Locke is a small town with a big history. Over 100 years ago, Chinese workers turned wet land in California’s Delta into farmland.
They built homes, shops and schools for their own community, making Locke the only town in the United States (U.S.) created by Chinese people for Chinese people.
About 50 miles of Sacramento, Locke stands quietly along the Sacramento River. Its wooden houses and narrow main street look almost the same as they did a century ago. Once, it rushed with hotels, restaurants, even a cinema.
Today, only about 60 people live here, but its past is preserved in museums and old buildings.
The town’s roots go back to the Gold Rush of the mid 1800s. Many Chinese men came hoping to find gold but faced heavy taxes and discrimination.
Skilled at farming and construction, they helped drain thousands of acres of swamp, much like they had in China’s Pearl River Delta.
Since Chinese immigrants were stopped from owning land, they rented it. In 1915, after a fire destroyed Chinatown in nearby Walnut Grove, Chinese businessmen leased land from George Locke.
Within two years, they had built 45 structures, including shops, boarding houses, and gambling halls.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Locke thrived, it became known as the “Monte Carlo of California” for its gambling houses.
Residents worked in farms and food plants, and children attended a Chinese school.
Over time, younger generations moved to bigger cities, especially after the Chinese Exclusion Act was removed in 1943.
The population fell, but some families stayed. Locke became a National historic landmark in 1990, and in 2004, residents could finally buy the land below their homes.
