Читать книгу Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. A Hiking and Backpacking Guide онлайн

35 страница из 134

Steam engines at Dorleska Mine (see ssss1)

Photo: Luther Linkhart

In 1854, tensions between two tongs, or Chinese gangs—one from Canton and another from Hong Kong—erupted in a skirmish instigated and egged on by whites. (So-called tong wars were commonplace in California in the 19th and early 20th centuries.) The American and European gold-seekers didn’t allow the Chinese to use guns—stray bullets might hit white bystanders—so the “Hong Kongs” and “Cantons” fought with knives, spears, and hatchets in a field near Weaverville. “Military advisers” for both sides cheered them on and bet on the outcome, with the Cantons eventually triumphing. However, many Chinese on both sides were losers, with numerous deaths (estimates from different historical sources range from 4 to 26) and many injuries. Surprisingly, there were no casualties among the “advisers.”

More people swarmed over the area in the 1850s than have been there at any time since. In less than a decade, most of the available placer gold had been mined, and the Chinese moved on to help build a section of the Transcontinental Railroad over the Sierra Nevada. Only the Weaverville Joss House, the museum, some artifacts, and miles of carefully stacked boulders the miners left along the streams remain to remind present-day visitors and residents of the extent of the 19th-century Chinese community.