Colorado

With the end of the California gold rush in 1855, many Chinese immigrants traveled east to the interior of the United States seeking new opportunities. As they moved into the Rocky Mountain region, they came to the Colorado territory in 1869. The earliest of them came as employees of the Central Pacific, Union Pacific, and Kansas Pacific Railroad companies that worked on laying the tracks that connected and formed the transcontinental railroad.[1] Denver became the terminus hub and was used to supply the booming mining industry throughout the territory.[2] Colorado was still up and coming, having just become a territory in 1861. Utilizing their extensive skill set, Chinese immigrants helped construct the physical and ideological foundations of the territory. While some Chinese laborers continued working for the railroad, others took on jobs in mining, ranching, clear-cutting, and various mercantile and business endeavors in food and domestic services.[3]

At first Chinese immigrants were welcomed in Colorado because of their attractive labor capabilities. The governor of Colorado offered land and financial assistance for any Chinese immigrant wishing to relocate and work in the territory.[8] Chinese immigrants came in great numbers, albeit slowly, to take advantage of the promises made.[11] Chinese immigrants in Colorado dispersed across the state to seek their livelihoods. Many became residents of Denver and established a Chinatown on Wazee and Market streets and set up various businesses including mercantile stores, restaurants, grocers, laundries, butchers, barbers, and cigar producers. They also had a doctor, one hotel, houses of worship, Huiguan, Fang, and Tong associations.[12] Other Chinese immigrants moved out into rural areas, taking jobs and establishing businesses in less competitive areas in Gilpin and Park Counties.[13] Those who moved outside of Denver found it easier to assimilate into their communities.[14] The biggest source of labor, aside from the mercantile, food, and domestic service industries, was in mining. Chinese laborers were exceptionally adept at gold placer mining. Nine-tenths of the placer gold in Colorado was extracted by Chinese workers.[15]

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[1]  Gerald E. Rudolph, “The Chinese in Colorado, 1869-1911” (dissertation, 1964), iii; William Wei, Asians in Colorado: a History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2016), 46.

[2] Wei, 46.

[3]  Rudolph, 5-6; Wei, 46-47; Patricia K. Ourada, “The Chinese in Colorado,” The Colorado Magazine, October 1952, 280-281.

[4] Ourada, 280.

[5] Wei, 46.

[6] Colorado Miner (Georgetown, CO), Aug. 13, 1869, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/.

[7]  Joseph Wolff, “Chinese Laborers,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Nov. 30, 1869, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection; Wei, 40.

[8] Wei, 45.

[9] Wei, 41; Ourada, 276; Rudolph, 5.

[10] Rudolph, 5.

[11] Wei, 46.

[12] Wei, 65, 73-74.

[13] Wei, 46-47.

[14] Rudolph, 163.

[15] Wei, 34.

[16] Rudolph, 55.

[17] Ourada, 277.

[18] Wei, 46-50.

[19] US Census Bureau, “1900 Census: Volume I. Population, Part 1,” Census.gov, October 8, 2021, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1901/dec/vol-01-population.html, 2.

[20] Huping Ling and Allan W. Austin, “The Chinese American Experience: History and Culture,” in Asian American History and Culture an Encyclopedia (Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis, 2010), 188.

[21] US Census Bureau, “1880 Census: Volume 1. Statistics of the Population of the United States,” Census.gov, October 8, 2021, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/decennial-publications.1880.html, 3; US Census Bureau, “1870 Census: Volume 1. Statistics of the Population of the United States,” Census.gov, October 8, 2021, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1872/dec/1870a.html, 8.

[22] US Census Bureau, “1880 Census,” 379.

[23] US Census Bureau, “1900 Census,” xcvi, cxxiii; Rudolph, 162.