Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon

Chapter Eight: The Mon-Tung Camp

CHAPTER EIGHT The Mon-Tung Camp EXCAVATIONS ELSEWHERE OFFER clues to what the Chinese camp might have looked like. There has not been a thorough excavation at Deep Creek—Bruce Womack, a retired Forest Service archeologist, told me the agency lacked the resources, partly because of the remote location. He said Deep Creek had been repeatedly scavenged by fortune-hunters and other miners, and anything of consequence was probably dug up years ago.1 An excavation at another mining camp called the Mon-Tung Camp suggested that Marjorie Martin’s description of Deep Creek might have some validity. Mon-Tung was discovered largely undisturbed in 1989 on the banks of the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho, about two hundred and fifty miles upriver from Deep Creek. Archaeologists found remains of two rock cabins, one for living and one for storage. Records of ownership, which survive, show Mon-Tung and a nearby claim were acquired from a Caucasian owner in 1871 by two Chinese miners, Ah Mon Mong and Tung Toek Tong, in lieu of wages owed them. From 1871 on, the camp was continuously occupied by Chinese until it was abandoned in 1890.2 The rock cabin was set against a cliff and partially dug into a dirt ledge, giving the occupants protection from the cold and wind. Rectangular in shape, the cabin was nine by eleven feet, not quite four feet high, with a single entrance. Nothing remained of the roof, which would have been made of tent canvas, or boards and driftwood. The cabin had burned, possibly from a fire set purposely after the last occupant died. A Bureau of Land Management excavation report suggested that fellow miners customarily set fire to a deceased Chinese miner’s cabin and possessions, fearful that if anyone else moved in, the dead man’s spirit might return and bring them bad luck.3 The artifacts and tools uncovered at the Mon-Tung site presumably were similar to those used at Deep Creek. Among them: an intact bamboo-pattern rice bowl, broken pieces of glassware, an 1863 coin from Hong Kong, cans for opium, an opium pipe bowl, a brown ceramic liquor bottle, two shovel blades, an axe head, a miner’s candle holder, a mining pan, two perforated 64 Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon iron screens for rockers, two rock chisels, a rule from a scale, pieces of a cast-iron stove, a black powder keg lid stamped with the date of 1869, and pieces of a retort. There were also Chinese buttons, remnants of a grass sleeping mat, a metal frame from a carpetbag, a small winter green porcelain cup, a small flat piece resembling a poker chip, a rusted coffee pot, a copper tray, and a knife and spoon. Also found was a broken sarsaparilla bottle— sarsaparilla was used as a blood purifier and a cure for syphilis, but may also have found use as an antidote to mercury poisoning.4 The discovery of opium cans and opium smoking paraphernalia was not a surprise, as opium use was common among the Chinese and not unlawful nationally in the U.S. until 1909 when Congress passed the Opium Exclusion Act. An excavation at a nearby ash pit revealed some of the miners’ diet: bones of chickens, grouse, sage hens, and quail. Chinese generally shunned beef, preferring pork. At some mining camps, they often kept live pigs for slaughter. Other foods preferred by Chinese included dried oysters, dried cuttlefish, sweet rice, dried bamboo, salted cabbage, Chinese sugar, dried fruits and vegetables, vermicelli, mushrooms, peanut oil for cooking, and tea.5 Many of these foodstuffs were imported and stocked by Chinese merchants in the larger towns, Lewiston among them. Chinese frequently pooled their resources to purchase a claim. In a not atypical transaction in July 1869, five Chinese miners bought a claim on Grimes Creek near Centerville in southern Idaho for two thousand, nine hundred dollars from its Caucasian owner. The purchase included “all tools, sluices, flumes, cabin and everything thereunto belonging.”6 In another transaction, Wang Yet, Ah Lang, and Mon Hay & Co. purchased claims on Grimes Creek for one thousand, eight hundred dollars from John Carroll and James Norton. The purchase included: 75 or 80 sluice boxes, hydraulic telegraph, about 400 yards of hose, 2 pipes and nozzles, 1 whip saw, 1 cross cut saw, 3 sluice forks, 5 shovels, 7 picks, 2 axes, 2 hammers, 2 augers, 1 plane, 1 spirit level, two mining hoes, 1...