On Sunday, the day before the Chinese Heritage Tour ended and people flew back to Seattle, I watched at least three participants shed tears.

It’s OK to do that, you know. In many ways, crying is a healthy form of communication. It shows that your mind and heart are linked up and in good working order – that you have emotion.

The three people - all Chinese Americans - were thinking about their family histories, loved ones, lessons learned and the new stories and friends gained on this year’s one-week Heritage Tour through Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada.

Lessons from the trip were sinking in.

When I posted the first entry on Monday, July 19, I wrote that the Wing Luke Museum of Seattle strives to connect people to history. Based on this year’s Chinese Heritage Tour, it is clear that The Wing also connects people to people.

In big ways.

How so?

Think about this trip in a series of questions, namely:

• Why plan this trip in the first place?
• What was the motivation?
• Why sit on a bus for hours and hours?
• Why hike on rock walls?
• Why visit a town one mile above the sea?
• Why sit down with historians and archaeologists?
• Why endure 100-plus temperatures?
• Why leave the comforts of your own home?
• Why tell other people your story?

In other words: There must have been something in each participant’s life that acted as an impetus to fill out the registration form, make the payment and then stand in line to board the tour’s big blue bus.

If you wanted pure fun and excitement, you would have zoomed down a water slide.

There must have been something gnawing – and I say that in a good sense – or hovering inside each participant.

Quite possibly, a need to share.

One way to look at the entire week of visiting important - but often overlooked – historic places involving the Chinese in the American West is this:

• Were the sites a vehicle to futher the understanding of history?
• Or did the sites actually serve as a vehicle to bring a group of humans together?
• Was it a bit of both?

You know, to talk, listen, crack jokes, swap family history, sit in hot temperatures together, take photographs, eat food and jot notes down regarding dates, names and populations?

On those long bus rides through rolling hills and basins, I listened as people asked one another about their lives and listened as the other person shared. I watched as they inspected the sites of old Chinatowns and looked for pieces of the past – shards of bowls or a bottle with Chinese writing on it – and studied photographs.

Those images included Chinese people dressed in frontier clothing and men wearing queues.

As you know, if no one is next to you when you’re talking about history and sorting through it for your own understanding and where you and your relatives sit in the middle of it, well then, you’re just talking to yourself.

Or you’re talking to the window pane in front of you. But window panes can’t nod, make eye contact or ask you more questions to broaden ideas.

Who can?

The person sitting next to you on a bus.

Or if you think back to the 19th century, the person sitting next to you at a gold mining site and who can speak your Chinese dialect and knows your hometown.

At a group dinner on Sunday, Ron Chew, a university instructor, historian and writer, gave a tip of the hat to the person who came up with the idea for a Wing Luke-affiliated Heritage Tour.

While the first Heritage Tour backed by the museum occurred in 1994, the idea started as a discussion 20 years ago when Dale Hom – now USDA Forest Service supervisor – talked with Chew about these sites in the American West and their relationship to the Chinese in America.

“He was the guy who saw the connection,” Chew said. “Dale is the person who gave birth to this.”

Then, Dorothy Ng, tour coordinator, and Aleta Eng, a tour co-leader, presented Hom with a gift – a hat to make him a Chinese American cowboy, in a sense, before our eyes.

At one point, Chew turned to his sons, Cian and Kino.

“You’ll always have a history here,” he told them.

“We’re standing on the shoulders of those who came before us,” said Bettie Luke, a participant and Seattle resident active in its Asian Pacific American community.

Others chimed in that they were willing to sign up for the next tour.

This week’s trip meant that much.

And they already know long bus rides will be a part of any future adventure.

In the 19th century, when the Chinese left places such as Toisan in southern China and arrived in the American West to look for gold or help build the railroads, they often tried to stay with others who could understand them.

They were, you know, in a new place. It could be tough: Racism, squabbles, uncertainty.

That says something not only about the human drive to survive and support loved ones – even though they reside thousands of miles away, across the Pacific Ocean.

But it also says something about the human need to share, have friends and family next to you, enjoy food together, have a conversation, learn and be comfortable – both in your heart and mind.

It kind of helps to take the edge off the fact that you’re standing in the mountains in 90 degrees plus heat, holding a large hose or moving heavy stones in search of gold – but more importantly, a good fortune.

In many ways, this year’s Heritage Tour accomplished some of those very same themes – of connecting with history and becoming friends with the person next to you.

Onward.

– Brad Wong

UPDATE (Tuesday, July 27): On late Monday night, the group’s flight arrived safely in Seattle. This is one of the group photos, taken at the Reno airport. Some members had left to start their journeys home.

As Rebecca Hom, a storyteller, observes:

I think we have been ‘home’ this entire week.

NOTE: I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these blog entries. I hope they make sense to you – of course, they make sense to me. And I enjoyed my time riding the bus, hiking in the mountains, listening and asking questions. It’s likely there might be a few more entries to this blog, as others post their photographs or thoughts. But we’ll have a larger travel site down the road. 

The Chinese Heritage Tour of the American West – a project of the Wing Luke Museum and the USDA Forest Service – had historic moments, personal reflections about Chinese pioneers, thoughts about family histories and, well, hours and hours of life on the bus.

This post is primarily for the 35 or so people who participated in this year’s rolling history project which included visits in Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. It’s for the public, too.

But on Sunday evening – the day before the trip ends with flights back to Seattle – members gathered for dinner and talked about how life on the bus gave them a way to meet different people, learn about their lives, think about Chinese and Chinese American history and, in a way, move and inspire them.

Yes, all on a bus. It happens. Stories and friendships can unfold anywhere.

So, in that spirit, here are some selected images taken on Saturday, July 24, 2010 – when traveling, visits and a repair from Boise, Idaho to Virginia City, Nevada lasted about 16 hours.

Yes, it was hot, too, so much so that some of the younger people on the trip placed ice on their arms and heads.

It is safe to say that it is highly unlikely that the same experiences in those 16 hours will ever be repeated – which, in a way, makes for some great (and yes, hot) memories.

These images are of morning exercises.

At first, tour members relaxed in their seats.

Then, they were asked to take some photocopied passages and move their eyes left and right.

After that, they moved on to hand exercises, including stretching of the fingers.

Still, more hand stretching for people onboard.

Pressing hands together also was part of the morning movements.

Soon, bottles of water had been passed out, enabling people to do more exercises.

Arm curls with water bottles were spotted, too.

Overhead stretches with the water bottles, well, capped the exercises off.

Later, tour members reviewed June 1870 census data, in photocopied form of course, for Placerville, Nevada. Placerville was a Chinese mining town in which the miners lived in dugouts.

Census data – in this case of the nation in 1870 – of the Chinese in America also was reviewed, this time on an iPad.

It is a popular phrase, but an apt one, for life on the bus: Let the good times roll.

Even before gold was discovered in Virginia City, Nevada – a mile above the sea – the Chinese had arrived in the area.

After the Comstock Lode, which sparked the big gold rush in 1859, more Chinese pioneers arrived, enduring the dry heat, winds and frontier life for a chance to help families across the Pacific Ocean.

But for the most part, they could not unearth it from the deep mines. The reason: Powerful unions for other miners blocked the Chinese from going underground, said Ron James with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office.

“They were concerned the Chinese would undercut them,” he said, adding that union members earned $4 per day which was high at the time.

That was one of the slices of Chinese American history that emerged Sunday as participants in the Chinese Heritage Tour of the American West started to wind down their week-long journey through Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada.

They were reminded of what immigrants from southern China – the main exodus point during the 19th century – experienced as they worked for contract companies to search for gold, found jobs as cooks at mining sites and established herb shops and general stores. In many cases, they were the labor force when towns in the American West were booming or heading toward bust.

Many died in the American West. Others paid money into a company account to have their bones sent to their birthplace.

In Virginia City, where at least 2,000 Chinese had arrived during the town’s gold and silver run, they eventually worked in roles that supported the miners at a laundry or store, James said.

While prejudice aimed at the Chinese ran through this mountain-high town’s streets, there also was interaction among residents of different backgrounds. Residents from European backgrounds often would shop in the town’s Chinatown, James explained.

Today, the plot of land where the old Chinatown – which is photographed below - sat is an empty field, a dirt lot near a horse stable. Historians and archaeologists also believe that there was another nearby area in which more Chinese lived.

It burned in the town’s Great Fire in 1875. While it was rebuilt, it never recovered and eventually faded away in the 1920s, James said. 

Another contribution of the Chinese who lived in and around Virginia City during the 19th century: They roamed the mountains, even during the winter at elevations of 6,000 feet and higher, to cut wood for fuel, said Fred Frampton, a USDA Forest Service archaeologist.

That wood went to power the local railroad because those trains required wood and not coal, he added.

Also on Sunday, at the Piper Opera House, historian Sue Fawn Chung gave a historical performance talking about the life of Loy Lily Lee Ford, a Chinese woman born in California in 1882.

She was dressed in period clothing, as she talked about Ford’s life and her experiences and friendships during a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act barred most Chinese from entering the country.

Tour participants might not have noticed it on Day 1 of the Chinese Heritage Tour of the American West. But food and water magically appeared at different intervals as the bus rolled down the highway.

Think sandwiches, cookies, Vitamin C candy, Chinese candy, chips, chocolate mints, fruit gummies, crackers, bottled water, peanuts and granola bars (different kinds). In fact, you might have forgotten that some of these munchies existed had you not sat down on the tour bus.

So what do these supplies look like?

Well, they sit in the back of the bus – and Ng, Aleta Eng, co-tour leader from the USDA Forest Service, Josh Heim, a Wing Luke staff member and the youth interns pass them out.

Above, you can watch Dorothy Ng, tour coordinator, talk about the efforts to keep the bellies and minds of the 35 tour members content. Photographs are below.

After a few days, it probably dawned on tour members: Man, there’s a lot of food on this bus.

When you’re out on the road, in the American West, for a week, that’s a good thing.

The Chinese Heritage Tour had a bit of a bus ride Saturday from Idaho to the gold-mining area of Virginia City, Nevada – but this is the morning view participants can see from this mountainous area approximately 6,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea.

At one point in the 19th century, Virginia City had so much gold that, as the visitors center said, the precious metal was in “every hill.” Those two words drew prospectors from around the world – including China.

The group today will go on a walking tour of this town with Ron James from the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office. He will talk about the Chinese Americans who arrived centuries ago.

Apparently, the hills in and around Virignia City had so much gold in them that miners earned millions of dollars, pumping it into cities, such as San Francisco, and the Civil War.

Some questions: If that was the case, were Chinese miners fortunate enough to pull in similar amounts of money – either for themselves or for their contract companies? If so, how and where did they spend this money?

Or did the Chinese who arrived pursue other types of work?

We’ll try and post answers after we hear them. 

Also today, historian Sue Fawn Chung will give a performance of a Chinese American pioneer woman who is between two worlds. The venue: Piper’s Opera House.

She and Fred Frampton, a USDA Forest Service archaeologist have been traveling with the group and pointing out what Chinese American pioneers did in different Nevada towns during the gold rush, as well as other bits from regional history.

On Saturday, the big blue bus “America” had a mechanical problem, prompting a repair call and making for an estimated 16-hour travel day. That included rest stops.

But the bus arrived safely late Saturday evening in Virginia City. People went straight to their hotel rooms. 

After a mechanic repaired the bus, near Potato Road and Winnemucca Boulevard, members rolled along the highway around 8 p.m. - just as the sun was turning a pinkish glow outside Winnemucca, Nevada.

Many tour members pointed their cameras toward the West to record the moment. In fact, that sunset was so nice, we thought we’d post it twice.

Note: I thought our driver did a great job in getting the tour bus repaired. No one ever said that traveling was going to go like clockwork — Brad Wong.

Update: I chatted with Ron James about those questions. It turns out that the Chinese didn’t do much rock mining in the area. As I understand, the miner unions were powerful and put pressure to block the Chinese from working in the mines – the reason, as James said, was that the Chinese might undercut other miners.

The main economic role that the Chinese played here was in commerce and laundry. He said it is hard to know where the money they earned went – though there’s a strong chance some or much of it was sent to China to help relatives.

James added that it might not be true that gold from Virginia City went to finance the Civil War.

The placer – or surface – mining site that eight Chinese men once worked sits near Idaho City, Idaho or about 39 miles from Boise.

It’s officially called the Granite Creek Trailhead and is part of the Boise National Forest. On Friday, the heat was so high that local residents played on rafts or in innertubes in creeks and rivers. The grass had turned dry, yellow.

Around the 1880s, eight Chinese men worked this rocky, approximately 10-acre area to find gold. What they also did was leave evidence of their existence, giving researchers better clues to piece together this region’s history and contributions of Chinese pionners in the American West.

For example, pictured above is a Chinese tea can and some type of strainer.

The eight men were part of what was recorded as the Hop Lee Tong, said Susie Osgood, a USDA Forest Service archaeologist with the Boise National Forest.

“We don’t know much about him,” she said, referring to the man. Tong typically meant group, organization or association.

Records also show that Hop Lee and his crew leased this rock-filled, sloping land for 25 years from Chris Constance, who has been listed as a hose maker, for $1,500.

That slope was important because water could go down it – something gold miners needed in search of the precious metal.

In 1994, when Osgood was doing work in the area, she came across a treasure trove of sorts – the men’s trash dump which still existed from the 19th century.

Among the items eventually found: A Chinese toothbrush made of wood, gaming pieces, rubber boots, tunic buttons, a sardine can and coins with Chinese writing on them.

So why do these artificats exist today?

“What we think happened was that a water event buried these artificats,” she said.

There is other evidence – a store’s ledger – which includes the Hop Lee Tong name, she added. It might be directly to this mining site – and it might not.

But the name is the same.

In this ledger, a note shows that the Hop Lee Tong served as some type of security for Pon Yam, who operated a store in nearby Idaho City.

Who was Pon Yam?

According to an essay in Bricks & Boardwalks: A Walking-Tour Guide To Historic Idaho City, he was:

…a successful businessman and a respected leader in the community. It was reported that he owned the largest diamond in the mining camp, and he was often called upon to settle disputes among the Chinese tongs (fraternal organizations).

Back in 1870, Idaho City had 1,751 residents from China, or about 45 percent of the total population, according to the historic guide.

In the 1860s, territorial lawmakers in Idaho passed a bill which required “All Mongolians” to pay $4.00 each month they stayed in what is now a state. Still, the Chinese miners remained.

Another question is: What route did these Chinese miners take to get here after they arrived on what is now the U.S. West Coast?

Dale Hom, a USDA Forest Service supervisor who has studied the region’s history, offered this likely route: Chinese pioneers went by paddle boat along the Columbia River.

After that, they took the Snake River. At a certain point, they took wagons to various places. Some might have headed north to Spokane, Wash. Others went south, ending up in Pendleton, Ore.

Others headed to Idaho to places such as the Boise Basin, where this mining site sits.

A group of us from the Chinese Heritage Tour went out for dinner Thursday to a Chinese restaurant in Eastern Oregon.

I think many of us had cravings for some tasty Chinese food – fresh vegetables, braised meats and the like. I sat at the end of the longish table and looked up to see a plate full of three browned patties with what looked like gravy or cheese on top.

I thought: Who ordered salisbury steak?

Word trickled down, though, that those saucer-like browned patties were egg foo young. Now, it’s fine, I suppose, if people enjoy eating it and want to do so.

But aren’t we on a week-long trip to rediscover special places in Chinese American history in the American West?

Wouldn’t, say, a nice steamed fish really hit the spot?

More word filtered down to my end of the table that someone in our group actually ordered the egg foo young.

I thought again: Why? And who?

I was hungry and like everyone else began eating – including the egg omelette.

The funny thing is that I have not eaten egg foo young in, well, decades. I usually order something else when I go to Chinese restaurants.

I finally heard that Maxine Chan – the food anthropologist who prepared the delicious Toisanese meal on Monday to kick off the Heritage Tour – was the person who ordered the dish.

Could it be?

I mean, on Monday, she spent extra amounts of time to make sure her Toisanese meal met her standards as a chef.

At dinner, I didn’t have a chance to ask her if she was the one.

Before we left, there was food still sitting on the dishes – including the egg foo young.

John Pai, who is making a video of the tour, grabbed a white take-out box and put some of the egg foo young in, as well as some rice and vegetables.

He said he wanted to eat it for breakfast.

I had eaten some and, yes, there were eggs inside. But from the looks of it, I still thought we had ordered salisbury steak. 

I had forgotten what egg foo young was exactly such that I had to look for a definition on Google.

On Friday morning, I spotted Max and remembered to ask whether she was the one who wanted the dish.

Her reply: Yes.

I think she wanted to have a taste test of sorts.

“Because they’ve added alot of flour to that stuff,” she said. “It makes it gummy. Traditionally, it was eggs and vegetables or meat.”

Later on Friday, I asked John how tasty that egg foo young was for his first meal of the day.

“It was one of the more delicious breakfasts I’ve had,” he replied. “Who wants to start off the day with sweet carbs?”

I haven’t asked him whether he will start eating egg foo young for breakfast once he returns to the Seattle area.

– Brad Wong

We crossed the Oregon-Idaho border today and stopped in Idaho City to visit a placer mining site near the Granite Creek Trailhead. One thing we learned quite fast: It can get hot – as in at least the 90s plus range.

So, many members of the Chinese Heritage Tour of the American West were smart. They broke out what they needed to stay relatively cool or the sun out of their eyes and off their heads.

One member brought this nifty fan with a water bottle attached. Others broke out their wide-brimmed hats and stylish eyewear to combat the sun’s glare.

Stan tied a bandana to protect his head and also went for the cool eyewear look.

We head by bus on Saturday to Nevada. Once we’re in Nevada, Fred Frampton, a USDA Forest Service archaeologist, and scholar Sue Fawn Chung will point out important sites for Chinese American history.

But Frampton warned tour members on Friday to be prepared for heat – possibly in the 100s. He encouraged us to wear sunscreen or long-sleeve shirts to avoid getting burned.

“You might see a cloud,” he joked. “I’ve seen a cloud once.”

Note that Dorothy Ng, tour coordinator, and Aleta Eng, co-tour leader, have done a great job of keeping the group’s bus, “America,” well stocked with bottles of water.

But hey: What happened to all that great Seattle weather from June?

You know, when it was so gray and overcast that you thought February had returned?

The Chinese gold miners who worked the land north of Granite, Ore. starting in the 1860s left traces of their work and existence - shards from bowls, glass medicine bottles and items with Chinese characters.

When the members of the Chinese Heritage Tour visited the Ah Hee Diggings on Thursday, several used their Chinese reading skills and understanding of Chinese American history to help interpret and better understand artificats collected by the USDA Forest Service.

Those members included Ron Chew, a Seattle resident and former Wing Luke Museum executive director, and Dorothy Ng, a Wing Luke staff member and coordinator for the Heritage Tour.

The photos and video were shot on Thursday, July 22, 2010 about a mile north of Granite.

NOTE: I’d try and figure out how to justify the video clip in the center but we’re going to board the bus to Idaho City, Idaho in a bit.

Our bus snaked up the mountains of Eastern Oregon on Thursday and arrived at our destination around noon - an unmarked rocky site in the Whitman National Forest about a mile north of Granite.

Members of the 2010 Chinese Heritage Tour exited the bus, carefully made their way across a narrow wooden bridge and gathered under a small clump of trees. That provided a bit of relief from the dry summer heat in this area about 5,000 feet above the sea.

At least by 1867, Chinese miners had arrived, too, in search of gold discovered that decade, researchers have said. Many of the miners had made their way from the Toisan, or Taishan, area of southern China.

It is a region of the world relatively close to the ocean and which in the 19th century faced famine, turmoil, bandits and invasions.

We had arrived at what is referred to as the Ah Hee Diggings or the “Chinese Walls” – a former mining site covering 60 acres of rocks piled in rows about 12 feet high and 15 feet wide. Some stones were likely moved with the help of winches but the vast majority were stacked by hand, researchers have found.

Those numbers don’t completely sink in on the human brain until you cross another narrow wooden bridge and scale up the rocks – trying to find firm footing each step of the way – and take in the sprawling field of stones so big that more than two hands are needed to move them.

The Chinese miners who arrived at this site undertook placer mining in which they worked the earth’s surface to find the precious metal, said Sarah Crump, a USDA Forest Service archaeologist.

The rocks are piled high because once the Chinese miners had worked one area of the land, they would move the stones to one side and make the walls, she added.

“This is 60 acres of rock people moved to find gold,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing what people are willing to do to earn money.”

While some call the site the Ah Hee Diggings, Crump explained that records indicate that he never owned the land. But Ah Hee did live in Granite with his name showing up in a store ledger.

Tour members stood on the rocks and soaked up the sight – with a keen awareness of who did it, why and when.

One reason why researchers know the Chinese worked this land is because of Chinese artificats found in the area – bowl shards and items with Chinese writing.

Chinese miners in this area faced another issue at the time: Many were working on abandoned claims or ones purchased or leased from Europeans.

At the time, the government prohibited Chinese miners from filing direct claims, Crump said.

After European mining companies left a mining site, the bosses would sell the claims to Chinese miners. “That’s how most Chinese got their foot in the door,” she said.

In conversations, some tour members talked about whether they would do the stone-moving work if that was what was needed in order to earn money and support loved ones. The answers varied with some thinking about their age and the entire physical undertaking.

King, a teen who immigrated from Hong Kong, talked about survival and said he would do the work.

MingFeng, another teen, grew up in Toisan and moved to the Seattle area in recent years. As she sat on a pile of rocks and gazed at the scene, the heat settled in with a slight breeze in the air.

She talked about how the experience of visiting this site helped her understand the history of the Chinese in America. The fact that the rocks were moved by people from Toisan – thousands of miles away – didn’t come as a complete surprise.

In Toisan, she said, people often do work with their hands.

For centuries, the people there have farmed the land, stooping in paddies to plant rice.

And in the future, would she ever want to return to this site should she have kids to show them this field of rocks that stretches and stretches along the land?

“Yes.”