When we entered Wyoming in July 2011, I was amazed at how beautiful the landscapes were. Being from Tennessee I had never seen rock formations in colors like pink and red. It was a once in a lifetime drive for me and my husband in our 1987 VW Vanagon as we explored the world to see what new sights were around every corner.

Looking at these pictures I took it's hard to believe at one time Rock Springs, Wyoming was a completely different world. It was newly discovered and developed land in the late 1800s. It was a city full of immigrants trying to survive early life in the West.

Rock Springs, Wyoming: My First Views Entering The Area

The Rock Springs Massacre

Looking at these beautiful views it's hard to imagine a riot happening here in 1885 leading to one of the worst incidents of violence towards immigrants in U.S. history. In the late 1800s immigrants arriving from China flooded the West in search of jobs that paid far more than people could earn in their home country. In the early days most Chinese male immigrants worked for the railroads. source

When railroad jobs disappeared, businessmen realized the usefulness of Chinese immigrants. They were hard workers, men didn't bring their families to the U.S. so they weren't tied down, and they are willing to accept lower pay rates. Immigrants were hired over white workers which caused racial tensions to arise.

Racism towards Chinese immigrants was extremely bad in the late 1800s. There are stories of protests and crimes committed towards Chinese individuals including beatings and murders.

Wyoming was a land of wide spread coal mining. By 1875, Chinese miners were preferred as employees in the mines because they accepted far less pay than white workers. The Chinese residents of Rock Springs lived in one section or town and white residents lived in another. The cultures were segregated and racism towards one another was strong.

It was a fight between a group of white miners and a group of Chinese miners that started the riot. One Chinese worker was killed and another badly hurt. The fight was broken up but people were angry. White workers left to gather weapons and regroup. More and more white miners met up, angry about Chinese workers being hired over white workers and other racist ideals from the time period.

Around 150 white men and women decided they'd had enough and they decided to attack the Chinese section of town. They killed, looted, and set homes on fire. It was a vicious attack and federal troops had to be called in to stop the chaos. All the Chinese homes were destroyed and 28 were killed. Because hatred of Chinese immigrants was so horrible, everyone involved in the incident protected one another to the point no one could be charged with a crime because no witnesses would come forward. Source

It's hard to imagine a world without highways and interstates. In the 1880s roads here were smaller and made of dirt. People didn't have to worry about speed limit signs. The railroads use to be young and a main form of transportation. Today people use planes and cars to get where they want and trains like the one below are used to transport goods sold by corporations rather than people. People back then had their minds on survival in a developing world and headed West to new cities to find their fortune.

We passed a quaint train on our beautiful Wyoming drive.

One of my favorite pictures...The real @marxrab Marx the rabbit watching Wyoming as we drove through Rock Springs.

photo credit: all photos are my own.