents per day, whereas
sojourners in America reportedly received between fifty and
seventy-five cents a day for most forms of manual labor. The average
annual return sent to one's family in China amounted to about thirty
dollars, a significant monetary infusion when multiplied throughout
the impoverished
villages...
The overwhelming majority of nineteenth century immigrants to the
United States were male.
Most of the Chinese immigrants to the United States arrived under the
"credit ticket" system. This was a process whereby the sojourner
and/or his family borrowed the passage fee (usually from a clan or
district association headquartered in the city of Kwangtung) and then
gradually paid back the debt through his labors in a foreign land.
Nevertheless, the credit ticket system did afford a certain measure
of free choice--"take it or leave it." In contrast, the "coolie
system" involved virtual slavery. Once he arrived at San Francisco,
the sojourner retained some power (however limited by his creditors)
to pick his place of employ and, if opportune, to leave it for
another. The coolie was not so fortunate. The word ku-li derived
from a Tamil term translated as "bitter strength".
Most sojourners left on their journey from the British port of Hong
Kong. The vessels were often overcrowded and under-provisioned;
comparisons to the "Middle Passage" of the African slave trade have
been made by some commentators.
The Chinese in Southwestern Oregon
----------------------------------
Local tradition dates the earliest Chinese camp at Kerbyville,
Josephine County (about twenty miles west of the Applegate Valley),
to before 1855.
As in California, gold was the initial reason that the Chinese came
to southwestern Oregon. The 1850s mining boom in the Siskiyou
Mountains was actually a northward extension of the central
California gold rush.
In 1870 the Oregon census records that nearly 2,500 out of a total of
4,000 "miners" were Chinese (61%)... The bulk of these Chinese
Oregonians lived in Jackson and Josephine counties...
The Chinese tended to work in clan groups or "companies," competing
(sometimes violently) with each other for placer ground along the
Applegate and its tributaries.
Oriental [people] in the Applegate Valley purchased many of their
supplies (including imported Chinese food, opium, etc.) at Kaspar
Kubli's store near the confluence of the Applegate River and Thompson
Creek.
White-owned mining companies, like those on Squaw Creek and Sterling
Creek, hired gangs of "Celestials" through Chinese labor brokers.
The initial development costs involved in hydraulic mining were
beyond the means of most Chinese companies. They often purchased
such mines after the original Euro-American investors' profit margins
had sunk too low. By reworking the old tailings and extending the
hydraulic cuts into adjacent ground, Chinese-owned operations gleaned
a great deal of gold from abandoned claims in southwestern Oregon...
(Gin [Lin] was atypical also in that his is the only Chinese name
mentioned with a respectful tone in the Jacksonville newspapers.)
As hydraulic mining declined after 1890 the Chinese population in
southwestern Oregon dwindled.
"John Chinaman," Unwelcome Immigrant
------------------------------------
Many miners were Southerners or others who possessed a deep strain of
racial antipathy to all non-whites. Many of them originated from the
border states and had contempt for the slave economy of that region.
To them the wave of supposed "coolies" represented the very evil they
hoped to leave behind... The burgeoning laboring class of whites
considered the Chinese willingness to work for low wages to be unfair
competition...
... pro-Chinese attitudes in the American West were confined largely
to powerful entrepreneurs like Charles Crocker (who employed hordes
of Chinese to construct the western portion of the trans-continental
railroad)...
Although some voiced their objections, violence against the Chinese
became commonplace.
By 1857 the shooting of Chinese miners in Shasta County, California,
had become almost "a daily occurrence" and assaults against them were
soon compared to those of the "sportsmen [who] surprise and shoot
their game in the woods." The mayhem spread to the Applegate Valley.
It was encouraged by the fact that, prior to 1862, "no Negro,
Chinaman or Kanaka [Hawaiian] could testify against white men" in
Oregon courts...
Acts of violence against urban Chinese communities accelerated after
the Panic of 1873 and other economic factors had created widespread
unemployment in the western United States.
Urban riots began with the burning of the Los Angeles Chinatown in
1871. The "Wyoming Massacre" (twenty-eight Chinese killed) at Rock
Springs in 1885 helped to touch off anti-Chinese riots in the
Seattle, Tacoma and Portland areas in 1885-6.
Some California communities even enacted "anti-queue" ordinances:
> ... everybody [in San Francisco] convicted of a crime had his
> hair cut to one inch. This was aimed, of course, against the
> Chinese. Since the Chinese government severely punished any
> non-Manchu for not wearing a queue [a symbol of submission], this
> order caused great embarrassment and anxiety to Chinese who wanted
> to return to China.
Continued agitation by Western congressmen eventually led to passage
of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This legislation (the first
racially-based immigration law in the U.S.), brought an end to the
free entry of Chinese laborers, a right which had been bilaterally
guaranteed by the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Successive
congressional measures throughout the remainder of the nineteenth and
into the early twentieth centuries extended the enforcement of the
1882 act until 1943.
Environments In Contrast: Homeland and the Applegate Valley
===========================================================
Coastal Kwangtung, the most southerly portion of China, has a humid,
sub-tropical climate. The monsoon season lasts from April through
October. Rain from the South China Sea is almost constant during
this period and the heat becomes quite intense, often exceeding 100°
F. During these long summer months, the communities are hit by
raging typhoons several times, and the heavy precipitation during the
summer season often results in flooding. The remainder of the year
is characterized by intermittent precipitation or drought and
relatively cold northerly winds.
A chain of rugged highlands separates most of the province from the
Yangtze River basin and other major population centers to the north.
The "Cantonese" language of coastal Kwangtung included various
dialects. The Sze Yap people spoke a version considered to be "less
pure and genteel" than that of other districts.
The Applegate Valley and the Siskiyou Mountains
-----------------------------------------------
The Applegate Valley is located within a portion of the deeply
dissected Siskiyou Mountains (the term "Siskiyou" denotes that
portion of the Klamath Mountain Province situated between the Rogue
River on the north and the Klamath River to the south).
The Applegate Valley has a moderate, marine-influenced climate. It
is characterized by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers with very
little cloud cover. Severe winter storms can create erosive flooding
along the steep walled channels of tributary streams.
Physically, the Sze Yap and the Siskiyou environments show some
similarities. Both are mountainous and possess flood-prone drainage
systems. Level, arable lands are severely restricted by
physiography; the terrain of the two areas has further functioned to
ensure a degree of "remoteness" to both. However, the major
differences in climatic regimes as well as proximity to marine
resources and large urban centers are obvious. The contrasts between
the socio-economic environments of the Sze Yap and southwestern
Oregon are significant.
Southwestern Oregon was uninhabited by Euro-Americans until the
mid-nineteenth century. The local aboriginal population had survived
for centuries through a yearly round of hunting, fishing and
gathering. Following 1850 the region experienced the sudden invasion
of several thousand miners.
Although the rude trappings of the mining frontier quickly faded from
much of southwestern Oregon, the Applegate Valley remained something
of a remote hinterland tied to Jacksonville or Medford for staple and
luxury goods.
The Sojourner's Social Environment
----------------------------------
The question arises: what social mechanisms allowed the Chinese
immigrant community, especially in remote places like the Applegate
Valley, to retain its cultural identity? The answer is found in the
integrative bonding system which evolved in southern China over the
past millennia. The various districts, dialects and clans in
Kwangtung were represented by corresponding associations in the
United States.
To the hui kuan or district associations... fell the major burden of
providing for the immediate needs of a newcomer. As a result of
their large memberships, the district associations wielded
substantial financial power. District groups often formed distinct
colonies in the United States.
The Chinese further divided into clan associations. When persons of
the same surname were not available, the sojourner often related to
his "colleagues, employers and friends in pseudo-kinship terms."
The Chinatowns, like knots in a loose weaving, held this
geographically-dispersed social network together. The Chinatown of
the western American frontier was, partially at least, a self-imposed
ghetto. Lyman describes it as "communalistic," a political system in
which a "racially and culturally defined group governs itself, lives
according to its own traditions and is ruled by its own elites... a
special form of extraterritoriality." Within the immigrant community
Chinese currency continued to circulate as legal tender and Chinese
law continued to be obeyed.
Part II: Archaeology of Chinese Sites in the Siskiyou Mountains
===============================================================
Review of Previous Chinese Site Archaeology in the United States
================================================================
Amateur archaeologists, bottle collectors and others have been quite
active at Chinese sites in the Far West.
In southwestern Oregon the current owner of the old Ashland city dump
has "mined" Chinese and other artifacts for a number of years. The
badly disturbed remnant of a Chinese hydraulic mining camp between
Ashland and Talent also has yielded Oriental ceramic shards to local
collectors. Relic hunters have dug at site 35JA5003, the location of
Gin Lin's mining camp on the Little Applegate River. Mr. Marshall
Lango has excavated a privy and other features within the old Chinese
Quarter of Jacksonville. Various ceramics, opium paraphernalia,
coins, pig tusks and other items were recovered.
Site 35JA5003: Gin Lin's Camp at "Little Applegate Diggings"
============================================================
Physical Setting
----------------
Site 35JA5003 is located on privately-owned land in Section 11,
Township 39 South, Range 3 West (W.M.) at an elevation of
approximately 1,525 feet above sea level. Surface material indicates
that the site occupies an area approximately one acre in extent. It
is situated on an alluvial terrace about 0.1 mile south of the Little
Applegate River. The Little Applegate, flowing in a northwesterly
direction, joins the main Applegate River slightly less than a mile
downstream from site 35JA5003.
Site History
------------
Site 35JA5003 is the location of Gin Lin's hydraulic mining camp (ca.
1875-1885). Gin first purchased land (one of the few Chinese allowed
to do so) in the Little Applegate Valley in 1864. This transaction
involved the Wilson Ranch at the mouth of Sterling Creek, about two
miles upstream (southeast)...
Gin Lin's hydraulic operation was known variously as the "Little
Applegate Diggings," "Uniontown Diggings" and "Cameron Diggings" (the
latter two because of the mine's proximity to Robert Cameron's
trading post near the confluence of the Little Applegate and the main
river).
Some estimates for the Little Applegate Diggings (Grants Pass Daily
Courier, 3 Apr. 1935) put Gin's returns at about $2,000,000 worth of
gold.
The employment of Euro-Americans (who most probably resided at nearby
communities like Uniontown, Bunkum or Sterlingville) may have been a
diplomatic move on Gin's part, undertaken with the hope of retaining
the good will of local residents. He also was careful to halt his
mining operation for short periods during the late summer so that
Uniontown ranchers could utilize the ditch water to irrigate their
pastures.
In 1885 Gin Lin bought another large hydraulic mine, on the Rogue
River near Galice Creek (Democratic Times 25 Sept. 1885).
(In 1979, Mr. Ming Kee of Aurora, Oregon donated a number of Chinese
artifacts to the Jacksonville Museum. Mr. Kee's mother was a niece
of Gin Lin, and some of the items are said to have perhaps belonged
to him. The Kee Collection contains "luxury" ornamentals and other
expensive objects dating to the late Manchu Dynasty [pre-1910].
Interesting as they are, these artifacts were not included in this
study.)
Artifact Analysis
-----------------
[The author excavated two pits at site 35JA5003.]
The assemblage shows an overwhelming preference for Oriental
foodstuffs (most packaged in Chinese-manufactured containers) and
tablewares whereas most beverage bottles and various tools (and other
metal objects) are of Euro-American manufacture.
Soy sauce was and is a prime ingredient in "Cantonese" cuisine and
these jars are quite common in Chinese sojourner sites.
No porcelain was actually made in Kwangtung Province because it
lacked the kaolin clay (e-t'u) deposits of north China. As a result,
all fired porcelain ceramics were imported from northern kilns like
that at Ching Te Chen in Kiangsi, and then were decorated and glazed
in Kwangtung and Swatow export factories.
Test excavation yielded fragments of two opium pipe bowls: one an
unfaceted, clear-glazed orange earthenware bowl and the other a
faceted, unglazed stoneware. Both of these varieties are considered
to be from relatively inexpensive pipes which are characteristic of
non-urban work sites. The faceted style of opium bowl has been
referred to in the archaeological literature as the "lotus" form;
more probably the faceted bowls were meant to symbolize an opium
poppy, not a lotus, in bloom. The ball-shaped opium bowls found at
some sites may have symbolized the mature opium seed-pod.
Most of the Euro-American nails are machine-cut square nails, ranging
in size from 20d to 3d. The cut nail form was prevalent during the
last half of the nineteenth century and was largely replaced by the
wire nail in the west after 1900.
The examples of home-made nails/nail blanks, cut from tin-plated
sheet metal (food cans?) are particularly interesting. Each stage in
the manufacturing process is represented: (a) the elongated
diamond-shaped blank; (b) the isosceles triangle form produced by
breaking (a) in half; and (c) the edge-pounded final product, similar
in shape, size and strength to a 5d cut nail. The manufacture of
this kind of hardware evidently took place at site 35JA5003,
utilizing discarded food containers. These nails could have been
used in habitation structures or in mining equipment like sluice
boxes and flumes.
The Oregon Sentinel (4 Dec. 1878) states that Gin's miners aimed the
spray of one of the giant nozzles upwards at a passing flock of
low-flying Canadian geese, knocking two of them out of the sky. It
is a safe assumption that the hapless birds were consumed by the
hydraulic marksmen at Little Applegate Diggings.
Site 35JA5001: Squaw Creek Chinese Camp
=======================================
Site 35JA5001 is located on federally administered land in Township
41 South, Range 3 West (W.M.) at an elevation of approximately 2,000
feet above sea level. Surface cultural features and artifacts
indicate that the site occupies an area less than 0.2 acres in
extent. It is situated on a steep (35%+), south-facing slope,
adjacent to the flood channel of Squaw Creek. Squaw Creek flows
through a steep-walled, forested canyon in a westerly direction,
joining the Applegate River about three miles downstream from site
35JA5001.
Site 35JA5001 is composed of a series of five (and portions of a
sixth and seventh) level-floored platforms or terraces excavated into
the slope. They are arranged in a generally north-south, step-like
sequence which occupies a total vertical elevation distance of about
15 meters. The terraces (numbered 1 through 7, starting with the
uppermost feature) are obvious cultural modifications of the natural
slope. Most of them have some form of stacked rock reinforcing
across the face of the upslope cut and/or similar buttressing along
portions of the downslope edge. The terraces are rectilinear
features with floor edges generally oriented to the cardinal
directions. Average floor dimensions are 5 x 5 meters.
Several of the features have mature trees (Douglas fir, madrone)
growing from the surface of the floors. Increment borings date these
trees between seventy and eighty-five years old, indicating that the
site was probably abandoned sometime prior to 1895.
Site History
------------
No specific historical documentation of site 35JA5001 has been found
to date.
A company to build a mining ditch from the Squaw Lakes (located about
three miles upstream from site 35JA5001) was first formed in 1864
(Oregon Intelligence 30 Jan. 1864) but this enterprise apparently
failed. Later, the locally-owned Squaw Creek Mining and Ditch
Company (Messrs. Klippel, Bellinger and Hanna of Jacksonville)
undertook ditch construction from below Big Squaw Lake to the north
of French Gulch in 1877-78 (Klippel file in: Jacksonville Museum
Archives, Democratic Times 16 Aug. 1879). Chinese workers were
employed until the "Klippel Ditch" (located several hundred feet
upslope from site 35JA5001) was finished in the summer of 1878, when
it was stated that "the Squaw Lakes Ditch Co. will hereinafter hire
none but white laborers..."
Sometime in the mid-twentieth century, however, a "borrow pit"
(approx. 20 m long x 10 m wide x 2 m deep) was excavated just
downslope from the site (i.e., adjacent to the Squaw Creek flood
channel). The pit produced dirt fill for use in reconstruction of
the old Squaw Creek road, which follows the north side of the stream
channel. The pit excavation removed portions of two terrace features
(6 and 7), leaving only small upslope sections of them intact.
Site 35JA5001 was first noted in 1975, during a Forest Service road
survey project along Squaw Creek. Testing of a portion of one
feature revealed the site's archaeological significance, and cultural
resource management recommendations were implemented. These measures
protected site 35JA5001 from potential impacts caused by construction
of the new Squaw Creek Road (FS Road 4136) upslope. Since 1975
knowledge of the site's existence, while not widespread, has grown.
It became vulnerable to both relic collecting and mass-wasting caused
by the over-steepened slope of the borrow pit. For these reasons,
archaeological recovery of artifactual material from site 35JA5001
was considered to be appropriate.
Feature 1
One brass opium box lid was also found. It bears a stamped seal in
the center which includes several Chinese characters.
Feature 2
Portions of one brass opium box (walls and strap) were located near
the southwest corner of Feature 2 (just outside of the excavation
unit).
Feature 3
Nine shards (foot-ring, wall and rim) of one blue-on-white porcelain
rice bowl were recovered from the northwest quadrant. The exterior
underglaze design is an abstract motif of swirls and part of a
Chinese character; this design is known as the "Double Happiness"
pattern.
Feature 4
One 6d machine-cut square nail was recovered, as were the lids and
other pieces (incomplete) of five opium boxes.
Feature 5
Artifacts included over 60 shards (base, wall, rim and spout
fragments) from a brown-glazed stoneware soy sauce jug.
Strap and wall pieces (edges melted from fire) of one brass opium box
were found. An interesting final item was a 3 cm diameter disc cut
from the brass sheet of an opium box. The center of the disc has
been perforated, possibly with a nail.
Feature 6
Using a metal detector, the base and wall pieces of two brass opium
boxes were found on the surface of Feature 6, beneath the organic
litter.
Feature 7
No artifacts were found there...
Artifact Analysis
-----------------
The green glass bottle from the floor of Feature 4 is especially
interesting. All of the fragments are from the circular wall and/or
rounded shoulder of a "brandy squat" bottle (similar in size and
shape to the 1-pint container still used for Couvoisier cognac... it
became evident that both the base and neck portions of the bottle had
been purposely removed. (The method of glass-cutting is uncertain;
it was perhaps accomplished by igniting a kerosene-soaked
"wrap-around" string and then plunging the heated part into cold
water.)
The probably use of this object becomes clear when it is related to
the prevalent activity revealed at Feature 4: opium smoking. The
ingestion of opium smoke required the drug itself, a specially made
pipe with ceramic air chamber or partially enclosed bowl, and a
continually lighted lamp. The flame of the lamp was used first to
soften the gummy opium substance before it was placed into the small
aperture of the bowl, and secondly to ignite the opium after it had
been placed inside. (The user held the bowl upside-down, with the
opium-encrusted aperture directly over the flame. The Chinese
sojourners utilized small lamps called yin tene, which were
manufactured specifically for this purpose. An open-top cylindrical
container (usually of brown-glazed stoneware and measuring about 5 cm
in diameter and 5 cm high) held a wax candle or an oil wick. A 5-7
cm high glass lamp globe fitted onto the rim of the ceramic body;
this protected the flame from wind or exhalation. The hole in the
top of this conical glass chimney was about 2 cm in diameter. The
cut bottle from Feature 4 would have fit directly over the entire
body of a typical opium lamp base, with its neck hole having the
correct diameter and height to serve as an opium lamp chimney. It
seems virtually certain that this object served as a yin tene chimney
for the opium smokers at site 35JA5001. It was probably made from a
bottle available at the site after the original "made in China" glass
chimney had been broken or lost.
All of the box lids from the site have been stamped with the
identical embossed trademark or salutation, a hexagonal outline that
encloses several Chinese characters. The uppermost characters
translate as "Top Quality." According to Jones (personal
communication), the lids from Squaw Creek camp are the trademark of
the Fook Lung (Loon?) Company of Hong Kong, a major exporter of opium
to the United States. Lango recovered one 5-tael opium box from the
Jacksonville Chinese Quarter which had the orange paper label still
adhering to its walls; the writing was translated as giving the
manufacturer's name and a guarantee that stated, "We don't cheat
anyone."
Kuffner estimates the capacity of a 5-tael box at 200 cc of opium,
and she further infers that each box probably contained enough of the
drug for "between 400 and 800 smokes." The average number of
"smokes" required to achieve the desired narcotic effect is
uncertain. It is, therefore, unclear what probable range of time
span is represented by the consumption of nine boxes of opium. Using
a "guesstimate" of three weeks of nightly use for the consumption of
a 5-tael box of opium by an average user, one arrives at a minimum
total period of twenty-seven
weeks in order to consume nine boxes. The average-sized Chinese
mining company (i.e., 1880 U.S. Census "household") was six [to] ten
persons. Using this figure (and assuming that all members smoked an
equal amount of the drug) yields a minimum occupation span at Squaw
Creek camp of between three and four weeks.
The function of the perforated brass disc, cut from the wall sheet of
a 5-tael opium box, is unknown. Evans reports that similar thin
metal discs, "the size of Chinese coins," were recovered from the
railroad camp at Donner Summit, California and he speculates on their
use as gambling tokens.
Other Chinese Sites in the Siskiyou Mountains
=============================================
Gin Lin's Camp at China Gulch
-----------------------------
There are two small drainages named China Gulch in the upper
Applegate Valley; one feeds into Carberry Creek and the other,
discussed here, drains directly into the Applegate River.
Gin Lin mined at China Gulch between 1882 and 1884.
In 1910-11 the Forest Service conducted a mineral examination of the
land in question because it had been claimed by one Clarence Erickson
as a homestead entry. The report of Thomas B. Landers (1911:3),
"expert miner" (i.e., federal mining engineer), commented that:
[the China Gulch placers] are all worked out and do not extend into
the ground in question...
Landers' report goes on to describe the reddish yellow clay soil and
mentions that "about 20 acres has been cleared [probably the present
area of open field] and was evidently used for garden and other
agricultural purposes by the Chinese placer miners." The only
improvements at the Erickson homestead entry were "those constructed
by the Chinese miners when working the placer claim below, as follows:
* (1) 1-1/2 story log cabin -- 16' x 24'
* (1) shed of logs -- 12' x 16'
* (1) shed of lumber -- 12' x 16'
* (1) 1-room cabin of lumber -- 16' x 16'
* (1) 1-room cabin of lumber -- 10' x 16'
* (1) 1-room cabin of lumber -- 8' x 10'
* (1) log stable with shed -- 16' x 20'
* (3) small outbuildings -- (dimensions not given)
The use of both log-building techniques and lumber (probably
board-and-batten) construction suggests that the Chinese utilized
Euro-American building methods. The size of the several structures
indicates that there were possibly three to four bunkhouses and
several sheds for equipment and supplies.
Site 35J5002: China Gulch Terrace Features
------------------------------------------
As mentioned previously there are two separate drainages in the upper
Applegate Valley with the name "China Gulch." The one discussed here
drains southwest into Carberry Creek, a major tributary of the
Applegate River. The elevation is approximately 2,750 feet a.s.l.
The site is located about 0.7 miles upstream from the mouth of China
Gulch.
There is no written documentation of the early mining activity along
China Gulch. The name itself is certainly suggestive of the presence
of Chinese miners. Based on the artifacts recovered from site
35JA5002, the site was probably occupied by one or two Orientals
during the 1870s or early 1880s.
Chinese occupation of the site was uncertain until Mr. Raymond Brown,
a long-time local miner, was contacted. In a 1976 telephone
interview, Mr. Brown stated that he had first noticed the "tent
platform" at the site during the l930s. He recalled having found
several "metal boxes with China writing on them" scattered on the
surface of the terrace. These were apparently brass opium boxes
similar to those described in Chapter 6. Mr. Brown also remembered
having found "a couple of small bottles, one with China writing on
it." These were probably medicine bottles.
Jacksonville Chinese Quarter
----------------------------
The site of the Jacksonville Chinese Quarter is located along both
sides of Main Street (actually a minor arterial) between Oregon
Street and First Street. None of the original buildings remain. In
February 1974 local resident Marshall Lango and Allan Lester, then
curator of collections at the Jacksonville Museum, excavated an
apparent Chinese privy pit. This feature was situated on the south
side of Main Street in what is presently a vacant lot. Lango found
the pit through study of nineteenth century Jacksonville photographs
and the use of a steel probe. Lango and Lester excavated the pit
with trowels and screened the fill in order to recover small items.
No record of the depth of individual artifacts was kept; the cultural
material was virtually continuous throughout the pit. With the
exception of twelve whole brown-glazed stoneware soy sauce jugs and
one whole stoneware Ng Ka Py bottle, all of the material was donated
to the Jacksonville Museum. The museum's staff permitted the writer
to briefly examine the entire uncatalogued collection...
Its location is in agreement with the privy shed shown in ca. 1870
Peter Britt photographs.
The artifacts from the Chinese Quarter privy indicate use as a trash
receptacle by the Chinese.
Part III: Analysis: Adaptation and Acculturation of the Chinese
===============================================================
Sojourners
==========
The Subsistence Pattern: Diet, Dress and Drugs
==============================================
Dietary Habits
--------------
It is common knowledge that cultures in contact often show major
differences in food preferences, differences which persist despite
some borrowing or other selective change. Of the many ethnic groups
in the United States, the Chinese sojourners seem to have been
especially successful in maintaining their traditional diet. Given
the great distance from their homeland, however, some dietary
adaptations had to be made.
The Native Kwangtung Diet
Chinese cuisine exhibits great regional diversity but is grounded in
a unified food tradition. The traditional Chinese diet has a longer
documented history than that of any other culture. As with so many
other aspects of Chinese lifeways, the basic principles of nineteenth
century Oriental cooking had been almost fully developed some two
thousand years previous. Throughout this history, the preparation
and consumption of food occupied a remarkably central position within
the broader Chinese scheme of things. The underlying principles of
Chinese cooking are based on the complementary concepts of yin and
yang: the all-embracing duality (e.g., feminine/masculine,
dark/light, etc.) of Oriental thought. One of the ways this
"wholistic dualism" manifests... is in the distinction between fan
dishes (grains and other starch foods) and ts'ai dishes (vegetables
and meat foods). Another significant aspect of Chinese cuisine is
the method of cooking ts'ai dishes: a stir-fry operation which offers
"more from less." Strict economy in cooking time, fuel consumption,
use of kitchen utensils and expensive ingredients like meat is all
aimed towards achieving a maximum caloric output for a minimum
expenditure of often scarce resources.
The fan dishes of northern China are largely made from wheat or
millet; in the south rice is the staple. South China is notable also
for its greater variety of ts'ai foods: "There are many more
nationally known fancy dishes identified with some areas of the
south... the northern Chinese often comment on the wealth and good
life of the 'southerners'". Some of the major characteristics of
Kwangtung cooking are stir-fried dishes flavored with black beans; a
heavy reliance on seafood, both fresh or dried/salted; the
combination of fish and meat in the same dish, preference for
vegetable oil over lard; and the use of a wide variety of finely-cut
vegetables.
> A huge bowl of rice, a good deal of bean curd, and a dish of
> cabbage--fresh in season, otherwise pickled--is the classic fare of
> the everyday south Chinese world. A little chili or preserved
> soybean for flavor, some oil to stir-fry the greens, and a
> perfectly adequate, nutritionally excellent meal results, without
> the use of animal products or of any plant that takes much land or
> effort.
The Sojourner Diet
The typical diet of the Chinese sojourner was little changed from
that of Kwantung.
Spier goes on to list over forty Chinese import food items shown on
one 1852 San Francisco invoice, ranging from bean curd to dried duck
livers. One of the features which aided the import business was the
already well-developed Chinese propensity for preserving foods.
The sojourners' dietary habits "seemed to astound the white miners."
Bowles (1869) commented on the Chinese frugality with food portions
whereby "they live for one-third what Yankee laborers can." Although
many whites thought that the usual diet of rice with a few vegetables
was monotonous, very few of the sojourners were actually
vegetarians...
Among some companies of Chinese miners, each individual was
responsible for preparing his own meals, but the general practice was
for one person to cook for the entire group. Most food purchases
were done at Chinese stores, leading Euro-American merchants to
grumble that the Orientals contributed nothing to the local economy.
In Jackson County, Oregon, this complaint was prevented, in part, by
the legal restrictions enacted against Chinese business ownership.
However, the sojourners in the Siskiyou Mountains were enabled to
maintain a largely traditional diet through local establishments and
bulk purchases from Chinese businesses in California and Portland.
Chinese Eating Habits in the Siskiyou Mountains: The Evidence
Most of the direct evidence for Chinese food habits within the study
area is found in the "Chinese accounts" ledgerbook of the Kubli Store
(item BEK 951 vol. 4, University of Oregon Library, Special
Manuscript Collection).
Kaspar Kubli was born in Canton Glaurus, Switzerland in 1830. He
immigrated to the United States in 1852 and arrived, via the Oregon
Trail, in Jackson County the following year. He mined on Jackson
Creek during the winter of 1853-4 and soon entered into a
supply-packing business with fellow Swiss, Peter Britt (later to
become a well-known frontier photographer) and a former brewer from
Bavaria, V. Schutz. He opened a trading post near the confluence of
the Applegate River and Thompson Creek in 1859. Kubli operated this
store, which had a clientele largely of miners, until 1872 when he
purchased a hardware business in Jacksonville. The remaining records
from the Kubli Store in the Applegate Valley include the daily,
item-by-item purchase accounts of over 100 Chinese miners during the
period 1864-65.
Kubli obtained Chinese import items through Tung Chong and Company,
San Francisco. The Kubli Store invoice book (vol. 3, page 114) for
the years 1866-68 shows that the business purchased $4,270 worth of
merchandise from Tung Chong during the two-and-a-half year period.
Most of the purchases were evidently food items...
Food was the major Chinese import item sold at the Kubli Store. The
following list includes the most commonly purchased Chinese foods
(i.e., either imported from China or produced by the San Francisco
Chinese) available at the Kubli Store:
* soy sauce ($1.50 per bottle)
* ginger
* almspice (alum)
* "cinamon"
* red peppers
* chee ma (sesame seeds)
* muck gah (molasses-like sweetener)
* foo chuck (soybean curd or beansteak)
* salt fish
* "fisch" (sardines?)
* oysters
* codfish
* "srimps" (dried shrimp)
* black beans
* "nuts" (probably lichee nuts)
* "bamboo" (probably bamboo shoots)
* mugoe (white mushrooms)
* melon seeds ($.50 per pound)
* makkets (?)
* "vermiselles" (noodles)
* "Mamasilla" (noodles?)
* salt beans
* hung tah (dried vegetable)
* dry cabbage (bok choy?)
* chim chim toy (dried vegetable, flavoring)
* mamoo (?)
* chung toy (salted radish)
* yung yoy (dried vegetable)
* sill toy (dried cabbage)
* mintsteak (?)
Most of the above items were plainly meant for inclusion [in] ts'ai
dishes.
The staples used for preparing fan dishes show some modification of
Kwangtung dietary habits. Although some rice was sold at the Kubli
Store, it was minimal compared to the sales of wheat flour. Rice was
priced about six times the per-weight cost of flour, which sold for
about five-cents a pound. The flour sold at the Kubli Store was
undoubtedly from locally grown and ground wheat, making it a far
cheaper staple item. The Chinese commonly ate wheat flour in the
form of steamed buns and noodles (min), and so the favoring of wheat
flour over grain rice was merely an economically-determined
substitution well within the traditional bounds of Chinese cuisine.
A curious addition to the sojourner diet is the apparent use of
rising agents. Langenwalter records the presence of baking powder
cans at the Lower China Store, which suggests "that leavened bread
had been introduced into the diet." One of the most common and
regular Chinese purchases at the Kubli Store was "salaratus" (which
came in small paper packages costing $.25 each), a mid-nineteenth
century rising agent made from potassium bicarbonate. Salaratus was
used by Euro-Americans to produce biscuits and pancakes, and the
Chinese may have used it similarly in making baked goods. Another
unusual (and admittedly far less common) purchase was butter.
The Chinese made regular purchases of vegetable oil (probably
rapeseed or peanut oil imported from China) as well as lard for
cooking. Salt (approx. $.lO/lb.) was also a steady seller, with the
lesser amounts of soy sauce probably used to flavor completed dishes.
Most sojourners bought small sacks of sugar on a weekly basis,
probably for use in making sweet sauces. Several of Kubli's
customers evidently had a persistent craving for sweets, buying "rock
candy" and "mintz" at regular intervals. As expected, tea proved to
be the most common non-alcoholic beverage. No coffee purchases by
Chinese customers are recorded in the Kubli ledger. Imported Chinese
tea was the most common variety, costing between $.50 and $.75 per
pound. It came in "papers" which sold for $.25 apiece. "Japan tea,"
selling for $l.75/lb, was also bought by the sojourners, though less
often and in smaller quantities. It was probably reserved for
special occasions.
The Chinese planted gardens whenever possible. These became a
significant factor in the agricultural economy of some parts of the
western frontier; by 1872 two-thirds of the vegetables eaten in
California were produced from Chinese gardens.
One local account states that the Chinese of Josephine County ate
large quantities of wild skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanum), and
it is probable that the Applegate Valley sojourners gathered
vitamin-rich miner's lettuce (Montia perfoliata), a common addition
to the meals of vegetable-starved early miners.
Regarding locally available meat products, the Kubli Store records
show regular Chinese purchases of ham (probably salt-pork) and bacon
(both priced at $.25/lb). No other forms of animal meats were bought.
The differences between Chinese and white butchering methods have
been, mentioned previously. The object of the Chinese butcher was
not to produce large prime cuts of meat but to render small,
tenderized portions for use in ts'ai dishes, and marrow for soups and
sauces.
The sojourners in the Applegate Valley bought swine locally from
Euro-American ranchers. During the last half of the nineteenth
century the Chinese supported a large swine-raising industry in
southwestern Oregon. The pigs ranged throughout the oak woodlands
where they subsisted on roots and acorns. With the decline of the
Chinese population after 1890 the herds of swine became more trouble
than they were worth. They often evolved into feral nuisances with
"long tusks and were full of fight. ... When the wild hogs started
killing and eating [other domestic stock] they were as bad a pest as
cougars or any varmint, and the settlers united to get rid of them."
Wild game was also eaten. Hattori, et al., for example, document the
consumption of a bob-cat by the Lovelock Chinese. The Lovelock
assemblage also included remains of jackrabbit and mule deer. One
white miner recalled that the crows prepared for him by a Chinese
companion "actually smelt of carrion, but were very plump, and when
plucked and boiled by the Celestial, they ate much better than I
anticipated."
Sojourners who intended to remain at one location for a long period
of time sometimes excavated fish pools, where they reared eels,
catfish, carp, mullet and prawns. One turn-of-the-century resident
of Ashland, Wah Chung, had three such artificial ponds on his
property near the railroad yard.
The Kubli Store account book shows purchases by local whites (most of
them probably miners), providing the "direct comparative data" of
which Spier writes. The most common transactions are for liquor (by
the drink and by the bottle) and tobacco. Of the food items, the
1860 list is a monotonous roster of sugar, flour, salt, lard,
"baccon," beef, butter and potatoes. No purchases by whites of any
Chinese items (other than tea) are recorded. The apparent diet of
these Applegate Valley miners is composed almost entirely of starches
and animal protein but appears to be relatively low in vitamins and
other essential nutrients.
The modest changes in sojourner cuisine do not demonstrate
acculturation with the host community to any significant degree.
Simply put, the Chinese sojourners attempted to retain their
accustomed diet whenever possible, but they often had to "make do"
with whatever ingredients were available from the new environment.
Sojourner Apparel
-----------------
However, the original garments from semi-tropical Kwangtung did not
afford sufficient warmth during North American winters; some early
journals reportedly speak of groups of Chinese miners found in their
cabins, "huddled together, frozen to death, wearing the thinnest of
clothing."
"Now the Chinese in later years have started wearing boots, then
hats, and finally trousers of modern fashion."
The Kubli Store ledger offers solid documentation of Chinese
garment-purchasing behavior. In addition, the store's invoice book
for 1869-70 (page 124) shows that Kubli "bought of Levi Strauss and
Co., San Francisco" some $1,600.00 worth of merchandise during a
twelve-month period. The records show very few clothing purchases by
whites at the Kubli Store, indicating that most of the Levi Strauss
items were meant for sale to the Chinese. Perhaps the white miners
preferred to buy most of their wardrobe during periodic visits to
Jacksonville, where a wider selection would have been available.
Almost every one of Kubli's Chinese customers purchased some sort of
clothing items. The most popular was footwear; virtually every
sojourner bought at least one pair... of rubberized "gumbots"
($6.50-$7.00 a pair), for use in the mines. Most of them (approx.
80%) also obtained regular leather boots ($5.50), and many purchased
shoes ($1.75), wool socks ($.75) and stockings ($.25) as well. Many
sojourners, however, outfitted themselves with a nearly complete
wardrobe of Euro-American garments...
As for the repair of garments, several Chinese customers obtained
needles, thread and/or thimbles. A number of the Applegate Valley
Chinese did their own shoe repair, as "sole lader" (sole leather) and
tacks were relatively common articles of sale.
The Chinese in the study area seem to have readily adapted to Western
clothing, preferring it in some cases to Chinese garments when the
latter were available. However, the numerous Peter Britt photographs
of Jacksonville Chinese invariable portray them in their native
attire. It seems likely that each sojourner retained at least one
set of Chinese clothes for wear on special occasions, such as sitting
for a portrait to be sent to one's family in China.
Personal Grooming
-----------------
Less prejudiced sources comment on the "wonderfully clean" state of
Chinese camps (Borthwick 1917) and the fact that the Orientals
regularly took hot-water sponge baths and changed their clothes
before the evening meal.
Most of the Chinese made regular (e.g., every two-three months)
purchases of "Chinese Soap," which probably came in a cream or lotion
form. Twenty-five cents was the standard price for an unspecified
amount. In contrast, some of Kubli's white customers made occasional
purchases of "Bar Soap" ($.75 each), while many others evidently
bought none.
At first the large number of brushes purchased by the Chinese caused
the writer some puzzlement. There was no indication of their
intended function. Almost every Chinese account shows at least one
brush ($.25) among the non-food items for the year; some list two or
more. It seems probable that most of these were hair brushes, used
for brushing out the long queue which each sojourner kept as his
"readmission pass" to the homeland.
In general, the personal grooming habits of the Applegate Valley
Chinese showed far less evidence of acculturative behavior than did
their dress habits. Personal cleanliness (including the use of
Chinese soap), regular barbering and attention to the queue were all
important aspects of customary grooming behavior. It is clear that
while significant change in clothing, the individual's "outer
shell"was permitted, the traditional treatment of one's actual,
physical person was carefully maintained.
Drug Use and Recreational Activities
------------------------------------
The inclusion of this topic under the heading of Subsistence Patterns
may seem unusual. However, the mass of nineteenth century sojourners
indulged in drug use, gambling and other practices on a regular,
sometimes daily basis. These activities formed an important part of
the basic pattern of day-to-day Chinese behavior.
Opium Smoking
Opium addiction became a major facet of Kwangtung culture during the
early nineteenth century. The sojourners brought the drug habit with
them to the United States. Some of the younger Chinese probably did
not take up opium smoking until after they emigrated from the
homeland. Reliable figures for the nineteenth century are not
available, but it seems that a majority or at least a very
significant portion of the sojourner population took opium on a
regular basis.
By the 1850s trading vessels were carrying large shipments of opium
from Hong Kong to San Francisco.
Although opiate abuse can lead to well-documented adverse effects on
human health, the moderate smoking of opium produces a temporary
narcosis from which the user suffers little the following day. The
presence of abundant opium paraphernalia at mining sites, railroad
construction camps and other places of demanding physical labor is
sufficient evidence that the habit could not have been too
debilitating to the moderate smoker. One Chinese-American recalls
that "some of the older ones smoked opium... it seemed like nothing
to them. I used to watch them everyday, you know, and they could
climb a tree as well as I could."
Apparently opium smoking was often a cooperative event in which a
number of individuals participated. It thus may have acted in some
fashion to reinforce intra-group social bonds--similar to the
after-work alcohol drinking rituals of modern American culture. The
habit may, in fact, have acted to inhibit further acculturation in
other aspects of sojourner behavior. When much of one's free time
was spent in a state of narcotic withdrawal, the potential for
significant interaction with members of the host society was
obviously lessened.
Tobacco and Alcohol Use
Tobacco smoking had become a popular indulgence among the Chinese
well before the massive emigrations to North America.
Over three-quarters of the Kubli Store's Chinese clientele purchased
various kinds of plug tobacco ($.50/lb.) on a regular basis (weekly
or hi-weekly in most cases). The substance was typically sold in
paper containers costing about sixty cents each.
Alcohol consumption has been an integral part of Chinese culture for
several thousand years. The alcoholic drinks of Kwangtung, called
chau, have been referred to as "wines" but more correctly were
"either beers (undistilled drinks from grain) or vodkas (distilled,
unaged drinks made from starch bases)." Most Chinese spirits were
slightly stronger than their Euro-American-made counterparts.
Alcohol consumption was usually confined to meals, and most
sojourners retained this custom...
In contrast to their sensationalist descriptions of opium dens, most
white observers stressed and praised the alcoholic moderation of the
Chinese immigrants.
With all the testimonials to their sobriety, the archaeological and
archival evidence of alcoholic consumption by the sojourners comes as
a surprise. Virtually every sizable Chinese site
archaeologically-excavated in the western U.S. has yielded large
quantities of Euro-American alcohol bottles.
The per-capita consumption rate cannot be determined from the
archaeological data; however, the Kubli Store ledger proves to be
quite helpful. Over 80% of the Chinese bought at least some alcohol
during the approximate one-year period covered by the available
records. The Applegate Valley sojourners ranged from a few apparent
teetotalers to several "heavy" drinkers. The average weekly purchase
of the numerous (approx. three out of five Chinese) steady drinkers
was between a pint and a quart. The "hard drinking" American miner
is, of course, a well established figure in frontier folklore. The
Orientals' more private and unobstreperous drinking behavior probably
contributed to the whites' belief in the soberness of the Chinese
sojourner.
The many Euro-American varieties of alcohol consumed by the Chinese
shows that some acculturation had occurred in the area of drinking
habits. Although "Chinese liquor" ($1.00 a bottle, probably Ng Ka Py
in stoneware jugs) was available at the Kubli Store, very few of the
sojourners bought it, and of those who did, only as a supplement to
larger quantities of non-Chinese beverages.
Gambling, Sex and Other Activities
By almost all accounts the Chinese were avid gamblers. The
sojourners brought native games of chance with them: Ba Kap Bil
(lottery, similar to modern Keno), Pai Kow (dominoes), Fan Tan (a
number-guessing game unrelated to the Euro-American card game of the
same name) and others. Dice games were also popular with the
over-seas Chinese.
There is little or no artifactual evidence of gambling among the
Applegate Valley Chinese. The absence of gaming pieces from the
relatively remote mining camps is probably not unusual; most gambling
would have taken place during visits to urban centers like
Jacksonville, where more participants and higher stakes were
available.
Due to the scarcity of females in the nineteenth century sojourner
population, heterosexual activity was usually limited to periodic
visits to Chinese-run houses of prostitution.
Finally, regular communication with one's family in China was an
important obligation. The District Associations provided postal
delivery via the Hong Kong trading vessels (and for the vast majority
of illiterate sojourners, a letter writing service was available in
most towns). Many of the Chinese miners in the Siskiyous undoubtedly
could neither read nor write Chinese, much less English. Some of
them, however, apparently could at least sign their names in Chinese
characters. One or two characters are used as identifying marks
(signatures?) at the top of each sojourner's account in the Kubli
Store ledger.
The Settlement Pattern: Sojourner Architecture
==============================================
Chinese Settlement Patterns and Construction in the Siskiyou
------------------------------------------------------------
Mountains: The Evidence
-----------------------
Generally speaking, the topographical arrangement and compass
orientation of the Squaw Creek Chinese camp and the upper China Gulch
platforms fulfill the basic principles of "feng-shui," as described
by Lung (1978). The pervasiveness and cosmological significance of
such practices in China is well documented. Admittedly, the few site
examples given here comprise a very small sample from which to
generalize. However, limited archaeological evidence from other
remote Chinese mining camps suggests that the pattern may be
widespread.
The Technological Pattern: Placer Mining and Hydraulic Operations
=================================================================
Development of Placer Mining Technology
---------------------------------------
A placer deposit is one where the gold has been redeposited from its
original position by alluvial or colluvial means. A lode deposit is
the actual emplacement of gold within native bedrock, and it must be
mined by different methods. American placer mining techniques
evolved from earlier Native American, colonial Spanish and Mexican
practices--some of which dated back to early dynastic Egypt and had
been later clearly set forth in Agricola's 1550 Treatise De Re
Metallica. Although the early Yankee miners often detested their
Latin counterparts in the California mines, they quickly adopted the
Mexicans' methods. Building upon the existing techniques, Yankee
ingenuity and adaptability rapidly created an improved mining
technology, one which was applied to large-scale operations. Panning
and winnowing (early Mexican developments) gave way to the rocker
cradle in late 1848; amalgamation with mercury (another Mexican
contribution) arrived the following year. During 1850 the Yankee
miners began to use fluming, ditches and wing dams to manipulate the
waters of large streams. In 1850-51 Nevada County, California, saw
the first use of the "long torn" (a short wooden trough with
"riffles" on the bottom) and the invention of the sluice box (a
system of larger and longer troughs, each one telescoping into the
end of the next).
By the early l850s the low elevation placers along the streambeds had
begun to give out (at least in values that satisfied the whites) and
the higher terrace deposits now whetted the miners' interest. Such
"dry diggings" necessitated bringing large volumes of water to the
claims by ditch and/or flume. This was often an expensive
undertaking, and thus the individualistic mining operations of early
days began to be replaced by share-issuing corporations.
Initial development of modern hydraulic mining technology began in
the California mines during the early 1850s. Anthony Chabot, a
Nevada County miner, came up with the idea of bringing ditch water to
a point above the claim and directing it into a flexible hose which
produced a powerful spray. Working with Chabot and E.E. Matteson,
tinsmith Eli Miller is said to have fashioned a tapered metal nozzle
for the end of the canvas hose that created a strong, continuous jet
with which to work the compacted alluvial deposits. Soon hydraulic
technology was being implemented in many other areas and eventually
dwarfed the gold values produced from earlier methods.
> Hydraulic mining is that mining where a stream of water, led down
> from a considerable elevation through a hose, is thrown by the
> pressure with great force upon the dirt, which is thus loosened,
> dissolved and washed down into the sluice... The force of the
> hydraulic stream, sometimes under pressure of 200 perpendicular
> feet of water, is so great that, if it should strike a man, it
> would kill him instantly; and striking a bank of dirt, it tears it
> down more rapidly than could 200 men with picks and shovels.
> (Hittel 1861:144)
The usual practice was to wash away the bottom of an exposed bank so
that it would come "tumbling down in great masses, sometimes hundreds
of tons at once", thereby doing the work "of a thousand men" in a
brief period.
The loosened cobbles, gravel and (hopefully gold-bearing) silt were
washed into the waiting system of sluices. The sluice systems of the
larger mines were over
a mile in length. The riffles on the bottom of the trough were
coated with quicksilver (mercury) which amalgamated with the
waterborne gold particles. Periodic "clean-ups" (during which the
water flow was, of course, shut off) recovered the amalgam from the
riffles. The two metals were separated by distillation of the
mercury. The gold would then be sent to the nearest bank vault while
the condensed quicksilver would be reused in the sluice. Hydraulic
operations often continued around the clock, necessitating
illumination of the washing pit with large bonfires of pitch pine
and, later, electric lights.
Hydraulic mining produced huge quantities of waste rock or "tailings."
Tools and Methods of the Chinese Miners
---------------------------------------
The Chinese excelled at feeding their claims with numerous ditches,
part of their heritage of irrigated agriculture in Kwangtung. They
were also among the most consistent users of wing dams CL-shaped
rock-and-lumber coffer dams which diverted a river from a portion of
its normal course, exposing the streambed for mining). Some of these
dams were two- to three-hundred yards long.
The sojourners brought other native irrigation devices to the miners.
[The author describes a water pump built from chain and wood.]
Water-powered sump pumps, called "China pumps" (with either an
overshot or undershot waterwheel for powering the chain of bailing
buckets) were another mining innovation contributed by the Orientals.
Regarding work methods, the Chinese were generally labor intensive
while the Euro-Americans often went in for complex equipment.
Sometimes whites and Orientals worked together as equal partners, but
the usual situation was for the Chinese to follow behind and rework
the tailings. Due to legal restrictions, the Chinese usually did not
file original mining claims on new or abandoned diggings. They
preferred to hire a local white to file the claim and then they would
purchase the claim from this agent.
> They worked the mines as long as they found anything valuable,
> and were not, like their civilized companions, jumping about from
> claim to claim in hope of doing better. (Conwell 1871:68)
> During the dry season, while most others are lying idle, the
> Chinese might be seen making repairs, digging and collecting dirt
> into the best situations to take advantage of the coming rise of
> water. (Seward 1881:144)
Chinese Mining Practices in the Siskiyou Mountains: The Evidence
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gin [Lin] readily adapted to the expensive hydraulic methods of the
whites. He was, in fact, the first miner in the area (of any ethnic
background) to install a hydraulic giant at his diggings, and he
hired local professional surveyors to locate the route for his
ditches (Democratic Times 10 Mar. 1882).
Regarding the use of hand tools, in 1864-65 records of the Kubli
Store show Chinese purchases of standard American mining implements.
The Chinese of the Siskiyou Mountains exhibited rapid mastery of
culturally unfamiliar technology, hydraulic mining. (Of course,
during the very early years it was equally unfamiliar to most whites,
but there was abundant "how to" literature available in English).
Summary and Epilogue
====================
The Chinese sojourners were reluctant to acculturate with the host
society, and when they did so it was culture change in certain areas
of extrinsic behavior clothing, work habits and the like. Intrinsic
behavior such as kinship patterns and religious beliefs seem to have
remained essentially unchanged.
The extrinsic acculturation shown by the Chinese miners can be
categorized as either voluntary or involuntary. The range between
the two was actually a continuum, and because of the severe
socio-economic distress in China during that time, one must remember
that the whole sojourner experience was basically an involuntary one.
An interesting facet of Chinese adaptation revealed by this study is
the modification of Euro-American (and Chinese) objects and their
apparent reuse in traditional Chinese activities as substitutes for
unavailable items. (The manufacture of ersatz artifacts is part of
the larger American mining culture as a whole, and it persists to the
present day. Often inhabiting extremely remote areas and lacking
abundant credit, the miner is forced to salvage all manner of
cast-off objects.
Epilogue
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The emigrants' main objective, of course, was financial gain, and in
this many succeeded. Arriving home as a wealthy man not only had its
obvious personal rewards; it also reflected credit and honor upon
one's family and ancestors. The returning sojourner often
entertained his village with a huge feast, fireworks and several days
of theatrical performance. Most sojourner earnings went into
enlarging the family's agricultural landholdings...
The returned sojourners also took the initiative in strengthening the
local police forces and in developing educational institutions on the
western model. The Sze Yap area was considered the most
"progressive" in China during the early twentieth century. However,
despite a certain amount of westernization of their material culture,
the returned sojourners often became the most traditionalist and
anti-foreign residents of China. This undoubtedly resulted in part
from their resentment over maltreatment in foreign lands.
The Euro-Americans underwent a form of reverse acculturation in the
area of eating habits. Chinese "noodle parlors" and "chop suey
houses" became popular features of frontier life. In many parts of
the Far West the appreciation for Kwangtung cookery dates from the
early mining period. Chinese cooking was probably the first and most
persistently popular non-western food to gain approval among white
Americans, and until about 1960 it remained almost the only "foreign
food" to be consistently eaten by a large portion of the national
population. Even today most small Western towns can support at least
one Chinese restaurant.
The massive amounts of silt and cobble tailings produced by the
hydraulic miners destroyed the spawning beds of anadromous fish, and
the salmon fishery of the Applegate River evidently never fully
recovered from the impact.
See also:
China In America
author: LaLande, Jeffrey M.
detail:
LOC: F882.R6 L34
source:
tags: ebook,history,non-fiction,oregon,outdoor
title: Sojourners in the Oregon Siskiyous ...
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ebook
history
non-fiction
oregon
outdoor