Chinese Americans in CA - LOCKE, CA

Jeffrey and I went to LOCKE this Saturday. LOCKE is such a small town - 3 rows of houses. I wonder if this should be a "Town" or not.

Locke was the only town built by Chinese for Chinese in the early 1900's. The basic story was, after the railroad project (1865 - 1869), Chinese workers moved to Sacramento Delta area to build the levee and then became farm workers. Most of them lived in Walnut Grove. After Walnut Grove China Town fire, Chinese workers from Chun-Shen moved to LOCKE. They leased the land from the Locke family - 1st 3 buildings were built in 1912. Then the California's Alien Land Law passed in 1913 - Chinese were not allowed to own land. Then the law changed in 1952. (OK, in 1945, Chinese were allowed to be US Citizen.) In 1977, the current owner's family (from Hong Kong) bought the land. Since the parcel is so big (about 500 acres, 3 parcels) and remote (30 min drive from Sacramento), they didn't split the land until 2004.

Chinese History in CA: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views3.htm
Locke Website: http://www.locketown.com/
More Locke History: http://www.locketown.com/more_history.htm
Golden Spike (where the East & West joined): http://www.nps.gov/archive/gosp/home.html

Louise