BAKER CITY — As smoke from burning incense curled around the memorial headstone, a small group silently bowed three times to pay respects to those buried here, in the Chinese Cemetery on the east side of Baker City.

This ceremony on Friday, March 24, led by representatives from the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, was similar to the Quinming Festival, or Chinese Memorial Day, on April 5 that includes tomb cleaning, a ceremony to honor ancestors, food and fellowship.

“It should be an annual event here,” said Neil Lee, president of the OCCBA.

This cemetery is owned by the OCCBA, which is based in Portland.

Maintenance is handled by the Baker County Historical Society

and Baker County Museum Commission.

This celebration was linked to

the OCCBA’s visit to Baker City

for the opening of a new exhibit at the Baker Heritage Museum that details local Chinese history and heritage.

“It’s awesome,” Lee said of the exhibit. “It’s good to honor the history.”

The new exhibit is titled “Pioneers to Pillars: The Experience and Legacy of Chinese Communities in Baker County, 1860-1960.”

Although housed in the museum’s main gallery space, the experience starts a few steps back when visitors enter through a door that reflects Chinese construction with Chinese letters.

This framework was built and installed by students in a construction class at Baker Technical Institute.

Museum volunteers Bill Mitchell and Dave Hunsaker, along with museum staff, developed the exhibit this past winter.

Some parts took heavy lifting — literally, in the case of stones that were removed from Union Creek, near Phillips Lake, with a permit.

Mitchell and Hunsaker re-created a rock wall, similar to the stacks of stones made by Chinese miners in Baker County.

These rocks will be returned to Union Creek at the conclusion of the exhibit, said Lynn Weems, museum director.

The display features Chinese artifacts from the museum’s collection as well as items on loan from the U.S. Forest Service that were discovered in local mining areas.

Informational panels, which cover a century of the local Chinese history and heritage, where reviewed by the OCCBA during the exhibit’s development.

“We submitted our content and text to them pretty early on,” Weems said.

The story takes visitors through immigration to the United States, occupations, mining and some of the darker parts of the local Chinese history, such as the massacre in Hells Canyon in the late 1800s.

One section re-creates a

scene from the Royal Cafe, which was established by five Chinese

men who arrived in Baker City in 1935.

Henry Wong became sole owner in 1972. After his death in 1978, his wife, Annie Wong, ran the restaurant until 1990.

The Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St., Baker City, opened for the 2023 season on Monday, March 27. It is open daily — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Admission is $9 for ages 13 and older, $8 seniors, $5 for ages 6-12, and free for age 5 and younger. A rate of $6 per person is available for groups of five or more.