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One of the great gold rushes in America


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Deadwood Gulch's Chinatown

Chinese flourished in 1800's mining camp

At the turn of the century, travelers from the north entered narrow Deadwood Gulch through a noisy, crowded, bustling village where "at every house signboards are hanging recommending to the public Ah-Chin as a linen washer, or Wah-Loo-Ting as tailor."

Today's visitor can find little physical evidence to mark the location of what was once purported to be the largest Chinese settlement east of San Francisco. Just how many Chinese were crowded into a 2 1/2- block area during those flourishing gold rush days is a matter of conjecture, since census records of that era were less than accurate and the Chinese themselves very secretive about their actual numbers.

In l893 a local newspaper stated:

Deadwood has for her size perhaps the largest colony of Chinese east of San Francisco. All told they number 500. During the past year the settlement has been increased fully 150. Of these 98% can be said to have made a fraudulent entry into this country.

Other estimates ranged from 164 in l890, "upwards of 100" in l898 and 400 around 1900.

The Chinese came to Deadwood with the l876 gold rush and the last Chinaman departed in l932. A crowd gathered at the railroad station to say goodbye to Ching Ong, better known as "Teeter," who had been a familiar sight in Deadwood for 45 years, working first for prominent merchant Wing Tsue and later as a janitor.

For the next six decades, Deadwood's Chinese history was recorded in displays at the Adams Museum, at the annual Days of '76 parade and downtown tunnel tours.

Then in 1991, a downtown casino brought back Chinese traditions with a bang (literally.) Long strings of firecrackers explosively welcomed the Year of the Sheep in a revival of the gala Chinese New Year celebration.

Kenneth Lau and Connie Andrews, co-owners of Miss Kitty's Chinatown Restaurant, will sponsor the mid-February event again this year, providing insights into the culture and heritage of the Oriental customs that were such a distinctive part of early Deadwood days.

Between l848 and 1900, some 200,000 Cantonese left their homeland to join the gold rush to California. Brought to America by labor contractors who put them to work at menial jobs in mining camps and on railroad construction, the "China Boys" landed in San Francisco, then moved eastward with the gold strikes. Many of them walked from Wyoming to the Black Hills. Those who could afford the fare rode the Cheyenne-Deadwood stage, relegated to the uncomfortable rear seat that was exposed to the elements and became known as the "pigtail seat."

Chinese men at that time still complied with the restrictive laws of the imperialist Manchu dynasty that required wearing their hair in a queue, or pigtail braid down their backs. Most of them celebrated the 1912 downfall of the Manchu government by cutting off their queues. Providing services as washermen, vegetable farmers, servants in private homes, and as merchants, the polite Orientals prospered in Deadwood Gulch, often finding ways to supplement their meager pay. Laundrymen mined their gold in the bottoms of wash tubs. With painstaking patience they methodically collected with tweezers small particles of gold dust clinging to miners' dirty clothes.

Dead and fallen trees (dead wood) littered mountains surrounding the gulch and was free for the taking. Industrious Chinese cut stove lengths of wood, loaded it into carts and sold it in Deadwood for four dollars a cord. Wing Tsue was one of Chinatown's most enterprising merchants. His apothecary stocked a good selection of Chinese groceries, novelties, silk, tea, porcelain and other luxury import gifts, as well as traditional Chinese remedies. An early day journalist published a humorous account of a visit to Wing Tsue's shop.

Tiger bones mixed with harts-horn and the shell of the terrapin reduced to a tonic jelly is just the thing for debility and rheumatism....the gall bladder of a cow should be remembered as a cure for insanity and other ailments...Glue made of the hide of an ass is a tonic astringent...Gall bladder of the bear will cure infection of the liver... the remedy for dysentery is a dose of dried maggots. The patient is at liberty to decide for himself which is worse, the remedy, or the disease. In describing her meeting with Wing Tsue's wife, Estelline Bennett commented on her "tiny useless little feet." Chinese women in Deadwood bound their feet, just as they had in China for many centuries. Considered a true mark of beauty by both sexes, the bound feet may have been encouraged by Chinese men to restrict travel and keep their wives faithful.

"Big Ears Jack" owned a restaurant where he served a hearty meal for 25c. Unlike most of his slightly-built countrymen, Big Ears Jack was more than six feet tall and earned his nickname through an unusual cash register. He habitually stashed coins in his oversized ears and made change the same way. Big Ears Jack loved to gamble with the other Chinese men who gathered at his restaurant to indulge their passion for mah-jong, fan-tan or the Chinese lottery. Deadwood's Oriental were regarded with amused tolerance for the most part, although they were sometimes the butt of children's pranks and raids by young hoodlums whose idea of sport was cutting a Chinaman's queue. Defending a white client who had murdered a Chinaman, attorney Henry Frawley argued there was no law against it, urging the judge to fine his client $25.00 for "cruelty to animals," a plea bargain the judge accepted.

After the l883 flood washed away half of the downtown area, streets were raised to the level of flume walls and the original walkways covered to create several blocks of tunnels. Although many of the stories told about those "Chinese tunnels" are more legend than fact, two opium dens were believed to exist in the dark underground passages. The entire community turned out to observe colorful and clamorous Chinese festivals. Funerals, weddings, traditional holidays and the boisterous welcome to the new year were occasions for celebration.

With a cacophony of large brass gongs, bells and clashing cymbals, funeral processions wound through Main Street enroute to Mount Moriah cemetery. Mourners wearing white clothing, instead of black, carried burning incense (joss sticks) and scattered small squares of colored rice paper pierced by tiny holes to confuse devils who supposedly had to pass through each hole in every paper before reaching the soul of the deceased. Because they believed the "dragon trip" to paradise required a three-day supply of food, a feast was always part of the funeral ritual. At the gravesite, invocations to many gods were offered and images of possessions and persons significant to the departed were drawn on paper and burned.

Many of the bodies were eventually returned to China, following the Buddhist custom of returning bones back to the place of birth. Headboards inscribed with Chinese writing have long since been destroyed by the elements, vandals and souvenir hunters, but a sign designates the Chinese section at Mount Moriah Cemetery.

For the Chinese, the Black Hills gold rush was the last and largest outpost in the West. When placer gold played out and 1909-1910 labor strikes forced mines to close, the Asiatics moved on to larger cities or returned to their native land.

By the early 1920s the last Chinatown of Dakota Territory no longer existed. Chinatown occupied several blocks of Deadwood Gulch's lower main street, beginning near the present-day Mineral Palace and winding north for about 2 1/2 blocks. Note the unbelievably small feet on this unidentified Chinese woman. Few Chinese women in the United States were known by name.

Sun Neen Fy Lok! Gung Hay Fat Choy! For the seventh year, a gala Chinese New Year celebration will be reenacted in downtown Deadwood. On Saturday, February 14, the Year of the Ox (4634 on the Chinese lunar calendar) will be loudly ushered in with fireworks and a traditional Lion Dance on Main Street in front of Miss Kitty's. Accompanied by drums and cymbals, the San Francisco lion dancers ritually drive away evil spirits in ceremonies designed to ensure a good year.

Martial arts performers from San Francisco will demonstrate Kung Fu moves and techniques used in their award-winning international competitions. Guests are invited into the restaurant for a "Chinese happy hour" featuring samples of Oriental appetizers and complimentary Tsing Tao beer. The ceremonial dragon and authenic costumes worn by the emperor, empress and princess are imported directly from China by Kenneth Lau and Connie Andrews, co-owners of Miss Kitty's and hosts of the annual event.

According to Lau, the new year was a time to thank heaven for past favors and ask for continued blessings. Residents of Deadwood's Chinatown took off work to participate in festivities that lasted for a week or longer. All Chinese were expected to pay off their obligations by the first day of the year; anyone who failed to settle all debts by that day was everlastingly disgraced, even if he escaped the vengence of the gods, Lau said. He pointed out that each year of the Chinese calendar is named for a specific animal, with the cycle repeating every 12 years. People born in The Year of the Ox (l949, l961, 1973, 1985 and 1997) are "dependable and calm; good listeners who have very strong ideas," according to the Chinese horoscope.