The Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum, also known as Kam Wah Chung Company Building, is a state park and a
National Historic Landmark that preserves early Chinese culture in
John Day in the
U.S. state of
Oregon.
Built in the 1865 by George Hazeltine as a supply depot or stagecoach stop along the Dalles-Canyon City wagon road., it is the best-preserved example of a Chinese herbal apothecary and mercantile establishment dating to the post-
Civil War period of growth in the
Western United States.
History
The Kam Wah Chung ()
Company Building was built along a wagon road later known as
The Dalles Military Road The Dalles Military Road, also known as The Dalles – Boise Military Wagon Road, was a mid-19th century wagon road surveyed and barely built by The Dalles Military Road Company between 1868 and 1870. To qualify for government land grants, the c ...
, possibly as a trading post serving
placer mining
Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed (Alluvium, alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit mining, open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment.
Placer minin ...
operations on Canyon Creek. By 1878, it was under lease to the Kam Wah Chung Company, which was purchased in 1887 by the partnership of
Ing Hay (known also as "Doc Hay") ()
and
Lung On (),
Chinese immigrants from
Canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ent ...
.
The building remained abandoned after Ing Hay died in 1952. He asked that the building be deeded to the city of John Day with the provision it be turned into a museum. His wish, and the ownership of the building, were forgotten until 1967. While surveying for a new park the city discovered its ownership of the building and began to restore it as it was in the 1940s. The city also has custody of many of the company's records and personal documents relating to the proprietors.
Currently the Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum contains one of the most extensive collections of materials from the century-long influx of Chinese immigrants in the American West. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 2005.
[.]
The museum received particular attention from Oregon First Lady
Mary Oberst, wife of Governor
Ted Kulongoski, who helped raise $1.5 million in private funds to renovate the building into a
state park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...
. The renovation began in November 2006 and was re-opened in August 2007. The renovated museum's grand re-opening was celebrated on May 3, 2008.
See also
*
List of Oregon state parks
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Oregon
*
References
*
*
External links
*
*
*
Kam Wah ChungDocumentary produced by ''
Oregon Public Broadcasting''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kam Wah Chung and Co. Museum
National Historic Landmarks in Oregon
Chinese-American history
Chinese-American museums
Chinese-American culture in Oregon
Museums in Grant County, Oregon
State parks of Oregon
Ethnic museums in Oregon
Parks in Grant County, Oregon
National Register of Historic Places in Grant County, Oregon
John Day, Oregon