A bustling Chinatown once stood across the Truckee River opposite what is now the National Automobile Museum in Reno.
There is no trace of that enclave today, but a recently installed historic marker now commemorates the site of Reno’s lost Chinatown. For generations, it was a place of hard work, hope, celebrations—and despair.
Its buildings and shacks were set aflame in 1878, most likely by anti-immigrant thugs. Residents rebuilt on the north side of the river near Lake Street, where 30 years later, men with axes and firebrands destroyed many of their homes and businesses—by order of city and county officials.
Nevada, as historian Wilbur Shepperson observed, was never a promised land for the Chinese. “Rather, it became a land of heartbreak and defeat,” he wrote.
After 1908, a small Chinese population remained in Reno. By the 1950s, a new wave of Chinese transplants worked in many trades and professions, built businesses and served in government posts. The struggles of their predecessors became a dim memory.
A new interpretive panel on Lake Street, historians said, has great relevance today, as the Trump administration’s immigration policies and harassment of immigrant communities haunt the headlines. The administration also is censoring websites, libraries and museums to erase mentions of civil rights struggles, discrimination and other darker aspects of the American experience. To dwell on such things, Donald Trump’s executive order says, “deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.”
The policy is an attempt to replace facts with propaganda, some historians say.
“History is rhyming, if not repeating,” said Michael Green, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Sometimes you don’t see violence against people, but what happens is violence against history, against language, against feelings.”
When we fail to acknowledge our history, Green said, “We open the door for more of the same—or worse. We ought to be adult enough to face our past. … The xenophobia never goes away. The issue is whether you feel comfortable voicing it and displaying it. And lately, people have increasingly developed that comfort.”
With the Chinatown marker and others around the city, Reno acknowledges its history, warts and all.
‘Homes for the heathen’
The Chinese called Nevada yin shan, the “Silver Mountain.” Some immigrants who arrived during California’s Gold Rush traveled east to Nevada to prospect for gold. In the 1850s, Chinese crews dug irrigation ditches in Dayton and Genoa. After the Civil War, about 12,000 Chinese laborers built the western leg of the transcontinental railroad.
By 1870, 3,000 of those workers had settled in Nevada. They lived in segregated communities in Reno and across the Silver State. They started small businesses, became cooks or gardeners, or carved irrigation ditches. In 1870, the Census counted 3,162 Chinese people in Nevada (including just 306 women), accounting for 7.4% of the state’s population.
The immigrants planned to make their fortunes and send money home to their families. Most wanted to eventually return to China. Wherever they settled, they faced low wages, discrimination, racism and xenophobia—and in Reno and elsewhere in the West, they were driven from their homes.
In Reno, animosity against immigrant workers reached a boiling point in 1878, after a Chinese firm won the contract to dig the 33-mile Steamboat Ditch. Anti-Chinese groups, including the Workingmen’s Party, the Order of Caucasians, the 601 Vigilance Committee, and the Anti-Coolie League, called for the expulsion of Chinese residents. On Aug. 3, 1878, the Workingmen’s group held a meeting to discuss “the Chinese problem.”
That night, a fire raged through Chinatown, then located at First and Virginia streets. The blaze leveled 50 houses and killed two people. Newspapers reported that the cause of the fire was either an accident or was “impossible” to determine. Many Nevada historians—including the late Phillip Earl and others—placed the blame at the feet of the anti-immigrant groups.
Reno newspapermen, with casual racism baked into their stories, documented the conflagration and its aftermath. A week after the fire, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that a new Chinatown was planned along the river at Lake Street: “Homes for the heathen will shortly be erected … hardly as far out (from downtown) as could be wished, but the location is infinitely preferable to that swept over by the fire. The Chinamen themselves do not regret the change of locality. They can accumulate all the filth they want without being disturbed.”
Over the next 30 years, the residents endured discrimination, but there was no major violence against the community. But Reno’s city core continued to expand, and the land along the riverbanks became more desirable.
In 1908, a Washoe County grand jury and the Reno Board of Health decided that Chinatown was a health hazard. On Nov. 2, a crew with axes and sledgehammers “got busy tearing down every Chinese shack and shanty that bears the least evidence of unsanitary conditions,” according to the Nevada State Journal. They burned the ruins and the contents of homes.
“The central location of Chinatown made it valuable property, and the anti-Chinese lobbyists tried various ways to take over the land,” wrote Sue Fawn Chung, emerita professor of history at UNLV and author of The Chinese in Nevada. The residents were unprepared for the destruction, and “150 Chinese were left homeless in the snowy winter and had to seek housing with friends,” she wrote.
Some structures remained. Fragments of Chinatown endured for decades, but the population of mostly single men dwindled.
“Following the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, there was minimal to no Chinese immigration, so those in Reno’s Chinatown were probably becoming quite aged,” said Fred Frampton, a former U.S. Forest Service archeologist who has excavated Chinese sites in the West. “Following all the various federal anti-Chinese laws, it is a wonder Reno had any Chinese at all.”
In 1880, there were about 400 Chinese in Washoe County. A decade later, there were 217. By 1910, the Census recorded 927 Chinese in Nevada, including 51 females.
In time, exclusion laws were repealed, and Chinese immigrants and second-generation Chinese Americans came to the Silver State. Some, like William Fong, who operated the New China Club in Reno from 1952 to 1973, prospered in the gaming industry. Others worked in many trades and professions, founded businesses, became respected educators, and served in appointed and elected government positions.
The 2020 Census revealed that Asians were the fastest-growing ethnic group in Nevada, accounting for 8.8% of the state’s population.
History in 150 words
The Chinatown marker is among seven new interpretive panels funded by a grant from Nevada Humanities. The project also received discretionary contributions from Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve and Ward 2 Councilmember Naomi Duerr. The other new markers are at the Washoe County Courthouse, Reno City Hall, McKinley Park School, the California Building, the Lear Theater, and Douglas Alley. Photos of the panels are part of the city’s historic markers map, accessed through the Arts and Culture link at www.reno.gov. The signs join scores of other historical interpretive panels around the city.
Melissa Hafey, management assistant at Reno’s Arts and Culture Department, did the research, consulted with local historians and wrote the text on the new markers. The verbiage was discussed and eventually approved by members of the city’s Historical Resources Commission. Professional historians or interpretive sign experts weren’t part of the team.
“Hiring a historian to write all seven markers would have been a different project,” Hafey said. “That happens as well, but for this project, we went in-house.”
Drafts of the markers’ texts were sent to independent historians, she said, and to scholars at the University of Nevada, Reno, the Nevada Historical Society, the Historic Reno Preservation Society and Our Story Inc. Commission members and Hafey read and discussed their critiques, which sometimes led to changes in the text. Some reviewers were concerned about vague language, accuracy or the omission of what they considered relevant facts. For example, the Chinatown marker notes that in 1908, public health officials who ordered the area razed were afraid the Chinese, who often lived in unsanitary conditions, would “spread disease.” There’s no mention of the land along the river becoming more valuable.
The 1878 fire also isn’t mentioned, although the text on the panel notes that: “(1908) was not the first time Reno’s Chinese faced discriminatory actions that led to their eventual displacement.”
Hafey noted that the cause of the 1878 fire is a matter of debate. A reference to the blaze would also require context about the anti-immigrant groups and their fears of cheap immigrant labor.
“We should be impressed that Reno is even putting up a sign. That should be a tribute to our city.”
Fred Frampton, former U.S. Forest Service archeologist
“It has some nuance and context that would have taken a lot of words to describe,” Hafey said.
The texts, she said, were limited to about 150 words so that photos could be included. In addition, the 1878 fire happened at the previous location of Chinatown rather than the Lake Street site, the focus of the interpretive sign.
“We did our best to include all of the comments we received, but, of course, the editing could go on forever, and text can always be revised and improved,” Hafey said. “We came to a point where we thought the text is communicating the main points, is accurate, and we sent it off for publication.”
Frampton, who didn’t review the panel’s text prior to its placement, said the verbiage isn’t perfect, but the marker does its job—providing a glimpse of a vanished community that current residents may not know existed. At a time when some politicians are erasing references about the historic struggles of minorities and discrimination against ethnic groups, “We should be impressed that Reno is even putting up a sign,” he said. “That should be a tribute to our city.”
He noted that the land across the river from the marker, where Chinatown once stood, is now vacant. “Someone ought to be doing some archeological test excavations in that lot,” Frampton said, before the site is entombed in concrete and asphalt. The contributions of the Chinese immigrants is a major part of the city’s history, he said. They provided essential labor and fresh produce to sustain Reno and nearby towns.
“(Chinese laborers) cut 40 cords of wood, per day, for the V&T Railroad, provided firewood for communities’ stoves, and were immensely important, especially around Truckee, in burning wood down to charcoal for Virginia City’s smelters,” Frampton said. “One could rightfully argue that the Chinese were the labor force that built and fed the early West.”
What an amazing article by Frank Mullin! I once worked in my younger days in an office at the 2nd floor of the old Post Office building and looked out over the Truckee River to this area that had a history that I was totally unaware or. Thanks for enlightening me and to the City of Reno to have the courage in these times to stand behind actual, documented, historical facts and honor the people behind those facts. Thank you.
Bravo, City of Reno and author Frank X. Mullen for sharing this important story!
Incredibly helpful article by Frank Mullen that will help you understand Reno’s history and the history of the American West!
This part of your story got me thinking:
He noted that the land…where Chinatown once stood, is now vacant. “Someone ought to be doing some archeological test excavations in that lot.”
Does anyone know if it has ever been excavated before, or if there are any initiatives to? I’d totally volunteer to dig around with a metal detector to benefit history. A quick search says that the land is owned by NEVADA LAND IV LLC, based in Indiana.