Chinatown Artifacts To Come Back To Deadwood

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                                     Chinatown artifacts to come back to Deadwood






By Brandon Bennett
Black Hills Pioneer
DEADWOOD -
Jan. 19, 2009

Parts of Deadwood's past will soon return to the historic town.

The South Dakota State Archaeological Society is giving some Chinese artifacts to the city so visitors can see how the residents who immigrated to the gold town once lived.

For the last several summers archaeologists conducted digs of the Chinatown area of Deadwood in hopes of finding more about the residents.

“I would like the historic preservation commission to approve us accepting these artifacts, since they represent several years worth of work, and we now have an idea of how the Chinese went about their daily lives,” said Historic Preservation officer Kevin Kuchenbecker at the city's historic preservation commission meeting Wednesday evening.

The commission approved the motion, and then it agreed to hiring Green's Moving and Storage of Rapid City to haul the 660 cubic feet of boxes that hold the items.

“Mike Runge and I will go over the boxes to see just what we have. We would like to eventually turn the basement into a display area so we can show all the interesting artifacts we have,” Kuchenbecker said.

The commission approved spending up to $1,500 to move the items to Deadwood. The city commission will make a final decision on the issue at its meeting Jan. 20.