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Kam Wah Chung
KAM WAH CHUNG & CO. STATE HERITAGE SITE
History of
Kam Wah
Chung & Co.
Kam Wah Chung & Co. State Heritage Site is an
informative and well-kept museum and interpretive center in
John Day. It preserves the culture of the early-day Chinese
workforce in Oregon, and shares displays and artifacts of
everyday life for Chinese immigrants.
Originally built in the 1860s as a wagon road trading post
after gold was found in nearby Canyon Creek, Kam Wah
Chung was run as a local general store and apothecary
operated by a doctor and a businessman, Ing “Doc” Hay and
Lung On, in the late 1800s-1940s. It was also their home, as
well as a boarding house, religious temple, community center
and social mecca. Doc Hay provided Eastern medical cures up
until the late 1940s to locals, whose children and
grandchildren still recall the stories. The building was donated
to the city after Doc Hay’s death, to serve as a tool in the
interpretation of local Chinese history, and sat undisturbed for
nearly twenty years before being restored and reopened.
Now operated by Oregon State Parks, the site contains
extensive collections of materials and documents from the
arrival, settlement and life of Chinese immigrants in the
American West. Kam Wah Chung is a distinctive resource for
the research of herbal remedies and medicinal practices, due
to the Chinese herbs and surviving medical texts. The museum
Kam Wah Chung & Co.
At the John Day City Park on NW Canton St.
541-575-2800 • www.oregonstateparks.org
Open: Daily, May 1 - October 31,
9 a.m. - Noon, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: Free
Guided tours only. Tours start at the top of each
hour at the Interpretive Center and last about 45
minutes (last tour at 4 p.m.). Free tickets for the
tour can be picked up at the Interpretive Center.
has also been collaborating with the local national forest
archaeological unit to connect some of the mining cabins and
camps in the area with Kam Wah Chung.
Thanks to the foresight of the two men who ran it, Kam
Wah Chung now offers priceless insight on the life and times
of those who were there during its prime and left their legacy
inside its walls.
44 | OFFICIAL GRANT COUNTY VISITOR GUIDE 2016 | MyEagleNews.com
Once it was a general store, a doctor’s
office, a post office, a library and a center of
Chinese social and religious life.
The museum is, “one of the most unusual
you will find anywhere.”
Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site and
Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum is coopera-
tively preserved and operated by the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department, the Friends
of Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum and the
City of John Day. It is open from May 1 to Oct.
31, seven days a week. Hours are 9 a.m. to
noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
To contact the Kam Wah Chung visitor
Center, call 541-575-2800.
Old, tiny and unglamorous to the casual
observer, the building that once housed Kam
Wah Chung (which loosely translates as
“Golden Flower of Prosperity”) & Co. is a one-
of-a-kind property in the National Register of
Historic Places.
The walls of the bottom story, built around
1870, are made out of locally quarried volcanic
tuff. The rest of the structure consists of pine
wood planking. The upper level portion with
exterior access was added in the 1890s. The
building underwent major rehabilitation in
the mid 1970s when it became a state park
property. The building’s earliest customers
were primarily Chinese residents of Canyon
City and the John Day area who were
attracted by work generated by Eastern
Oregon’s gold strikes of the period. Some
chronicles suggest it served travelers as a
trading post.
Its “golden flower” era began when young
immigrants Ing “Doc” Hay and Lung On
bought the building’s lease in 1888.
It then became a successful place of
business, a frequently visited herbal medical
office, a haven from social persecution for
Chinese residents and even a temple, or “joss
house.”
To Doc Hay and Lung On, the building was
also a home they shared with relatives, friends
and itinerates into the 1940s. Its seven rooms
included two bedrooms, a bunkroom and a
kitchen as well as its general store, stockroom,
herb room and medical office.
In today’s John Day, the building is a
memorial as well as a museum commemo-
rating an important era in Oregon history and
recalling the lives of two men who eventually
earned their community’s respect as two of its
most prominent citizens.