Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum (Classic)
6/26/202615 min
This museum in John Day, Oregon, was once a Chinese general store and medicine shop that dates back to the 1800s. But these days it’s a perfectly preserved time capsule, down to the fruit – down to the orange its former owner left on the counter in the 1950s. Tours of the shop are offered seasonally, but you can get a virtual look inside here. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS HERE
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First 90 secondsBaudelaire· Host0:01
[music] In the 1800s, the first wave of Chinese migrants made their way to the US. We're talking over 300,000 people crossing the Pacific. A couple thousand ended up in a small town in Oregon called John Day, a town named after an American explorer.
Don Merritt· Guest0:17
So the biggest thing that brought them in was gold mining. So gold was discovered here in 1862, and right behind the white miners, all the Chinese are coming in, following in behind them.
Baudelaire· Host0:29
At the time, John Day had one of the largest mining areas in the state of Oregon. But among the migrants were two entrepreneurial guys, Ng Dok Hey and Lung On. They didn't make the journey to be laborers. They wanted to capitalize off of the boom and run a business. In 1888, they found their business to run together. It was named Kam Wah Chung and Company, a name that translates to Golden Flower of Prosperity, or Golden Chinese Outpost.
Don Merritt· Guest0:53
There's a divide in the Chinese world, like which one's correct. It's like, well, as far as we're concerned, they're both correct.
Baudelaire· Host0:59
At Kam Wah Chung, Lung On and Dok Hey sold traditional Chinese medicines and really made it into a one-stop shop, shelves stocked with all types of herbs and canned goods. And even today, almost 80 years since the last time Kam Wah Chung was open, the shelves are still stocked exactly as they were back then. The store remains completely untouched. From the herbs in jars on the walls, to the orange Dok Hey planned to eat on his counter.
Don Merritt· Guest1:23
It just petrified in place, so it still looks like an orange. It still looks like grapefruit. There's still,