“By the mid 1940s, Chinatown’s residents had gradually moved on, although the historical record does not tell us where or why they left. In the 1970s, after over a century of a Chinatown in the heart of Baker City, the last of its buildings was torn down. Of the approximately 46 people originally buried in the cemetery, one marked grave remains in the cemetery, that of Lee Chue, 1882-1938. Some years after interment, most of the other remains were exhumed and transported to China by previous arrangement with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Portland, Oregon. No physical reminder of Chinatown’s existence remains in Baker City today.” Learn more at Oregon Encyclopedia

Gather the Ghosts and Bones

Kenneth Woods

Gather the ghosts and bones,
The last ship sails for home.
Open the graves and move all the stones,
It is time at last to go home.
Time at last to go home.

Gather the the ghosts and bones,
Leave not a spirit behind or alone.
This land shall release them, as we try to atone,
It is time at last to go home.
Time at last to go home.

Awake from this restless sleep.
There is one final promise to keep.
Across the wide ocean, so dark and so deep,
There is one final promise to keep.
One final promise to keep.

Tell the families a wide world away,
That their kin are at last on their way.
Let them ready their hearts for reunion day,
For their kin are at last on their way.
Their kin are at last on their way.

Let them return to their celestial home,
That their spirits need no longer roam.
Open the graves and move all the stones
Yes, Gather the ghosts and bones.

Go gather the ghosts and bones.