New monument will honor Carlin’s first Chinese pioneers

A monument memorializing a northeast Nevada mining town’s first Chinese pioneers will be unveiled in Carlin next month.
Three years ago, the remains of 13 Chinese men were buried in the Carlin Cemetery after they were discovered in 1996 during an excavation behind a house.
The dedication ceremony for the new Carlin 13 monument is planned Sept. 6 at the cemetery, followed by a visit to the Carlin Chinese Garden and museum tours, the Elko Daily Free Press reported.
A local viewing also is planned of the short film “Going Home” documenting the immigrants’ journey.
The bodies were exhumed and studied by archaeologists from the Nevada State Museum, U.S. Forest Service, Elko County Chapter of the Nevada Archaeological Association and anthropologists from the Smithsonian Institution.
The remains were eventually moved to UNLV in Las Vegas. Research on the men was published in the 2005 book “Chinese American Death Rituals: Respecting the Ancestors.”
Lijuchin “Lee” Chin, owner of Chin’s Café, led a campaign to bring back “the oldest citizens of Carlin” and presided over a traditional Chinese ceremony at the 2018 reburial.
A year later, the Carlin 13 were recognized with a cemetery plaque in conjunction with the 150th Golden Spike Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. MDT/AP