News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
A3
Celebration dinner marks 140 years of Kam Wah Chung
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Christy Sweet holds a cabbage out to the Chinese lions during their dance at the Kam Wah Chung & Co. celebration dinner.
Adele Cerny, left, and Mary Oberst clap after the Chinese
lion dance at the Kam Wah Chung & Co. anniversary
dinner.
A dinner guest captures video of the Chinese lion dance
performance during Saturday’s dinner.
from the outside,” she said.
“To see their eyes light up” as
they entered and experienced
history was the most interest-
ing part.
One favorite story came
from two Grant County men,
whom she said would remain
unnamed, who told her about
how they broke into the mu-
seum in the ’70s, as 13- and
14-year-olds.
Looking for “booze and
cigarettes” inside, the pair
broke through the upper-lev-
el floor to the main level, and
explored the area with a flash-
Saturday’s Kam Wah Chung anniversary celebration was
a sellout with 130 guests at the John Day Senior Center.
light, she said.
Upon seeing a bear claw
in Doc Hay’s apothecary, they
thought they heard a noise
behind them — possibly the
spirit of a bear coming af-
ter them, she said. The boys
fled the scene empty-handed,
leaving their flashlight be-
hind, and avoided the area in
the future.
Sweet also recalled stories
of how Doc Hay would play
hide and seek with some of
the children, and Lung On
taught them to gamble, the
kids leaving with plenty of
candy.
Eric Brand, a researcher
who led a group of professors
and their spouses to Kam Wah
Chung in 2017, was unable to
attend Saturday’s event; how-
ever, he sent a video announc-
ing he has been in contact with
Professor Zhou Zhongzhen
who is serving as an adviser
to the Discovery Channel on a
Mendy Sharpe FNP
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series they’re producing about
early Chinese herbal medicine
trade.
The series is timed to cel-
ebrate the 500th anniversary
of a famous Chinese medical
scholar.
“We hope to come to John
Day this summer to begin
doing some filming,” Brand
said, adding that Zhou would
like to put the Kam Wah
Chung collection, which is the
only large, intact collection in
North America, at the same
level as two other national-
ly recognized collections “to
draw attention to its tremen-
dous value for scientific re-
search as well as for its intan-
gible cultural heritage.”
Kam Wah Chung curator
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Friends of Kam Wah
Chung — 130 of them —
gathered Saturday evening at
the John Day Senior Center
for a special presentation to
celebrate the 140th year of the
opening of Kam Wah Chung
& Co., which became a Na-
tional Historic Landmark in
2005.
The meeting was high-
lighted by honorary speaker
former Oregon first lady Mary
Oberst, news of the Discovery
Channel visiting John Day
this summer and a special
performance by Chinese lion
dancers.
Oberst said she and her
husband, former Gov. Ted
Kulongoski, first visited Kam
Wah Chung over 20 years
ago.
After her husband became
the governor in 2003, Oberst’s
interest in the museum contin-
ued, and she expressed to him
her interest in doing more.
She said he told her she would
have to speak with then-state
Sen. Ted Ferrioli — “That’s
his sandbox.”
She and Barbara Sidway
spearheaded fundraising for
the interpretive center, along
with Sharon Leighty, who was
then head of the Oregon State
Parks Foundation.
Sidway also coordinated
with the National Trust for
Historic Preservation to shep-
herd the museum through the
National Parks Service desig-
nation as a National Historic
Landmark.
Many others joined in the
cause, and $1.5 million was
raised to restore the museum
and to renovate a building for
an interpretive center, and,
Oberst added, the funds were
raised ahead of schedule.
She said it was Sidway’s
expertise that led to Kam Wah
Chung becoming a National
Historic Landmark.
Oberst said the experience
was “a spotlight during my
time as first lady of Oregon.”
Adele Cerny, president
of the Friends of Kam Wah
Chung nonprofit organiza-
tion, encouraged everyone in
attendance to spread the word
about the landmark and invite
friends who visit to tour the
site.
Christy Sweet, the curator
from 2005-2016 who is now
the Oregon State Parks histo-
rian preservation specialist in
Salem, said her favorite mem-
ory as curator was seeing the
reactions of visitors.
“It’s very unassuming
Don Merritt said the Discov-
ery Channel series is “the tip
of the iceberg.” He said there
are research projects in the
works, including genealogy
projects, and a Chinese sister
city forming.
There were 9,000 visitors
to the museum last year, and
he expects an additional 1,000
this year. He added, more
volunteers and donations are
needed.
“I’m not short of ideas,” he
said.
Other speakers for the eve-
ning included former Friends
of Kam Wah Chung presi-
dent Jeanne Day; interpretive
store manager Chris Labhart;
and Park Manager for the
Clyde Holliday Unit Den-
nis Bradley, who recognized
all the volunteers, including
Bruce Carey for 1,000 hours
of service to the museum.
Kathleen Cathey, from
Sen. Ron Wyden’s office, pre-
sented a flag that had flown
over the Capitol to Friends
of Kam Wah Chung for their
support of the museum.
The evening began with
a Chinese dinner catered by
Snaffle Bit Dinner House
and ended with a finale, a
performance by Lee’s As-
sociation Dragon & Lion
Dance Team of Portland with
two lively “lions” that danced
on stage and down the aisles,
up close with the audience.
Lion dances, which are
presented during the Chi-
nese New Year and oth-
er celebrations, are “per-
formed to ward off evil and
bring good fortune,” said
coach Terry Lee.
For more information, vis-
it friendsofkamwahchung.
com.
eou.edu/connected
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Guest speakers
include former
first lady
Mary Oberst