Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Re: Was there a camp of Chinese RR worker tents at Promontory?

Good catch, Chris. Have you thought about photographing that site...the dugouts, pottery shards, etc. for posterity? Might be a very wise plan of action considering the passing of time...

--Kevin

--- chris graves wrote:
I have seen that same article. Strobridge says the Chinese were pulled back at Mormon Hill, to do repairs on the line from Sacramento to Toano. That would lend credeance to the 4,000 workers noted by Richardson. And, in the valley between Independence Spring and Holburn Siding, East of Moor, there is evidence of a large encampment there. Broken pottery from China is everywhere, and the holes (dugouts) that were inhabited by the workers are easily seen. That site covers about 3 acres.
G J Chris Graves, NewCastle, Cal.


From: "Kevin Bunker" mikadobear45@yahoo.com

Seems to me that Randy hees ran across a Bay Area newspaper item from May or June 1869 mentioning that a host of Chinese road and trackworkers had been hurried back to California to rush the completion of the Western Pacific Rail Road between Stockton and Niles Canyon in order to open it to through passenger trains bound for San Francisco and Oakland ASAP.

--Kevin