Chinese American History in Truckee

In the 1860s, the U.S. government launched an ambitious effort to connect the coasts by rail. The Central Pacific Railroad, building east from Sacramento, struggled to keep workers from leaving for Virginia City’s silver mines. Their solution: hire Chinese laborers, many of whom had come to California chasing dreams of “Gold Mountain.”

More than 12,000 of the 15,000 workers who built the railroad’s High Sierra tunnels were Chinese. They hand-drilled, blasted, and carved through granite using black powder and nitroglycerin. The work was brutal and dangerous. It is estimated that 500 to 1,000 Chinese laborers died building these tunnels, including the 1,659-foot Summit Tunnel near Donner Pass which is still one of America’s most significant engineering feats.

After the golden spike was driven in in 1869, many Chinese workers stayed and helped Truckee grow into a timber town. By 1870, over 25% of Truckee’s population was Chinese. The Chinatown—located near today’s Spring and Jibboom Streets—was a vibrant district of barbers, doctors, laundries, tea shops, and merchants.

Chinese immigrants contributed as:

• Railroad workers and track repairmen
• Woodcutters and sawmill hands
• Small business owners and herbalists
• Community leaders in medicine and trade

Truckee’s economy boomed alongside Virginia City’s mines, and lumber exports fueled local growth.

As mining profits dried up and the economy slowed, anti-Chinese resentment surged, mirroring a national wave of xenophobia. Truckee's Chinatown burned three times in 1878, believed to be the work of vigilante groups like the “Caucasian League.”

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act became federal law, banning further Chinese immigration and citizenship. In Truckee, local leaders launched a boycott of Chinese businesses with the explicit goal of driving the community out. By 1886, it worked—Truckee's Chinatown was all but gone.

The only surviving building from Truckee’s Chinatown is the Chinese Herb Shop at 10004 South East River Street which was built in 1878. This fireproof brick structure with its original iron shutters outlasted the destruction. It was later used as the Truckee Bottling Works and, legend has it, a Prohibition-era whiskey distillery.

Stop by the Chinese Herb Shop, a rare surviving remnant of a once-thriving community.

For decades, this chapter of Truckee’s history was forgotten. But through the efforts of organizations like the 1882 Foundation and the Summit Tunnel Conservation Association, these stories are now being shared more widely and being preserved for future generations.

• In 2021, the Summit Camp at Donner Pass was named a National Historic Landmark, recognizing it as the largest and longest-occupied Chinese railroad construction camp in the U.S.
• A new wave of historical archaeology and storytelling is helping honor the contributions of these immigrants, who quite literally helped carve the path west.

Watch: Legacy — Chinese Railroad Worker Documentary Film
Keep Reading: National Geographic — Chinese Immigrants Opened the West

Walk the Donner Pass Summit Tunnel #6

See the hand-carved granite tunnel that helped unite a nation. Located above Donner Lake, this site is a powerful tribute to the lives and labor of the Chinese workers who built it. Bring a flashlight and sturdy shoes—the experience is unforgettable.