A small town in Northern California will soon reclaim its forgotten Chinese immigrant history.
San Francisco, CA
SF Chinatown Steps Up To Save Forgotten Chinese Cemetery
Dutch Flat, an unincorporated rural hamlet along Interstate 80 about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, was once home to thousands of Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush era. These days, however, the total population has fallen to only 183—and the local Chinatown and Chinese community have long vanished.
But underground, a piece of Chinese history remains.
Since 2022, a group of activists from San Francisco’s Chinatown who are passionate about preserving Chinese American history has been working with Dutch Flat historians to restore an abandoned 19th century Chinese cemetery, which is now a vacant plot with no visible gravestones.
“There has been great interest in saving the cemetery,” said David Lei, a leader of the project. “Both the Dutch Flat community and Bay Area Chinese community are working together to make that happen.”
A Rural Chinatown
In the 1850s, many Chinese immigrants settled in Dutch Flat, and the local Chinese population was called “one of the largest” outside of San Francisco. Chinese immigrants worked in restaurants, laundromats, mining, lumber mills and railroad construction—as well as in brothels and gambling dens.
Records show Dutch Flat had 3,500 Chinese residents in 1853, over half its population. A Main Street plaque states “Chinese inhabitants numbered about 2,000” in 1860. Chinese New Year and Ghost Festival—a time of year when restless souls are believed to walk the Earth, according to Chinese lore—were major cultural events at the time.
However, as in many other Gold Rush towns, racism against Chinese people grew, resulting in Dutch Flat’s first Chinatown getting burned down in 1877. Even as Chinese residents built a second one, they slowly moved away, and when the last Chinese resident in Dutch Flat died in 1933, it presaged the erasure of the town’s Chinese history.
Surprising Findings
Almost a century on, not far from town, the former Chinese burial grounds lie untouched in a hilly pine forest. Families with means often disinterred bodies and sent them back to China, but not every family could afford it, so some of them stayed.
Local husband-and-wife historians Tom and Sarah Fugate have long been aware of the lost Chinese cemetery and thought these Gold Rush pioneers’ stories deserved proper remembrance.
“The Chinese cemetery has been totally ignored,” Tom said. “I thought it was disrespectful.”
Sarah, the president of the Golden Drift Historical Society, a Dutch Flat museum with Chinese history documentation, started to contact Bay Area activists in 2019, sparking a movement to save the cemetery. They also coordinated with local governments and technology firms to conduct ground-penetrating radar checks—which, surprisingly, found over 300 graves.
The conditions of any coffins, caskets or remains are unclear, as these findings are preliminary. However, the Fugates said the area was considered the “Chinese section” of Dutch Flat, so they’re confident that the bodies are those of Chinese Americans.
Lei also said they may seek permission to dig up some of the graves to verify identities.
On July 4, 2022, and again on July 4, 2023, a group of Bay Area Chinese Americans visited the cemetery, including volunteers from the Chinese American Pioneer Heritage Committee, Chinatown History & Culture Association and the San Jose-based Chinese Historical & Cultural Project.
Masters from the Lotus Taoism Institute, based in San Francisco’s Sunset District, also went to Dutch Flat to perform a traditional Taoist ritual to honor ancestors buried in the town.
Stepping Up With Money
This Sunday, a press conference will be held in San Francisco’s Chinatown to officially kick off the restoration effort. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the city’s most historic Chinatown association, has decided to donate $20,000 and the Golden Drift Historical Society will chip in about $6,000.
“We hope to see our history rebuilt in Dutch Flat,” Ding Lee, a board member of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and longtime Chinatown leader, told The Standard.
According to the Fugates, the money will be spent on cleaning up the cemetery site, covering the radar technology fees and building the memorials, such as a plaque and burner for rituals. The Fugates will help oversee the project, as most Chinese American activists involved with the project are Bay Area-based.
Dutch Flat’s rediscovery of the Chinese cemetery is not a single incident. In San Francisco’s Richmond District, a former Chinese cemetery site, Kong Chow funerary monument 岡州旅厝, is now a city landmark, and the Chinese community will host ceremonies there every year. In Carlin, Nevada, local officials also established a new monument for the early Chinese immigrants buried there.
Lee attended the rituals this year on July 4 and said he would organize more people to visit Dutch Flat.
“We will continue to go back to Dutch Flat to honor our Chinese ancestors,” Lee said. “We have the responsibility to remember it.”
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco maker nonprofit Humanmade working to bounce back from fire to continue serving innovators
A first-of-its-kind San Francisco program that trains the next generation of makers is closed temporarily because of a fire, but Its founder is working to safely reopen as soon as possible.
Ryan Spurlock’s nonprofit, Humanmade, empowers hundreds of people with skills and tools they need to launch or get a job in design and maker businesses.
But a recent fire casts a shadow over the program he founded.
“It’s pretty tough. It’s hard enough given the cost of launching a business here and tooling a shop,” said Spurlock.
The fire apparently started in a surge protector under the table and the sprinkler system couldn’t put out the flames before fire crews arrived so there’s considerable smoke and water damage.
That includes about $50,000 in losses to equipment like 3D printers and computers.
“About 80% of computers are lost because they were on the floor,” Spurlock said.
His goal is to restore the 15,000-square-foot maker space we first visited two years ago. A lot of people are counting on it. Humanmade is home to San Francisco’s first community-based training center for advanced manufacturing. At any given time, dozens of underserved adults take a free 12-week training course to gain skills for jobs of the future.
But because of the fire, that valuable hands-on learning had to go virtual. Program graduate Jody Roane teaches students online while he sharpens his own skills, but he admits that he gets discouraged..
“It’s given me a sense of trepidation,” Roane said. “I finally figured out what I want to be in life and what I want to do, and then I reach another roadblock.”
The fire is also a setback for entrepreneurs from diverse communities who rely on Humanmade’s discounted access to equipment and mentoring to build their first tangible prototypes in sectors like robotics.
Those startups are scrambling for space.
“We’ve had some folks resort to using their home or garage,” explained Spurlock. “We’re doing our best to get things back up and running.”
And in the process, he’s taken a second look at his commitment to the maker community.
It helped to solidify why we do this – how important the work we do is, that there are very few of these spaces left in San Francisco,” Spurlock said.
The space is covered by fire insurance, but that takes time, so he has started a GoFundMe account for $50,000 with hopes of reopening in a few weeks after the fire investigation is done and the space is professionally cleaned.
As he crafts a comeback for his six-year-old nonprofit, some days are tougher than others, but the founder and executive director says he draws light and strength from his wife and family – though not all of them are “human made.”
“The dog has been my saving grace in the last two weeks,” he laughed.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco residents furious over program giving free alcohol to homeless: 'That's some bull'
San Francisco’s decision to provide free beer and vodka to homeless alcoholics has sparked an uproar among some residents of the liberal city.
“How are you going to give [some] alcoholic some alcohol?” one man rhetorically asked Fox News contributor Sara Carter.
“That’s some bull!”
The “Managed Alcohol Program” (MAP) operated by San Francisco’s Department of Public Health serves regimented doses of alcohol to voluntary participants with alcohol addiction in an effort to keep the homeless off the streets and relieve the city’s emergency services.
Experts say the program can save or extend lives, but critics wonder if the government would be better off funding treatment and sobriety programs instead.
SAN FRANCISCO UNDER FIRE FOR PROGRAM GIVING BOOZE TO HOMELESS ALCOHOLICS: ‘WHERE’S THE RECOVERY IN ALL THIS?’
Carter shared her conversations with a number of residents outraged by the pilot program on “Hannity” Tuesday.
“It’s really conflicting to give alcohol to alcoholics because it’s a disease. It’s a condition that is basically an obsession of the mind that turns into an allergy of the body. And it’s a disease that they can’t help,” another San Francisco resident told Carter.
“You’re enabling, and the possibility is for them to die, end up in an institution or death.”
NEWSOM GETS HILARIOUS REALITY CHECK AFTER TURNING TO PUBLIC FOR NEW STATE COIN DESIGN
MAP was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent vulnerable homeless people who were placed in isolation in hotel rooms from suffering from alcohol withdrawal. But the program, which started with 10 beds, has since been expanded into a 20-bed program that operates out of a former hotel in Tenderloin with a $5 million annual budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“If that’s what the program is and it’s giving away free alcohol, that’s not a good use of money,” one San Francisco resident said.
Alice Moughamian, the nurse manager of the Managed Alcohol Program and the San Francisco Sobering Center, noted there is a larger goal beyond recovery for alcoholics.
“Our goal at MAP is not to decrease the amount of alcohol that is consumed, or to taper someone towards abstinence, although both of these things have happened with clients in our program,” she said in the October presentation. “The goal is to mitigate the many health, legal and interpersonal harms associated with unsafe alcohol use.”
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Many residents nonetheless feel the program is making the city an “enabler” of addiction and misusing taxpayer funds.
“I feel like they are being an enabler,” one man said. “They’re giving people alcohol who clearly has an addiction. So if you’re providing them with a means to get drunk, I mean, it makes no sense to me.”
“You don’t need to wean them off gradually,” another added. “Or if you are, don’t use taxpayer funds under the auspices of a government program to wean them.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
San Francisco, CA
FBI warns terrorist groups could target Pride Month events around country
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It’s one of the most lively celebrations in the Bay Area. Every June, our region comes alive with the sights and sounds of Pride.
“We want to celebrate that people in San Francisco live authentic lives and that we can love who we love,” said Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride.
Ahead of this year’s celebrations comes a new public service announcement from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
In it, a warning that foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS could target Pride events around the country.
MORE: Foreign terrorists targeting US ‘increasingly concerning’: FBI director
Cameron Polan works with the FBI’s branch here in San Francisco.
“The public service announcement is definitely something new this year,” Polan said.
The FBI says as of now, there are no immediate credible threats here in the Bay Area. However, they are advising people to take precautions.
Beyond the FBI’s warnings, San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford says sadly threats against Pride events are nothing new.
“Our organization for many, many years has worked with state, local, federal law enforcement agencies and other appropriate agencies to make sure our community’s safe,” Ford said.
MORE: The dangers behind Republicans’ outrage over Easter falling on Transgender Day of Visibility
The FBI’s PSA has also gotten the attention of groups like Equality California.
The LGBTQ nonprofit says they want everyone to be comfortable celebrating Pride this year.
“Go with a friend, let people know you’re attending Pride, have a meet up spot, have an exit plan, know a check point around the area,” says Jorge Reyes Salinas.
Because with Pride kicking off in just a few weeks time, Ford says this year’s celebrations will be better than ever before.
“We’re going to come together, there’s going to be one million people out on Market Street, and we’re going to proclaim to the world that in San Francisco Pride is our community and that we’re going to be there,” Ford said.
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
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