In 1992, the Rock Springs, Wyoming artist and organizer Greg Gaylor (deceased) asked me to paint a mural about the Chinese Massacre of 1885. I painted it in the barn at my uncle’s ranch, and then with the help of a friend, transported it to the Rock Springs Community Fine Arts Center in the back of a horse trailer.

We had an opening, and there was an awkward silence, and then my mural disappeared. It later reappeared in a dedicated “Massacre Room” at the Rock Springs Community Fine Arts Center, where it resides today.

In 1885, striking miners attacked and killed twenty-eight Chinese railroad workers in broad daylight and in cold blood. No charges were ever filed, no Chinese person or their families received justice or compensation.

As Tom Lea writes, the “strikes [were] about wage cuts, and more strikes [were] about having to shop at the company stores.” The blame for this violence, while perpetrated by white miners clearly lays at the feet of the Union Pacific Railroad and it… — As Tom Lea writes, the “strikes [were] about wage cuts, and more strikes [were] about having to shop at the company stores.” The blame for this violence, while perpetrated by white miners clearly lays at the feet of the Union Pacific Railroad and its friends in the government, who suppressed labor actions.