Chinese miners and laborers helped establish and settle the Idaho Territory during the 1860s and 1870s.  Several hundred Chinese miners worked placer gold claims in the Snake River Canyon between 1870 and 1883.  The Chinese were an integral and dynamic component of southern Idaho’s frontier settlements.  Yet, by the early 1900s, the Chinese and their contributions to the region’s history had all but vanished from the memory and were almost forgotten.  Agnotology is the study of culturally-induced ignorance, providing insight into how and why the contributions of the Chinese were ignored and misrepresented.

Ron James will speak.

Don Morishita is the Worship Associate