The new permanent exhibit in Community Memorial Museum’s Multi-Cultural Wing will open with a reception on Friday, September 28th, titled Chinese Pioneers in Sutter County. Because the Chinese men who lived in Sutter County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were typically involved in agriculture, the exhibit represents a small kitchen where a Chinese bachelor farmhand would cook and take his meals. He might have a wife and children back home in China, but because they were not allowed to immigrate to this country, he lived a bachelor life. He might have come to California hoping to find gold to improve his desperate economic situation in China. Chinese farmers are credited with salvaging much of the once fertile farmland along the rivers that was severely damaged by hydraulic mining debris.

Many of the artifacts in the exhibit were used by Chinese farmers or ranch cooks here in Sutter County. They will take visitors back in time over 100 years ago for a look inside a little known world. The public is invited to the opening reception on September 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Admission is free.