A Pictorial Walk Through
the 20th Century
The Asian American in Mining
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Search for Gold Mountain
Chinese miners worked tirelessly to claim their share of
gold mountain.
The Chinese immigration to America escalated into a tidal wave of fortune seekers following the discovery of gold in California in 1848. This wave of immigration was one for which the American West had little time in which to prepare or adjust.
The first U. S. Census report on Asian population in 1830 recorded a total of only three Chinese living within the boundaries of the United States. Although this number is doubtlessly undercounted, there is no question that Asian Americans were not a common feature of American life prior to this time. In early 1849, immigration records recorded the residence of only 54 Chinese men in the state of California. This changed dramatically as the news of gold being discovered in California spread across the oceans. During the mid-1800's, China was undergoing one of the most challenging eras of its existence. The Taiping Rebellion had left the nation devastated and struggling under burden of poverty and ruin. British warships destroyed many of the Chinese major ports during the Opium War. Shortly afterward, severe flooding and famine threatened to wipe out families in the Guangdong Province in southeast China.
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