Chinese cowboys worked ranches in the American West for decades: Archaeologists find new clues

Excavators working at a rugged eastern Oregon ranch recently uncovered evidence of Chinese immigrants working as cowboys - a role rarely associated with the American West.

Researchers from multiple state departments and institutions joined forces over the summer to excavate Stewart Ranch, a remote historic site in eastern Oregon's Grant County.

The excavation, first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, was a special collaboration with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and the Oregon Historical Society. 

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One of the archaeologists involved, Chelsea Rose, called the summer excavation "a happy accident" due to the excellent preservation of Stewart Ranch.

"To date, our team has uncovered ties between Chinese immigrants and more than 30 ranches in the area," she told Fox News Digital.

"Some of these ranches are long gone, some are still operated or owned by the same families for generations - and others, like the Stewart Ranch, are preserved on public lands." 

Rose, the director of SOULA, said her team found bullets, food scraps and floor sweepings - including broken dishes, glass bottle fragments and "animal bones representing past meals."

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Archaeologists also uncovered buttons and jean rivets. The artifacts may date from between the early 20th century and the 1930s, Rose estimated.

The meal remains were not unexpected; she pointed to a primary document that described one of the cooks as being famous for his mutton.

"We found a lot of animal bones at the site that reflect shared meals eaten by the crew, including some mammal remains that are consistent with sheep," she said.

"So it is possible we're seeing the scraps of meals made by [Jim Lee, one of the cowboys] for hungry ranch hands after a long day."

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The ranch looks "much the way it did when Chinese cowboys and cooks were working there," added Rose - an experience that felt like "going back in time."

Researchers are still analyzing the artifacts found over the summer, which she said "will help us pin down some dates of the material we found."

"Another complexity is that we can't distill down the presence of Chinese Americans on the ranch to artifacts that were made in China," she said.

"These men lived and worked in the region for decades, and would have had access to goods and supplies from Chinese stores… What they used and owned would reflect their personal preferences, economic standing and what stores they had access to."

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Rose added, "This reinforces our need to gather more data. Luckily, we have multiple ranches we are eyeing for next summer."

She said the "coolest" part was "having the same views and sense of place as it would have 100 years ago."

"Usually when we are working on a site, we have to work a lot harder to imagine how the space would have been used or experienced in the past… Sometimes that means ignoring a nearby McDonald's," she said. 

"While a few buildings have moved around over time, the Stewart Ranch house remains in place, the bunkhouse survives and the flow of traffic used by early residents remains clear to this day."

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Chinese immigrants first settled in southern Oregon during the Oregon Gold Rush in 1850 - and once represented nearly 80% of the miners in the area, she said.

"As gold waned, as it always does, these men had to pivot towards other opportunities, so it is no surprise many ended up participating in the growing sheep and cattle industry where they worked as buckaroos, ranch hands, sheepherders, cooks, farm hands and even as ranch foreman," she said.

"We know of at least two Chinese American men who ran their own ranches as well."

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Unfortunately, restrictive legislation prevented many of these cowboys from bringing their families to the United States, meaning many of their legacies were never passed down to the next generation.

Rose emphasized the importance of the dig, as Chinese American cowboys were often overlooked in the historical record, despite having a big economic impact.

"Adding Chinese Americans to Oregon's early ranching industry doesn't take away from the many white families who worked hard to raise sheep and cattle under sometimes difficult circumstances," she said. 

"It adds richness and depth to the story. It allows us to look at the ways humans interacted and supported each other…how cool to be able to add them back to the stories where they belong. It's Oregon history!"