September 3, 2005

Beneath the floors and sidewalks of the Double LL Steak House & Saloon and Lum Lums on East Center Street lies Visalia's secret past - a chapter all but destroyed 111 years ago this Sunday.

Still visible are the remnants of early Chinese settlers' opium dens.

Local historian Terry Ommen, a former police officer, used to take a dim view of 19th century opium use. Then he got a different perspective from the late David Chan, who once lived in Visalia's thriving Chinatown.

"The Cantonese men were living here on their own with family back in China," said Ommen, who last year was taken beneath Lum Lums by restaurant owner Chris Lum.

"Opium enabled them to dream about home and a better life," he said.

Visalia's original Chinatown remains an important part of the city's history,

"What happened in the town before our generation arrived should not be forgotten," Ommen said.

The tour of the opium dens was an eye-opener, Ommen said. Sealed stairways led to one-time Chinese gambling parlors and speakeasies.

"Men selling cigarettes would stand beside these open stairwells," he said. "If you said the right password they would let you in."

Oh, and the password-takers' merchandise?

"Witnesses don't recall that these bouncers ever actual sold a single cigarette," Ommen said.

Chinatow' residents often were misunderstood by the rest of the community, Ommen said. A newspaper article from March 1893 described te residents as "highbinders." A December 1879 article described Chinatown's "opium hells."

"This was an era of yellow journalism," Ommen said. "The writers of these articles were probably biased and had their own agencies."

"Fire destroyed the original Chinatown on Sept. 4, 1894. Future generations of Chinese Americans moved out of the area as their economic status improved, Omen said.

"There is no Chinese community," David Chan told the Times-Delta in 1981. "Everybody has moved away and they tore down Chinatown. That's a past era."

However, Chinatown's remnants are a vital part of history, said Isao Fujimoto, a professor emeritus in Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis.

"The cultural richness of Asian American history is important to understanding the history of the Valley," he said.

The reporter can be reached at atan@visalia.gannett.com.