In July, Grinnell College, Western Anthropological & Archaeological Research Institute, and descendants of historic Rock Springs Chinese residents (Lian Lew and Ricky Leo), teamed up to excavate the city’s former Chinatown in rural southwestern Wyoming. After two and half weeks, the students returned to Grinnell College to do some artifact washing for a week. They then took some time off before beginning the Fall semester. Paul Hoornbeek and I, however, came back to Rock Springs to join Dr. Dudley Gardner and New Zealand archaeologist Dr. Neville Ritchie to finish excavating what we believe is the “burn layer” from the 1885 Chinese Massacre. The 2025 excavation was funded by Grinnell College and a $9,000 research grant from the University of Wyoming’s Frison Institute. Also, a big thank you to the school district for permitting excavations.
Last week we finished our Rock Springs Chinatown excavation of a structure that we believed was burnt down in the 1885 arson fire during the massacre, and Dr. Dudley Gardner and I presented our preliminary findings at the commemoration of the massacre and arson that took place 140 years ago on September 2nd. The commemoration was organized by descendants Ricky and Grace Leo; Ricky is related to Leo Lung Man, a survivor of the 1885 massacre, and his son, Leo Yee Litt, who mined coal in Rock Springs beginning in the 1890s and started a family with his wife May Chin.
The excavation attracted media attention, and below are links to all of the news coverage on the excavation. The next blog post will focus on the 140th Anniversary Commemoration event that many descendants attended, and subsequent posts will center on artifacts from the recent Rock Springs Chinatown excavations. For those who read the last post, the link to the Leo Quie (Lew Hong Quon) ArcGIS StoryMap by Julia Ghorai has been corrected, and can be found here: https://arcg.is/0TTr9W1
Dennis Brittain, Trina. 2025. “Preserving the Past: Archaeological Dig Brings Chinese Culture to Light.” Rocket Miner Via Wyoming News, July 27. https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/preserving-the-past-archaeological-dig-brings-chinese-culture-to-light/article_4f321516-cddc-47c7-9de6-5decd827ece6.html.
McMurtry, Jenna. 2025. “A Wyoming Town Massacred Its Chinese Immigrant Workers 140 Years Ago. This Summer, Descendants Return to Dig for the Chinatown ‘Burn Layer.’” KHOL 89.1 FM, August 5. https://891khol.org/a-wyoming-town-massacred-its-chinese-immigrant-workers-140-years-ago-this-summer-descendants-return-to-dig-for-the-chinatown-burn-layer/.
(this article was reprinted in The Salt Lake City Tribune and WyoFile)
Jean, Renée. 2025. “Rock Springs Chinatown Archaeology Dig Uncovers Untold History Of 1885 Massacre.” Cowboy State Daily, August 10. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/08/10/rock-springs-chinatown-archaeology-dig-uncovers-untold-history-of-1885-massacre/.
Schmitt, Tim. 2025. “Unearthing Forgotten Stories.” Grinnell College, August 19. https://www.grinnell.edu/news/unearthing-forgotten-stories.
Lastly, if anyone is interested and in the New York City area, I am giving a talk on the recent Rock Springs Chinatown archaeological excavations at the Museum of Chinese in America on Oct. 1st at 6:30pm EST (time has been revised). More info and a link to buy tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moca-talks-rock-springs-chinatown-and-the-1885-chinese-massacre-tickets-1669719178009
Please feel free to circulate this flyer and the event link.
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