Locke and Walnut Grove: Havens for Early Asian Immigrants in California

NPS Teaching with Historic Places

River Road, Locke, California, photo by May Arenas (Yelp!), used by permission.
Main Street, Locke, photo by May Arenas (Yelp!), used by permission.

The U.S. National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places offers teaching tools and lesson plans to help educators engage young people with powerful stories representing America’s diverse history. One such lesson plan, “Locke and Walnut Grove: Havens for Early Asian Immigrants in California,” explores “the history of the once bustling Chinatowns and nihonmachi’s (Japan towns) [that] can still be seen in buildings constructed some 50 to a 100 years ago. Store signs in Chinese and in Japanese still advertise the Dai Loy Gambling House, the Hayashi Company Store, and other places that once provided services to the immigrant agricultural workers who began their American experience in the Sacramento Delta.”

Enjoy it here.


Cover image of Chinese Mason Building, Walnut Grove, California, by Mary L. Maniery for PAR Environmental Services, Inc.