I just returned from NYC, where I gave a talk at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) on the archaeology of the Rock Springs Chinatown in Wyoming. I was also able to see the Port Henry Chinese jail ledger at MOCA, spend time with research collaborator Peter Lau, Rock Springs Chinatown descendant Arvin Chin, and New Yorker editor Mike Luo, who wrote about the 1885 Rock Springs Chinese Massacre.
For those who missed the MOCA talk or have not heard me discuss the preliminary results of the 2025 Rock Springs Chinatown excavation, I have been invited by the Santa Cruz Archaeological Society to give a Zoom presentation on this topic on Thursday October 9th, 7:30pm Pacific Time / 8:30pm Mountain Time / 9:30pm Central Time / 10:30pm Eastern Time. The link to sign up for the talk can be found here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/LJPVlaYyR-CKM9q4PfN90g#/registration
I have also been researching Chinese American sites in Texas–more specifically, Southern Pacific Chinese railroad camps, and the development of a Chinese American community in San Antonio–and will be presenting this research at the Rural Chinatowns and Hidden Sites: Chinese American History in the Deep South and Midwest Conference in Memphis, TN, and at the Big Bend Studies Conference (with Grinnell College student Jorge Salinas) in Alpine, TX. In addition, I will be second author on a poster at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Meeting in Detroit, MI (with Dr. Edward González-Tennant) titled, “Documentary Archaeology of Distributed Chinatowns in the American Southwest and Deep South.” While I won’t be able to make it to the SHA conference in Michigan, I will be in Tennessee and Texas.
Next month, this blog will return to highlighting artifacts that the research team has been cataloging from the various Rock Springs Chinatown excavations. Stay tuned!
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