Talks highlight Chinese history in Baker City, Pendleton

Published 7:30 pm Monday, July 13, 2026

NORTHEASTERN OREGON — The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project will host a pair of free public talks in Northeastern Oregon as part of the project’s summer field school.

The events are Friday, July 17, at the Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St., Baker City, and Wednesday, July 22, at Heritage Station Museum, 108 SW Frazer Ave., Pendleton. Both programs will start at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

The talks will showcase summer findings that include investigations into Chinese American cowboys and an effort to document the role of Chinese Americans in mining camps and early Chinese residents in the Pacific Northwest.

The field school, operated by the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology, is a four-week intensive course that began June 29 and continues through July 24. In addition to archaeological fieldwork, excavations, and historical research at multiple sites across Eastern Oregon, students participate in a variety of public events in the communities they visit.

The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project is a multi-agency collaboration that uses community archaeology and public history to investigate railroad and mining camps, Chinatowns and more.

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/2s4pxsan.