The Ruins of Calico’s Chinatown

By Tina | Wednesday, January 25, 2012 | 8 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

8a china The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

In my research of Chinese Americans in the Old American West for my Cowboy Ninja book series, I’m digging up a lot of really interesting stuff, and here’s my latest find: the ruins of Calico’s Chinatown.

Calico is a Californian silver mine ghost town, and it’s situated out between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, almost exactly at the halfway point between the two major cities, just north of where the city of Barstow is located. The town was established around 1881, and the silver mines produced about $20 million in silver over 12 years. After the mine dried up, it was abandoned. In the 1950s, Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm purchased the town and restored the majority of the buildings to look the way they originally did. Then, Knott gave the town as a gift to California, and it is now a part of the San Bernardino Regional County Parks. It was officially named California’s Silver Rush Ghost town in 2005.

So guess which buildings DIDN’T get restored? Yep, you got it. The Chinatown ones. More after the jump.

394546 10100604571331035 3421990 54686106 887482174 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

I wanted to get a feel for a real old west town for my book, or at least as real as I could get, and Calico seemed the perfect place. It was within driving distance for me, and it was an official state recognized park. What I had my fingers crossed for was some trace of Chinese American presence there. There’s no mention of it at all on Calico’s official park website, but I saw some mention of it in some online comments, so I had my hopes up.

I was definitely not disappointed. Overall, I was just having a blast drinking sarsparilla and taking a million pictures of all the fascinating historic items all over the town including a printing press, school house, and mining carts galor, and just basically American-history-geeking-out to the extreme. Everything was restored as the park website said it would be, which was helpful for me and my writing, but at the same time, I felt a little sad that I couldn’t really tell what part was the original building and what part was newly done. Needless to say, I spent extra quality time with the most decrepit parts of the buildings and displays, trying to feel the age in the remnants.

Then suddenly, I turned a corner and looked down at what was a stage area, and next to it were rows of decaying walls. It looked almost like one of those archeological excavations that you see on National Geographic or Discovery Channel when they dig up some ancient city. I was thrilled and immediately ran in amongst the tattered walls, nothing more than crumbling adobe and rocks, the outlines of windows and doors still discernible, and one unit even had a fireplace while another had stairs.

405933 10100604635731975 3421990 54686501 1464547715 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

405341 10100604646545305 3421990 54686558 859922398 n 450x600 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

And then I saw something that I had missed in my excitement running down into the ruins–a Chinese bathhouse.

406324 10100604632698055 3421990 54686489 1542523738 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

406589 10100604633142165 3421990 54686490 364896917 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

As soon as I saw that, I thought, “Was the Calico Chinatown just this one bathhouse building?” And that’s when it hit me, and I whirled around and looked back at the ruins I had been running gleefully through just a second earlier. On the wooden fencing just above and behind the ruins was a little barely noticeable sign that read “China Town”.

398445 10100604633526395 3421990 54686492 1803570753 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

I was immediately struck by a mixture of feelings. On the one hand, I was delighted to be able to see the original walls of the buildings that were constructed here by the Chinese Americans of the 1880s and I didn’t have to guess what part was the “restored” part and what part was the original material. On the other hand, I was horrified that the buildings that were left un-restored were the Chinatown ones. To me, it spoke volumes of how the Chinese Americans are continually marginalized in the history of the Old West when they were definitely an integral part of this formative aspect of American history.

393273 10100604643855695 3421990 54686545 1045486915 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

I walked back again through the ruins, more solemnly than before, and this time, I spent some moments just standing and looking out a window or crouching by the fireplace and trying hard to imagine what it must have been like for the men who lived there, so far away from family and friends, so looked down upon by their neighbors here, and at every turn in danger of being murdered or robbed with no protection under what little law of the land there was in those frontier parts. It made me sad comparing my life of luxury to theirs of misery.

392168 10100604641675065 3421990 54686534 924072445 n 600x450 The Ruins of Calicos Chinatown

Who knows when a storm or earthquake will rage through this area and flatten what’s left of this old Chinatown of Calico, and then even these crumbling adobe walls will be gone. I couldn’t find anything online about the Calico Chinatown before I went, so I hope this article will be a resource to others seeking the same information and encourage people to visit this forgotten Chinatown and honor its memory, and maybe when they walk through Calico next, they’ll notice the little hard-to-see sign above that pile of ruined, un-restored buildings that reads “China Town.”

Categories:

DiscriminationHistory

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

Facebook Comments (Beta)

eliu500

Thanks for sharing this. It’s always fascinating to go back in history and to actually have pics to go by.

As a suggestion: Have you thought of following up with the State of California to confirm that 1) Calico Chinatown buildings were indeed omitted during restoration efforts; and 2) If so, why?

That “story behind the story” would be interesting to know!
ellebee11

Yes, definitely find out from the State of California if they have plans to keep expanding their restoration and perhaps they will start! Great pics.
Danny_Ahmed

Sounds like an interesting place to visit.
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

@eliu500 Great idea! I just emailed them asking for information about the restoration efforts.

I’m thinking since Walter Knott was the one who originally restored the town, he probably had a major hand in the decision not to restore Chinatown.

I’ll update y’all when I hear back from them.
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

@Danny_Ahmed Definitely worth a stop on the way to Vegas ^_^
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

@ellebee11 Hopefully they do have plans to restore. I contacted them for more info, so I will let you know. Thanks for reading!
Blamster

What a fascinating lead! Please keep us in the loop once you find out more. If nothing’s being done about it, maybe we can start an effort to restore it?
ProfPalefuddy

First let me declare my non Asian ethnicity. I often see the rewrite of history in our government, parks, museums. What would be a proposal that would be acceptable to the American and Visiting Chinese Community? What kind of concession could help support the restoration or preservation of the Calico China Town? Calico is kind of a restoration/preservation in progress. Of course the county of San Bernardino has limited funds. It even costs 250.00 just to send in a Concession Proposal.

Of the top of my head, I think of a tea house, or herbal Dr’s Office. But there is a big difference between the idea and knowing a Good Chinese Herbalist who perhaps would open a branch office with online orders shipped from Calico Ghost Town.

Hope you find more pictures of the area back in the day.

We should respect all who were there. We should respect the labors of all our ancestors.

8 Asians