The late, lamented Downtown Guy (OKC) blog (the blog is late, not the Downtown Guy) had a fascinating story about the underground Chinese community that existed in Oklahoma City until just after World War II. I don't mean underground in the metaphorical sense of out of the mainstream. I mean subterranean, with tunnels linking basements of various downtown buildings. Part of it was uncovered during construction of the Myriad Convention Center in the late '60s.
The story has resurfaced, as it were, in an extensive entry on Doug Loudenback's excellent blog on Oklahoma City history. And here's the article on Oklahoma City's underground Chinatown by Larry Johnson which Doug quotes at length. It's one of those exotic bits of history that the textbooks missed out on. Go check it out.
Comments (2)
Michael -
When I was living in Sacramento in the late '80s I was told about an old Chinese town in the valley that still had a few residents and/or business in operation.
My then-wife and I went down there exploring and discovered a long, narrow village built out of wood in a sort of split-level fashion along one of the agrarian levees that serve the produce farms.
Here's a link to learn a little more about it:
http://www.locketown.com/
RHH
Posted by Richard | October 6, 2006 3:20 PM
Posted on October 6, 2006 15:20
Thanks for the nice words, Michael! Much appreciated.
BTW, Downtown Guy isn't gone, but he does have a different url and he doesn't post as much as he did. Hopefully, he will ... he is the greatest! The Downtown Guy
Posted by Doug Loudenback | October 6, 2006 5:24 PM
Posted on October 6, 2006 17:24