From the Blue Mountains of far northeast Oregon, the serpentine Snake River cascades into the grand Columbia River as it pours into the Pacific Ocean. The waters of the Snake River carves the deepest canyon at North America – Hells Canyon.
At Hells Canyon, along its rocky rivershore, upon a cliff, a granite memorial poignantly marks an awful atrocity:
Chinese Cove Massacre-Site of the 1887 massacre of as many as 34 Chinese gold miners. No one was held accountable
In 1995, Charlotte McIver, Wallowa County Clerk, discovered a cache of trial records relating to the 1888 murder trial in an old safe that being donated to the County Museum. Gregory Nokes, a reporter for The Oregonian, began his own research into Chinese Cove Massacre. In 2009, he published a nonfiction book – “Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon,” that described Massacre details and its coverup by the White community.
Anti-Chinese Sentiment
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. The Act denied Chinese from becoming naturalized American citizens. During the zenith of the anti-Chinese sentiment at the American West, Whites chased, shot, and hung Chinese during this period. They also burned Chinatowns.
