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In 1885, more than 700 Chinese miners lived in Rock Springs. Complaints about wages and competition for work, coupled with racial prejudice, sent mobs of white miners into the Chinese settlement, setting fire to their homes and beating all in their wake. More than one hundred Chinese men fled on foot, running to the hills for sanctuary. Governor Frances Warren sought help from President Grover Cleveland, who ordered federal troops into the melee. Soldiers from Utah arrived and escorted the Chinese back to Rock Springs. More than a dozen men were charged with crimes against the Chinese; all were released. The Union Pacific Coal Company reinstated the Chinese in their jobs, but as pressure built from the white community, the Asian men’s positions were slowly phased out. Eventually, most of the Chinese left the area.
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