By Dr. Zhida Song-James
Nevada Chinese American Association
The discovery, disappearance, and final homecoming of the Carlin 13 offer a compelling window into U.S. history — one about immigration, labor, archaeology, and remembrance. The story is rooted in Carlin, Nevada, a modest town with outsized significance in the American West, and is ultimately about people working over the course of decades to recover their dignity and history.
As a project of America 250 NV telling our story, Zhida Song-James and Moon Xia of the Nevada Chinese American Association visited Carlin in August 2025 to interview its residents. Below are their stories.
Carlin: A Railroad Town Shaped by Water and Immigrants
Carlin, a small city in Elko County, Nevada, was born in late 1868 when the Central Pacific Railroad extended its line along the Humboldt River. Chosen for its abundant water and central location, it became the eastern terminus of the railroad’s Humboldt Division. It was known as the hub that connected remote communities to railroads.
Figure 1， Railroad Crossing near Carlin. Photo provided by Min Zhou
Chinese laborers played a crucial role in this enterprise. They built the tracks, maintained them, and planted gardens along the river that fed both locals and travelers. For decades, Carlin’s Chinese community worked in the shadows of the railroad and mining industries, yet their presence was vital to the town’s survival and development.
Unearthing Forgotten Lives
On November 11, 1996, a Carlin resident uncovered fragments of wooden coffins from his backyard. Tim Murphy, a Bureau of Land Management archaeologist, was the first to identify the site as the original Chinese burial ground. Archaeologists soon confirmed that a forgotten Chinese cemetery lay beneath the soil. Thirteen sets of remains — later called the Carlin 13 — were carefully exhumed.
Figure 2. An excavated brick with the name, birthplace, age, and date of death in Chinese, photo by Min Zhou
Forensic analysis showed the men had endured punishing physical labor, malnutrition, and violent injury. Several individuals suffered extremely brutal abuse, which was severe enough to cause death.
The finding attracted immediate attention. Following the tradition of “falling leaves return to roots”, most early Chinese immigrants requested that their remains be sent back to China after their deaths. The Carlin site was the first professional archaeological excavation in the country.
After excavation, the remains were transferred among institutions — from the Nevada State Museum to Smithsonian researchers and later to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). For over two decades, they were studied, recorded, packed in plastic bags, and stored at UNLV.
Back Where They Belong
For Carlin residents, the issue was never simply about storage or science. It was about dignity, identity, and reconciliation.
The old Chinese burial ground was part of Carlin’s heritage. Once rediscovered, Carlin citizens felt the men’s life stories belonged to the town’s history; therefore, they should be laid to rest in the place where they had opened, lived, and worked. Carlin owed its survival in part to Chinese laborers who built and maintained the railroad tracks and grew the gardens that once nourished the town. Reburial was a way of honoring their contributions.
In Chinese culture, a proper burial is essential for eternal peace. Allowing the remains to languish in boxes felt like a denial of humanity. Providing them with coffins, a ceremony, and a designated resting place would restore that dignity. Furthermore, Carlin, like many railroad towns, bore scars of 19th-century prejudice. Respectively reburying the Carlin 13 was also a symbolic act of reconciliation — a chance for the community to face its past and present itself anew to future generations.
However, Carlin citizens’ multiple attempts to retrieve the remains encountered a variety of obstacles, stemming from scientific protocols, bureaucratic red tape, and the absence of a clear custodian.
The Homecoming
By the 2010s, Liju (Lee) Chin, the owner of Chin’s Café, and Margaret Johnston, a city council member, emerged as leading advocates. Chin was at the site when the remains were exhumed, she said, “I told the professor at the site that when you finish all this research, please rebury them, and they promised they will do it.” Johnston said the research project was initially only supposed to take six months to a year, and returning the remains for a reburial in Carlin was a part of the original agreement. When it was not happening, they took matters into their own hands. Together they rallied support, wrote letters to the UNLV, reached out to elected officials, raised funds, and coordinated with archaeologists and local officials.
Figure 3 Liju Lee Chin and Margaret Johnson, photo provided by Min Zhou
“It has taken far too long getting them home,” in her letter to the UNLV, Chin wrote. “Once again, our Chinese ancestors are being dishonored by being treated like objects instead of being treated like human beings. Please bring our people home where we can honor and respect them.”
Carlin citizens’ efforts finally paid off. In June 2018, Tim Murphy drove over four hundred miles to Las Vegas and brought the remains back to Carlin. The City Council dedicated a section of land within the Carlin City Cemetery. The Home Depot in Elko and a long-time Carlin resident donated timber and paint. Many residents extended their helping hands by preparing the cemetery grounds and making 13 caskets.
Finally, on July 3rd, 2018, the Carlin 13 were reinterred in the Carlin City Cemetery. The ceremony featured traditional Chinese rites — including incense, offerings, funeral wreaths, and new, red-lacquered coffins — alongside the presence of residents, historians, community leaders, and representatives from Chinese American organizations in Utah and California. Mayor Dada Holbrook gave a speech to welcome Carlin’s earliest residents back home. Many residents burned incense to show their respect. More than seventy people attended the ceremony. After decades of displacement, the men were home.
Figure 4. The Funeral for Carlin 13, July 3, 2018. Left – Caskets ready to be buried in the Carlin City Cemetery, photo provided by Min Zhou. Middle – Mayor Holbrook paying respect. Right – a wreath by the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendant Association. Photos provided by Siulin Santee
The story did not stop here. A year later, a monument, donated by the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendant Association with funds from Utah and California Chinese Communities, was erected in the cemetery to mark the resting place of the Corlin 13. The plaque on the monument recorded the story of the discovery and reburial of Carlin 13. Under the first line in English: The Oldest Citizens of Carlin, there is a phrase in Chinese: 华人先驱魂归故里， 华工英名流芳千古 (The souls of the Chinese pioneers have returned to their homeland, and the Chinese workers’ legendary reputation will endure for posterity). More people, including children, attend the unveiling of the monument.
Figure 5. The Carlin 13 Monument, photo by the author
Memory and Meaning
Today, artifacts from the excavation are preserved by the Carlin Historical Society, and a permanent exhibit honoring the Carlin 13 is in the Carlin City Museum.[10] The monument in the city cemetery ensures that visitors understand their role in building both Carlin and the railroad that bound the North American Continent.[11] The original Chinese Garden site is preserved as a Conservation area featuring a fish pond, trails, and flowers, reminiscent of the contributions Chinese immigrants made to the City, State, and country.
Figure 6. Chinese Gardens Conservation Area, photo by the author
The Carlin 13 remind us that history is not only about grand achievements but also about forgotten laborers whose lives deserve recognition. Their story is one of suffering, endurance, rediscovery — and finally, of a community’s decision to honor its past with dignity.
On the day of my interview with Liju Chin, I attended a rodeo hosted by the City of Carlin and nearby ranches. As I sat in the crowd, I felt a strong sense of belonging to my country: a people of all ethnicities and different cultural backgrounds, yet all honest and dignified in the face of past trauma and generously sharing their traditions.
Thank you for your great work!