The Butte Chinese Experience --
The Mai Wah Museum's Permanent Exhibit
 After
several years of artifact gathering, research, design preparation
and installation, this summer the Mai Wah Society has unveiled
its long awaited permanent exhibit of artifacts, images and interpretive
text that tells the story of the Butte Chinese Experience to
visitors from around the world.
The Mai Wah Society is a non-profit organization founded fourteen
years ago by concerned citizens and descendants of Butte's Asian
pioneers who were committed to preserving the disappearing story
of the significant impact of Asian immigration to the development
of Butte, Southwest Montana and the entire Rocky Mountain West.The
Mai Wah's primary goals are to preserve and interpret this important
influence and to restore the two buildings the Wah Chong Tai
and Mai Wah that remain from what was one of the largest Chinatowns
in America. For more information about the organization, see
What We Plan to Do.
Exhibit Introduction:
The permanent exhibit chronicles
the immigration experience of thousands of Asians who came to
Montana and the inland west between 1860 and 1940. Brought by
sail and steam ships to Seattle and other points on the west
coast they traveled to Montana by foot, mule pack train and later
by train to Montana. They were lured to the remote inland west
by the promise of wealth due to the mining activity in the area
and the potential for lucrative trade.
Historical Background:
Between 1850 and 1900, about
250,000 Chinese came to America and thousands ended up in Montana
to dig for gold and to help build railroads that ensured the
prosperity of the remote state. Today, even though in some mining
camps Chinese outnumbered EuroAmericans, few traces remain of
their presence.
In the 1870 census, 10 percent of Montana's residents, almost
2,000 were Chinese were counted. Chinatowns evolved in the larger
mining and railroad settlements. Some, like Butte's Chinatown,
grew to have more than 2,000 living there by 1910. For a few
decades, Butte thrived as a metropolis with a population of nearly
100,000. From 1880 until the late 1920s, the Chinatown was a
bustling area packed with dozens of businesses that sold Chinese
and Japanese dry goods and foods, herb shops, gambling houses,
noodle parlors, and laundries. The 1914 Butte city directory
lists 62 Chinese businesses, including four physicians who practiced
herbal medicine. A Chinese Baptist Mission ministered to the
Christian population within Chinatown.
Exhibit Walk Through:
 The exhibit emphasizes the successful
efforts of individuals and families to establish themselves and
make a new home in a remote land similar to immigrants from other
parts of the world--with one important exception: US citizenship
was denied to Chinese immigrants due to discriminatory exclusionary
laws.
Visitors walk through a series of displays that include photos,
artifacts and interpretive text that depict the day-to-day life
of the Chinese immigrants who made Butte their home.
"The Butte Chinese Experience" presents a comprehensive
look at a significant group of immigrants and pioneers who helped
to bring the amenities of civilization (both western and eastern)
to a remote and unsettled part of the Montana frontier.
The exhibit in the Mai Wah Museum at 17 W. Mercury Street in
historic Uptown Butte is available to visitors through September
from 11 am until 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday. For details or
to arrange a group visit to see the Mai Wah Society's permanant
exhibit, call (406) 723-3231 or send e-mail to info@maiwah.org.
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