Utah memorial to Chinese railroad workers is a way ‘to tell the history,’ lawmaker says

A memorial to the Chinese laborers who worked on the transcontinental railroad is set to be placed near the Utah Capitol — and state Sen. Karen Kwan said it’s “very emotional to be able to honor my ancestors in this way.”

“It just feels like it’s such a great opportunity for us to tell the history, because the history had been lost for so long, or ignored or erased,” Kwan, a Murray Democrat and president/CEO of the nonprofit Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association, told about 40 people at a chilly groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday on the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds.

Kwan, the first Chinese American to sit in the Utah Legislature, has ancestors who worked on the transcontinental railroad — but, because names were not taken, she said, she doesn’t know exactly who. According to the oral history passed down through her family, she said, she believes it was either her great-great grandfather or her great-great-great grandfather.

Kwan’s arrival in the Utah Legislature, she said, helped her share that legacy with her fellow lawmakers. She said she has told them stories about things big and small — such as the fact that eight Chinese workers laid the last track that marked the meeting of east and west at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

The monument, Kwan said, will help provide “tangible evidence of our belonging.”

Architect Porheang Ear, who designed the monument that organizers say they hope will be finished this year, is an associate at MSJA Architects, which has performed restoration work at the Capitol. The firm is building the monument pro bono for the descendants’ group.

According to the CRWDA’s website, the monument will be built with materials symbolizing what was used on the railroad.

Two layers of corten steel, a weathering steel that develops a rust-like appearance over time, will represent the rails and the tools the workers used.

Layers of granite and sandstone will represent the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the bulk of the Chinese workers laid tracks on the western side of the railroad.

It will be anchored with a stainless steel cutout of the state of Utah, to symbolize the “toughness of the individuals who worked on the railroad” and “the location in which it was built and completed.” Backing it all is a bronze plate.

Bolts will hold the layers together. The six layers denote the years it took to complete the railroad — and because six is considered a number of good luck in Chinese culture.

The monument will feature Chinese text that will dedicate the monument to the thousands of Chinese pioneers who helped complete the railroad. (According to History.com, it is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 Chinese immigrants worked on the railroad.)

A plaque on the monument will commemorate the contributions of the Chinese workers, as well as other groups that worked on the railroad: Immigrants, Indigenous people, freed Black people, Civil War veterans, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“As we stand here, we are reminded of a time when the dreams of connecting the east and west coast of the United States seemed like an insurmountable challenge,” Ear said at Tuesday’s event. “The completion of the transcontinental railroad was a monumental achievement that reshaped the destinies of our nation.”

The countless workers on the railroad, often referred to as “the backbone of the continent,” Ear said, “overcame unimaginable hardship, toiled through treacherous terrain, extreme weather and an unfamiliar cultural living conditions, but their dedication never wavered.”

The Chinese workers’ contributions, Ear said, are not just in the laying of the tracks, but in “bridging culture, creating connections and transforming the nation into what it is today.”

The monument, he said, will be a “symbol of enduring gratitude.”

Tuesday’s groundbreaking took place less than two weeks after another monument to the railroad made an appearance at the Utah Capitol. That one, a 43-foot golden spike, commissioned by Utah’s Golden Spike Foundation, is scheduled to be installed in a park near Brigham City, marking the spot on Interstate 15 where travelers must exit to get to Promontory.

Doug Foxley, chairman of the Golden Spike Foundation, was on hand Tuesday to praise the monument to Chinese rail workers. “It’s something that’s long overdue,” he said.

Taowen Le, whom Kwan described as a “brother and elder” in the community, talked about his journey of learning about the trauma and dangerous conditions the Chinese railroad workers experienced.

“We cannot change the past, but we can work together to create a brighter today and tomorrow,” Le told the crowd. “Perhaps the best way to remember and to honor the Chinese railroad workers is to prevent what happened to them from ever happening again.”

Millions of U.S. residents of Chinese heritage, Le said, contribute to the country’s society and culture. However, he added, many of them have been harassed and slandered in the past few years, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Associated Press reported more than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents nationwide in 2020 and 2021, the first years of the pandemic. And a University of Utah study detailed the surge of anti-Asian hate language across the country in 2020.

“The greatness of any country lies in its unity, not division,” Le said.

The last word at Tuesday’s ceremony went to Margaret Yee, CRWDA’s chairwoman — and the “matriarch” of Utah’s Chinese American community, Kwan said.

Two of Yee’s great-grandfathers, one each on her mother’s and father’s sides of the family, worked on the railroad. They moved from Sacramento, where construction started heading east — meeting up with the Union Pacific heading west, and meeting in Utah.

The descendant group’s board, Yee said, set a goal during 2019′s 150th anniversary celebrations to create a monument or statue. “Today our dream came true,” Yee said.