Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This museum in John Day, Oregon, was once a Chinese general store and medicine shop that dates back to the 1800s. But these days it’s a perfectly preserved time capsule, down to the fruit – down to the orange its former owner left on the counter in the 1950s. Tours of the shop are offered seasonally, but you can get a virtual look inside here: https://visitingmedia.com/tt8/?ttid=kam-wah-chung-public-view#/360?group=0&tour=0 READ MORE IN THE ATLAS HERE: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kam-wah-chung-co-museum

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the 1800s,
0:02.0	1800s, the first wave of Chinese migrants made their way to the US.
0:08.0	We're talking over 300,000 people crossing the Pacific.
0:11.0	A couple thousand ended up in a small town in Oregon called
0:14.2	John Day, a town named after an American explorer. So the biggest thing that
0:18.7	brought him in was gold mining. So gold was discovered here in 1862 and right behind the white miners all the Chinese
0:27.7	are coming in and falling in behind them.
0:30.3	At the time John Day had one of the largest mining areas in the state of Oregon,
0:34.0	but among the migrants were two entrepreneurial guys, Engdock Hay and Long Aun.
0:38.4	They didn't make the journey to be laborers. They wanted to capitalize off of the boom and run a business in 1888. They found their business to run together. It was named
0:47.3	Camois Chungen Company a name that translates to golden flower of prosperity or golden Chinese outpost There's a to Golden
0:52.6	Chinese Outposts.
0:53.6	There's a divide in the Chinese world like which ones correct.
0:57.8	Like well, the start of we're concerned they're both correct.
1:00.0	At Cam Wachung, Langan and Daukay sold traditional Chinese medicines and really made it into a one-stop shop,
1:06.5	shelved stocked with all types of herbs and canned goods.
1:09.8	And even today, almost 80 years since the last time Camuachung was open, the shelves are still stocked
1:14.8	exactly as they were back then.
1:16.4	The store remains completely untouched, from the herbs and jars on the walls to the
1:21.0	orange dachade planned to eat on his counter.
1:23.8	It just petrified in place, so it still looks like an orange,
1:27.8	it still looks like grapefruit.
	...

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