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Chinese Massacre Cove is an area along the Snake River in Wallowa County, Oregon, United States. It is located in the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest and the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, upriver from the Snake's confluence with the Imnaha River. In May 1887, it was the location of the Hells Canyon Massacre, where up to 34 Chinese gold miners were ambushed, murdered, and robbed.

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Location in Hells Canyon

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Chinese Massacre Cove

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12miles

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Locations in Hells Canyon

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Chinese Massacre Cove & Robinson Gulch (Chea Po)

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Dug Bar (fording location)

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Salt Creek (Lee She)

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Lime Point

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Log Cabin Island (now Lower Granite Dam)

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Penawawa, Washington

The Hells Canyon massacre (also known as the Snake River massacre) was a massacre where 34 Chinese goldminers were ambushed and murdered in May 1887. In 2005, the area was renamed Chinese Massacre Cove because of this.

Two groups of Chinese miners, led by Chea Po and Lee She, departed Lewiston in October 1886 and headed upriver along the Snake into Oregon's Hells Canyon to search for gold. Chea's group stopped on the Oregon side of the Snake, near Robinson Gulch and the cove where Deep Creek empties into the Snake. Lee's group continued upriver to Salt Creek. Chea Po had chosen a location just upstream of Dug Bar, a ford used by horse and cattle thieves to cross the Snake.^[3]: 115 Dug Bar was named for Thomas J. Douglas, a thief who had used the area to graze his horses. Douglas was killed in 1883, and a gang led by Bruce Evans, known locally as "Old Blue", began using Douglas's abandoned cabin in the spring of 1887, about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) downstream from Chea Po's camp. The gang consisted of Evans, J.T. ("Tigh") Canfield, C.O. (Homer) LaRue, Frank Vaughn, Carl (or Hezekiah) Hughes, Hiram Maynard, and Robert McMillan, a 15-year-old boy.^{[3]: 115–116}

In late May 1887, May 25 according to Stratton,^[3]: 116 the gang of seven white horse gang members robbed, murdered, and mutilated between 10 and 34 Chinese employees of the Sam Yup Company, reportedly for their gold.^[4][5] Estimates of the value of gold stolen range from $4,000^[5] to $50,000.^[1] According to a contemporaneous news article, the gold dust was given to Canfield for safekeeping, but he double-crossed the rest of the gang and fled the county.^[5]

In 1995, Charlotte McIver discovered a cache of documents relating to the 1888 trial in an old safe being donated to the Wallowa County Museum.^[1] When the news came to the attention of R. Gregory Nokes, a reporter for The Oregonian, he began his own research into the massacre, going on to publish a journal article in 2006 and a nonfiction book, Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon in 2009 after his retirement in 2003 allowed him to conduct research full-time.^[14]

The United States Board on Geographic Names officially named the five-acre Deep Creek massacre site to the Chinese Massacre Cove in 2005^[15] over the objections of Wallowa County commissioners.^[16] This was the first ever official recognition of the crime.

Each year after that, conferences and healing ceremonies were held at the site by local representatives in remembrance of the murders of the Chinese immigrants victimized in the attack.

In 2012, Nokes organized the Chinese Massacre Memorial Committee (with private funds and donations) to install a granite monument measuring 4 by 5 feet (1.2 by 1.5 m) in May 2012.^[17][18] It was engraved with words in three languages: English, Nez Perce, and Chinese. It was dedicated on June 22, 2012.^[19]

Chinese Massacre Cove.
Site of the 1887 massacre of as many as 34 Chinese gold miners. No one was held accountable.
Celmen Waptamaawnin' Toqooxpa 1887 wiwapciyaawnin' Mita' aptit wax piilept celmenm maqsmaqs kicuy pi'lyaw'aat Weet'u 'isii wepsisukin'
華工浴血灘 一八八七年 三十多名金礦華工 在此慘遭殺戳 至今無人入罪 ^[20]

These words stand to represent the silently oppressed population of Chinese, Native Americans, and other minority races in the area who experienced insufficient justice regarding criminal victimization and injustice against their races.^[11]

Deep Creek, a fictionalized account of the massacre and its aftermath written by William Howarth and Anne Matthews under the pen name "Dana Hand" was published in 2010.^[21] It was selected by The Washington Post as one of the best novels of 2010.^[22]

Two episodes of the television show Ghost Mine, first aired in October 2013, covered the investigation of paranormal activity at Chinese Massacre Cove.^[23]

Peter Ludwin wrote and published a collection of poetry in 2016, Gone to Gold Mountain. He states he was inspired after reading Massacred for Gold, the 2009 book by R. Gregory Nokes.^[24]

In 2016, the Oregon Historical Society and Oregon Public Broadcasting produced a 27-minute documentary Massacre at Hells Canyon.^[25]

The television show Leverage aired an episode on January 1, 2012, called "The Gold Job" using the story of the Snake River Massacre as the back story for their confidence game.

• List of homicides in Oregon
• Chinese American history
• Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States
• Chinese Exclusion Act
• Anti-Chinese violence in Oregon
• Chinese massacre of 1871
• Lynching of Asian Americans
• San Francisco riot of 1877
• Rock Springs massacre, 1885
• Attack on Squak Valley Chinese laborers, 1885
• Tacoma riot of 1885
• Seattle riot of 1886
• Pacific Coast Race Riots of 1907
• Bellingham riots of 1907
• Torreón massacre, 1911 in Mexico

• Tucker, Gerald J. (Fall 1967). "Massacre for Gold". Old West. Vol. 4, no. 1. pp. 26–28.
• Stratton, David H. (1983). "The Snake River Massacre of Chinese Miners, 1887". In Smith, Duane A. (ed.). A Taste of the West: Essays in Honor of Robert G. Athearn. University of Colorado Press. pp. 109–129. ISBN 9780871086419. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
• Highberger, Mark (2000). Snake River Massacre: The Story of the 1887 Murders They Called the Crime of the Century. Bear Creek Press. ISBN 9781930111035. OCLC 46729352. OL 6798432M.
• Nokes, R. Gregory (2009). Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87071570-9.
• "Chinese Massacre at Deep Creek." The Oregon Encyclopedia, Portland State University, and the Oregon Historical Society, October 6, 2017, oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/chinese_massacre_at_deep_creek/#.Wnn6n7T81n0.
• Weekly, Northwest Asian. "Community Members Install Memorial at Chinese Massacre Cove." Northwest Asian Weekly, May 17, 2012, nwasianweekly.com/2012/05/community-members-install-memorial-at-chinese-massacre-cove/.

• Sept. 1, 1887: A Massacre Of Chinese Miners Archived 2016-12-23 at the Wayback Machine Produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Massacre at Hells Canyon Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting
• PBS account
• Article at the Oregon Encyclopedia
• Sept. 1, 1887: A Massacre Of Chinese Miners Archived 2016-12-23 at the Wayback Machine Produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Massacre at Hells Canyon Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Nove, Michael J. (November 2007). "Ambushed: The Hells Canyon Massacre of 1887". Oregon State Bar Bulletin. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
• Torgeson, Glenda (June 16, 1983). National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Hells Canyon Archaeological District (PDF) (Report). Idaho State Historical Society. Retrieved April 26, 2018. 35WA315. Excavated pit against boulder with rock wall that may be prehistoric or historic, possible association with massacre of Chinese miners nearby in 1887.
   ... Attempts at placer mining in Hells Canyon, even with a variety of methods, produced unspectacular results as the gold was exceptionally fine and scattered in the alluvial deposits. Early miners did what they could to work some Snake river bars, which were better suited for intensive Chinese mining than for white operations. But a Deep Creek massacre of 31 Chinese miners in 1887 did not encourage work there.
• Chen, David W. (August 13, 2012). "Picturing the Remnants of Anti-Chinese Violence". Lens: Photography, video and visual journalism. The New York Times. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
• "Violence 排华暴力事件: The Deep Creek Massacre, 1887 俄勒冈州蛇河深渊34华人矿工浴血". Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee 金山西北角-华裔研究中心. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
• Greg Nokes. "Greg Nokes, author of Massacred for Gold, The Chinese in Hells Canyon" (Interview). Interviewed by Andrew Yeh. APA Compass, KBOO. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
• "Chinese Massacre Memorial in Hells Canyon, Oregon" (PDF). Oregon Historic Commission. June 22, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2018.

45°46′48″N 116°39′18″W / 45.780°N 116.655°W / 45.780; -116.655