September 2, 1885
On this day tensions boiled over between Anglo-American and immigrant miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, leaving as many as many as 50 Chinese dead.
It was one of the country’s worst race riots, the seeds of the ugly episode sewn more than a decade earlier. In 1871 the financially troubled Union Pacific Railroad cut wages in their company-owned coal mines.
Union Pacific’s Chinese immigrant miners
When workers went on strike in protest, the company brought in Scandinavian immigrants and successfully ended the strike. But after a second strike in 1875, the railroad brought in Chinese miners, willing to work for much lower wages, angering the Anglo-Americans.
The Chinese had a history of working for the Union Pacific as it moved west. Now dependent on coal to fire the engines, the railroad sought cheap labor to keep the trains running.
An estimated 100,000 Chinese “Sojourners” settled on the frontier and along the Pacific Coast. Wyoming had seen its Asian population quadruple in a decade. In 1882, three years before the Rock Springs incident, Congress yielded to political pressure and placed a moratorium on Chinese immigrants.
Growing anti-immigrant sentiment continued to grow throughout the West sparking the formation of Rock Springs chapter of the Knights of Labor. 
Founded in Philadelphia in 1869 by garment worker, Uriah Smith Stephens (left), the Knights began as a secret fraternal organization and supported progressive changes including acceptance of female and African-American members. By 1870, functioning more like a labor union it advocated for an eight-hour day and called for an end to child labor. Its Rock Springs membership was obviously less progressive.
On the fateful day, a number of Knights entered Union Pacific’s Pit No. 6 and told the Chinese miners they could no longer work there. Paid by the ton, the miners objected to being banned from the highly productive area. In the ensuing confrontation, a Chinese man was beaten to death.
Rock Springs coal mine
As word spread about the trouble in the pit, some 150 Anglo-American miners gathered at the Knights of Labor Hall. The immigrant population living in a settlement along Bitter Creek outside of town were unaware of the incident. It was a Chinese holiday and many workers had remained home.
Rioters left Rock Springs, breaking into two groups. They sealed off the two bridges leading out of “Chinatown” and gave residents an hour to leave. But shots were fired less than 30 minutes later. The Chinese were robbed, beaten or simply shot. Some of the elderly were burned alive when their houses were set on fire.
Wyoming’s territorial governor, Francis Warren (right), calling the riot the “most brutal and damnable outrage that ever occurred in any country,” asked President Grover Cleveland for federal troops. On September 9, six companies of soldiers arrived in Wyoming. It would be 13 years before they would all leave.
Survivors of the massacre that had fled were picked up by the railroad and taken west to Evanston, Wyoming. Escorted back by the troops, they found their community in ruin and many of their dead still unburied.
Rock Springs’ mines were closed for a time. After reopening, the railroad continued to use Chinese labor and a total of 45 miners who had participated in the riots were fired.
Federal troops in Rock Springs
On October 5, all but two companies of troops were removed from Rock Springs. The Pilot Butte Camp there remained open, closing only on the eve of the Spanish-American War in 1899.
Eventually 16 members of the Knights of Labor were arrested including a member-elect to the territorial legislature. A grand jury refused to indict a single one, however, saying that no witness could testify to any crime had been committed that day.
The Chinese consulate in Washington released the names of 28 Chinese who were killed. Contemporary sources, however, claimed the number was closer to 50.
Not surprisingly, the riot let to an increase in anti-American sentiment in China and American diplomats fussed about a possible interruption in trade as a result.
The 16 miners who were arrested returned home to a hero’s welcome. No one was ever convicted of the violence and it was claimed no proof was ever found that linked the Knights of Labor to the riot.
The Rock Springs Historical Museum, 201 B Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming, features the history of the community including exhibits on its coal mining past, Butch Cassidy, the outlaw who called the town home and the Chinese Massacre.
The former city hall was not built on Union Pacific’s largesse but rather with proceeds from issuing liquor licenses. Vacant for a number of years, the 1894-era building received an $1.7 million facelift with funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program and exhibits donated or loaned by residents. It’s open 10 to 5, Monday through Saturday. For more information go to rswy.com or call (307) 362-3138.
© Text Only – 2018 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
♦ Head On West strives for historic accuracy and relies on a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.