The issue grew into a heated debate lasting several months between commissioners and the Forest Service. By summer, the commission took the blockades down, and the archaeological site was capped with rock to preserve it. In the midst of this, at least one commissioner incited controversy by comparing what's left of the old mining community to a trash dump. To some, that comparison ignores history. Chinese laborers lived in poor conditions and were denied rights that others in society enjoyed.
Commissioners insist the comment was taken out of context.
UNLV Associate Professor Sue Fawn Chung is among those who are excited and anxious about the Gold Creek site. What is of value there to archaeologists and historians are clues about how they lived. An old cookie sheet caught Chung's eye in the spring when she visited the site with Forest Service Archaeologist Fred Frampton. The rusted metal sheet, Chung said, was a typical example of a foreign culture adapting to goods available in the Western world. Frampton has been aware of the Gold Creek site for years.