New artifacts from 19th-century Monterey Bay Chinese fishing village deepen community connection
Archaeologists are learning more about one of the oldest Chinese villages in California history, which is part of this reporter's own heritage.
The Point Alones Chinese Fishing Village from the 1850s and 60s is buried under what is now Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station at Monterey Bay. I reported at the archaeological dig site nearly 20 years ago with great interest; my great, great-grandmother lived there.
Quock Mui was the first documented Chinese born on the Monterey Peninsula in 1859. Known as "Spanish Mary," she spoke five different languages and was apparently a translator.
She and her husband and children worked together to pioneer California's fishing industry at the Point Alones village. The village was unique set apart from the more common Chinese bachelor labor camps documented in California history.
"What's a little bit unusual about it for an archaeology site in California is that these are families, so there are women and children in the village," said archaeologist Dr. Laura Jones, the director of heritage services at Stanford University.
Precious artifacts have been recently unearthed from the site that fascinates scholars worldwide. Collections curator Veronica Jacobs-Edmondson let me hold some of the thousands of artifacts that my ancestors might have used: dishes, including many rice bowls, an eye wash cup, pieces of a denture toothbrush, an opium pipe, and even an early mahjong tile.
"Things that we use everyday that we don't really think about, really tell us the stories of these people," said Jacobs-Edmondson.
Villagers also exchanged Chinese money. Jones said she was surprised to find they didn't just sell fish locally to feed their families.
"They're also salting fish and sending it back to China, and they're consuming fish from China in the village," Jones said. "That really shows us how transnational these villages were."
For fellow descendant Shelly Gin and me, examining the artifacts - a glimpse of village life - connected us to our roots.
"To see actual, real items that they used - it's more than history. I's our family connection," Gin said. "I imagine how tough and courageous they were."
She added, "It was so urgent to them to move here to America to try to have a chance to make money and to support the family here as well as back in China. It's really a story of courage and resilience."
Gin is one of the organizers of our Chinese fishing village reunions at Monterey Bay.
Today, American-born descendants to the 8th generation gather each year to tour the old village site and soak in new information about our ancestors we didn't know before, like their impact on marine science.
Stanford Librarian Donald Kohrs says Quock Mui's brother, Quock Tuck Lee, and her son, Chin Yip, were the go-to collectors of rare fish for Hopkins' seaside laboratory and marine biologists like Ed Ricketts.
"They would come to the village for Tuck Lee, and Tuck Lee would bring back the specimens to do their research," said Kohrs.
After 50 years, historians say a suspicious fire - probably arson - burned down the Point Alones fishing village in 1906. Thanks to archaeologists, historians and determined relatives, we're seeing more sharing of our family's pioneering history along Cannery Row and in Monterey Peninsula museums and classrooms.
Jones is inviting the Chinese fishing village descendants to share our own artifacts to the collection already housed at Stanford's archaeology department.
