Supplemental Notes, sources and resource material

for episode 2 of City of Subdued… Bad Town

The Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baddest parts of Bellingham History! Our second episode is now live!

This episode is creepy and bad indeed in the worst way, because the reality behind it is undeniably dark and shameful.  Find out more about the legend of the Chinese Coal Miners and the "Curse of Bellingham"  by listening to the episode, and read more information about the story below.

curse/ (kɜːs) /

noun

a profane or obscene expression of anger, disgust, surprise, etc; oath

an appeal to a supernatural power for harm to come to a specific person, group, etc

harm resulting from an appeal to a supernatural power to be under a curse

something that brings or causes great trouble or harm

Have you heard of the “Chinese Curse” on Bellingham?

Though beliefs about “curses,” are found in many cultures across time and the planet, the idea of “a curse” is also one that in this story plays into mystical-magical-mysterious-sinister Asian stereotypes in the United States.

There has been a legend about “the Chinese in the old Sehome Mine” aka the “Chinese Curse” on the town of Bellingham that has apparently been told for generations and has many variations.

The gist is: there is a curse on the town of Bellingham because Chinese workers were purposely buried or drowned in the Sehome Coal Mines, long, long ago...

Variations include whether it was by flooding of the mine or an explosion or cave in and the number of laborers who perished varies anywhere from six upwards. And what exactly the curse entailed has been described as “once you come here you will never leave” or a lighter version “you will always come back,” but in general something along the lines of… “you will never escape.”

Early versions of the story centered around the idea focus not on a curse, but rather of the possibility of finding “treasure” in the form of money belts on the deceased Chinese laborers if you could somehow find their bodies buried in the old mineshafts. In these versions it’s almost as if the human beings who perished for the tale are merely props, barely acknowledged but for the allure of possible treasure. But perhaps a little fear that the deceased had some way from beyond of “cursing” anyone who tried to find their treasure…

In primary sources from the time of the supposed incident, there were no mentions of multiple Chinese laborers perishing in the mines in either some accidental or purposeful way. There are in fact many stories in the newspapers and journals about accidents and deaths of both individual white men and Chinese laborers during these years, but none that fit the legend. This has led many historians to discount the story as a myth. Why would the journal writers and newspapers report on all these other incidents, and ignore one so sensational? They had no incentive to cover anything up, they loved a great attention-grabbing story, and deaths of Chinese laborers were hardly lamented at the time.

It’s a valid point. But why would the Whatcom Reveille report the following in 1888:  “Mr. Hastings has a gang of 20 men grading Holly Street to connect with 13th.  They are filling in the old cave hole where six Chinamen were buried in the coal mine a dozen years ago…” ??

Yet newspapers and journal entries from 1876 and surrounding years do not yield any corroboration of the story. The Reveille’s is the first known mention of the incident, ten years after the mines had closed.

The tale seems to “resurface” every time there is an unexpected cave-in of an old mine shaft somewhere in downtown Bellingham.

After one such incident in 1949 a Herald article asked:  “Do ancestral ghosts of dead Chinese haunt the sulphureous mine levels that underlie Bellingham?  What secrets are contained in the rubble-filled passageways of the Sehome Coal mine, and what treasure? Seventy years have passed since the mine was abandoned, but the legend persists that it is a giant sarcophagus for unnumbered Chinese laborers, each with their life savings strapped to their skeletons”

The reporter interviewed several “experts” on the subject. Cecil Morse of Morse Hardware stated: “We were told that if we would dig into the old mine, we would find gold in the money belts of the Chinese who drowned when the mine was flooded.”

Historian Percival Jeffcott, whose wife was a descendant of Captain J.W. Tarte, Chinese Boss the mine, was quoted as saying, “The Tarte boys all vouched for the statement that a number of Chinese were left in the mine after the explosion that was touched off by a number of celestials entering the slope on an exploring excursion while the white miners were off duty on a Sunday afternoon.”   

After the sensational beginning, the Herald author concluded the story was all hogwash, and quoted an anonymous old timer: “I’ve talked to some of the Sehome miners themselves and they hadn’t heard about it, though they thought it was a good idea.  Chinese weren’t popular then… No one liked the Chinese in those days because they worked for practically nothing and lived like misers. They were apart from the community and looked upon suspiciously. It was believed they had every penny of their savings buried under their floor or carried on their persons… Well we’re all treasure hunters at heart and it’s not hard to see how such a story could get started and last so long… You know, I tell it myself some time.”

Is there truth to the story or is it a tall tale…. ?  Does it matter?  The fact that many people told it and accepted it as true and even probable says a lot in and of itself about how people felt about the Chinese, and that is pretty terrible to consider.

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned further immigration.  This largely stemmed from growing racial tensions in the Pacific Northwest and the west coast in general.

Apparently this legislation wasn’t good enough for people, and in 1885 Chinese laborers were systematically driven out of towns such as Seattle, Portland and including Bellingham (called Whatcom at the Time).  These incidents are referred to as “Chinese Expulsions.”

Here in Bellingham, The Whatcom Reveille had promoted the idea that Chinese immigrants were to blame for many of the area’s calamities, stating: “For every Chinese employed an American home is destroyed.”

The paper also introduced a total boycott of Chinese and of their businesses. Residents who refused to sign the general boycott saw their names published in the Reveille.

Historian Lottie Roth stated that on November 7, 1885 “The thoroughly frightened Chinamen left the town as ordered, and their going was celebrated with a grand torchlight parade.”

It is this sentiment and context that has lead many to chalk the coal mine story up to one more terrible thing printed about the Chinese by the Reveille.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s Pacific American Fisheries brought in Chinese seasonal laborers to work in their cannery complex on the Fairhaven Waterfront.  These laborers also faced discrimination and harassment.  They lived in a segregated bunkhouse, and there was a rule that they could not cross 8th Street/Padden Creek and had to remain in the part of town below that “deadline.”

So… maybe the town deserved a Chinese “curse.”  By definition of the word, the Chinese themselves likely felt cursed.  

Perhaps the shift over time from stories of “buried treasure” to “Chinese Curse” might have arisen from a slowly growing cultural awareness that maybe it was a pretty terrible thing to bury Chinese people in a mine, and/or run them out of town.  Perhaps the “Chinese Curse” urban legend is a cultural remembrance of and way of grappling with the appalling past treatment of the Chinese immigrants who lived on Bellingham Bay.  

Reparations for the terrible treatment took a step forward in 2011, when Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike issued a formal apology to the Chinese Community for the expulsion, at a ceremony in Fairhaven that included the replacement of a historical marker commemorating the “Chinese Deadline” at Padden Creek.

The replacement marker includes Chinese characters bearing a message from Confucius, translated: “Study the past if you would divine the future.” (Alternately quoted as “know” the future, or “define” the future.)

In 2018 the reconciliation continued with a larger and more inclusive monument. Spearheaded by the local Sikh community after the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Bellingham Sikh Riots, the 12-foot 10-ton granite monument called the Arch of Healing and Reconciliation was installed on the library lawn across from Bellingham City Hall. 

The arch acknowledges multiple shameful periods in Bellingham and Whatcom County history, including when the Chinese were pushed out in 1885, as well as when a mob drove out East Indian mill workers in 1907, and when Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps in 1942.

The arch is also meant to honor the brave immigrants who came here, and to recognize all immigrants who have come to America seeking better opportunities. 

Let’s take Confucius’ word for it, let’s study the past to divine or know and even define the future. Let’s learn from our mistakes and maybe for once, try not to repeat them. Let’s continue to examine ourselves and our past, and make amends as we need to. Let’s lift the “curse” of “Bad Town.”

Sources/Resources:

For more information on the Chinese Expulsion in the broader Pacific Northwest see https://www.pbs.org/video/chinese-expulsion-ez9jpl/

Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans_in_the_Pacific_Northwest

Next generations tell the buried tales of Chinese Northwesterners.  Judd, Ron, Seattle Times June 21, 2013. https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/next-generations-tell-the-buried-tales-of-chinese-northwesterners/

The Chinese Exclusion Act: Chapter 1. PBS American Experience https://www.pbs.org/video/chinese-exclusion-act-chapter-1-ie5iod/

Research Our Records – Chinese Heritage, National Archives :  https://www.archives.gov/research/chinese-americans

Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files Blog  NARA Seattle - https://chineseexclusionfiles.com/

Lesson Fifteen: Industrialization, Class, and Race; Chinese and the Anti-Chinese Movement in the Late 19th-Century Northwest. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacific%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%2015/15.html

Bellingham – Thumbnail History.  Lieb, Emily, HistoryLink.org Essay 7904. https://www.historylink.org/file/7904

1885 Chinese Expelled, WWU Bellingham Racial History Timeline https://wp.wwu.edu/timeline/chinese-expelled/

Early Asian workers faced mob violence.  Cohen, Aubrey,  Bellingham Herald, November 13, 2007. https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article22196700.html

Anti-Chinese Activism – Seattle.  Crowley, Walt, HistoryLInk.org Essay 1057 May 2, 1999 https://www.historylink.org/File/1057

Anti-Chinese Riot at Seattle. Harper’s Weekly, March 6, 1886, page 155. Available online at: https://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/Items/Item095L.htm

Mobs forcibly expel most of Seattle’s Chinese residents beginning on February 7, 1886. Dougherty, Phil, HistoryLink.org  Essay 2745, November 17, 2013. https://www.historylink.org/file/2745

The Last Chinaman.  Observing the Anniversary of Whatcom’s Asian Expulsion.  Tim Johnson, Cascadia Weekly, October 26, 2010. https://www.cascadiaweekly.com/cw/currents/2950

Project Reflects on Expulsion of Chinese from Whatcom County 125 Years Ago.  Relyea, Kie, Bellingham Herald, November 7, 2010. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article22202538.html

Bellingham Mayor Apologizes, 125 years after expulsion of Chinese.  Pailthorp, Bellamy, KNKX  May 27, 2011. https://www.knkx.org/post/bellingham-mayor-apologizes-125-years-after-expulsion-chinese#:~:text=Bellingham%20Mayor%20Dan%20Pike%20has,a%20century%20ago%20were%20wrong

Bellingham Mayor Apologizes to Chinese Community, Associated Press. Herald.Net, Everett Washington https://www.heraldnet.com/news/bellingham-mayor-apologizes-to-chinese-community/

Historical Background: Arch of Healing and Reconciliation, Bellingham, Washington. http://archofhealing.org/historical-background/

A Bridge to the Past and  Monument of Hope Moving Forward Dedicated in Bellingham. Relyea, Kie, Bellingham Herald April 21, 2018 https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article209486804.html

Non-Digital Sources:

Various newspapers including the Whatcom Reveille from the 1870s-1880s, accessed via microfilm at the Bellingham Public Library.

City’s mines provided dangerous work. Al Currier, Whatcom County Historical Society, Bellingham Business Journal Sep 30, 2005.  (No longer available online)

Story of Chinese Lost in Mine Cave-In Here--- IS Story.  Don Gooding, Bellingham Herald, January 30, 1949 p. 5.

The Chinese Coalminers: the True Story.  Wes Gannaway, Journal of the Whatcom County Historical Society No. 7, March 2007.

Koert, Dorothy and Galen Biery. Looking Back, The Collectors' Edition, 2003.

Roth, Lottie Roeder. History of Whatcom County, Washington, Vol. 1, 1926.

Van Miert, E. Rosamonde Ellis.  Settlers, Structures & Ships on Bellingham Bay, 1852-1889.  Bellingham, Wash.: Van Miert, 2004.