"Legacy"– a tribute to Chinese railroad workers of the CPRR (U.S. Forest Serice Video)
From: Dennis Hogan [Courtesy of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Internet Message List.]
The U.S. Forest service has produced an impressive documentary on the contributions of Chinese laborers in building the Central Pacific RR.
I learned quite a bit from it. How did I miss hearing about the "China Wall" in the Sierras? ...
Film: Legacy
U.S. Forest Service [Tahoe National Forest] wrote: "Over 150 years ago, Chinese Railroad Workers blasted and chiseled their way through the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains near Donner Summit on the Tahoe National Forest in California while completing the Transcontinental Railroad. Despite this monumental achievement, the Chinese Railroad Workers’ contribution was excluded, ignored and forgotten from history. Today, grassroots groups including the USDA Forest Service are working together to retell this story."
a) "Chinese workers, Jamaica"
[Caution: NOT Central Pacific Railroad]
b) Donner Lake
c) China Wall
d) China Wall
e) China Wall
f) China Wall
g) Sierra Summit
h) Summit Tunnel CPRR
i) Chinese workers building the Loma Prieta Lumber Company's railroad, California, c. 1885
[Caution: NOT Central Pacific Railroad]
j) Summit Tunnel CPRR
k) Promontory Summit, Utah, May 10, 1869
Joining of the Rails
l) Continent Stereoscopic Co. Large mount stereoview #28 "Chinamen going to work in California."
[Caution: Probably NOT Central Pacific Railroad]
m) Golden Spike 50th Anniversary Celebration:
Chinese laborers Wong Fook, Lee Chao, Ging Cui, 1919
n) "1950 watercolor by artist Jake Lee [detail]
depicts Chinese laborers laying the transcontinental railroad track
through the Sierra Nevada mountains."
[Caution: NOT depicted with historical accuracy]
Images courtesy of the United States Forest Service.
Newspaper article:
Nevada County The Union:
"U.S. Forest Service honors Chinese railroad workers’ in movie."
[Additional links and captions added]
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 9:45 AM
11 Comments:
The modern painting shown in the video depicting Chinese workers in baskets hanging on a cliff face is not historically accurate, but instead the result of a series of embellished fabrications by authors over time.
Also see Chinese Heritage Sites of the American West.
Not sure that all of the photographs of Chinese shown above from the "Legacy" movie are actually of Central Pacific Railroad workers. Perhaps other railroads? Is anyone able to identify those images?
Also, the roadbed construction at Cape Horn on the CPRR is on a ledge, not on a wooden trestle.
You can often identify unknown images or verify images to be what they are claimed to be by doing a reverse image search on the internet.
Images identified using reverse image search, and captions added above, which include warnings of images that are often misidentified as showing CPRR Chinese workers.
Look here for images that actually show Chinese workers building the Central Pacific Railroad.
Also see, History: The Chinese heroes of the Transcontinental Railroad by Jerry Blackwill, Special to the Sierra Sun.
See related discussion.
Here is another misidentified image, from a recent article, showing Chinese workers on the Canadian Pacific Railroad c. 1884, not the Central Pacific Railroad as claimed.
Here is another image - not sure if this is on the Central Pacific Railroad or not:
"Coaling on the Road at Wannewacker by Chinese Laborers."
Like the several examples, above, here is another image, from two recent articles and a presentation, supposedly showing a Chinese worker relating to the Central Pacific Railroad, c. 1860's, but not actually attributable to the Central Pacific Railroad as implied. The image has been in the museum archive of the Northeastern Nevada Historical Society in Elko, Nevada since its inception, but the donor is unknown, and there is nothing known about this image, i.e., where this photograph was taken, which railroad, and the date, photographer, etc.
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