Wallowa Whitman National Forest, Near Sumpter, Oregon
Ah Hee Diggings Interpretive Site does not offer reservations through Recreation.gov. Please take a look at the area details below for more information about visiting this location. Enjoy your visit!
The Ah Hee Diggins Interpretive Site displays the mining efforts of Chinese miners in the late 1800s and the resulting hand-stacked rock tailings that can be seen from the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway. Although the miners could not file their own claims, holders could sell or lease worked-out claims to Chinese owned companies. To pursue their gold mining efforts, the miners muscled rock into piles across 16 acres of the valley to expose the streambed. They used gold pans, rockers and sluice boxes to extract the gold that was missed by previous mining operations from the sediment in the streambed.