A weathered Wyoming cabin used as a storage shed turned out to be a 140-year-old Chinese laundry; after an eight-year rescue effort, the building has been moved to a museum for restoration

The building has moved to Pioneer Village for restoration and display. (Pictures: Cowboy state daily)

A weathered cabin that spent decades being used as a storage shed behind a building on Main Street in Lander, Wyoming, has been identified as a late 19th-century Chinese laundry and bathhouse. The building belonged to Sam Sing, one of Lander’s early and influential residents.The small log cabin was donated to the Fremont County Pioneer Museum about eight years ago by property owner Tony McRae. The donation began a long effort to raise money, move the structure and preserve it. The building has now been moved to the museum’s Pioneer Village, where it will be restored and turned into an exhibit.Sing was among about 30 Chinese residents living in the town, which had a population of around 1,000 at the time. Historical records describe the Chinese residents as important contributors to the growing community, although they also faced restrictions, discrimination and hostility.Museum Director Randy Wise said Sing played a role in improving Lander. One example was his support for concrete sidewalks at a time when many Western towns relied on wooden boardwalks. According to Wise, “Sing said we, as a developing community, needed these. We needed to keep improving the community. So he was very interested in helping the community grow.”

How Sam Sing went from gold fields to laundry

Sing was born Sing Yee Wind in Canton Province, China, in 1859. He later travelled to America, where he worked in California’s gold fields. He eventually went to South Pass City in Wyoming, joining others hoping to make money from the mining boom there.The boom did not last long, and Sing later moved to Lander. He worked as a cook at the Lander Hotel while continuing to look for gold and other valuable minerals. His training as a geologist also helped him recognise areas around Lander that had oil and gas deposits.Sing bought several valuable claims after recognising the potential of those deposits. However, he did not depend entirely on speculation. After saving enough money from his work at the hotel, he started a laundry and bathhouse in the small log cabin that has now been moved to the museum.The business provided services that were difficult and time-consuming for many households at the time. Laundry could require people to carry large amounts of water, cut wood, boil heavy pots and scrub clothes on metal washboards using lye.Bathing was also not as simple as it is today because many homes did not have running water. Sing could therefore earn money by providing baths, using tubs, soap, water and wood to heat it.

Baths cost 25 cents in 1903

Early advertisements show that Sing offered baths seven days a week for 25 cents each in 1903. The price later increased to 40 cents.His laundry and bathhouse originally stood on Main Street. It was later moved to the back of the McRae Pharmacy lot, where it remained for decades.That location may have helped save the building. It eventually became little more than a storage shed and attracted little attention. When McRae sold the main part of his business lot to Gannett Peak Sports, he still had items stored inside the old building and kept it where it was.

The Chinese laundry and bathhouse as it appeared when it was still being used as a storage shed.

“He was using the laundry as a storage shed, basically,” Wise said. “So nobody really paid much attention to it.”McRae eventually cleared the building and recognised its historical importance. About eight years ago, he approached the museum about taking it over. The museum agreed, but moving the old structure required money for both the relocation and a new concrete pad.The Lander Ambassadors raised just over $20,000 for that stage of the project. The historic cabin has now reached its new home at Pioneer Village.

Restoration work still remains

The building needs considerable work before it can become a museum exhibit. Some of the logs near the ground have rotted and will need to be replaced. The chinking between the logs also needs to be renewed, while the roof will be inspected to see whether repairs are required.Once the building is made weather-tight, the museum plans to replace bay doors that were added later. They will be replaced with a single door and a window on each side, which Wise said would be more historically accurate.The museum does not yet have photographs showing exactly what Sing’s laundry looked like when it was operating. If no original photographs are found, the restoration will have to be based on what an 1800s laundry in Lander would have looked like.The museum already has some original items from Sing’s laundry, along with other objects from the period. These include a working water pump. Wise said the building was close to Dickinson Creek, which runs through Lander, so Sing probably collected much of his water from the creek and may also have used a hand pump.

Preserving Sing’s story

The move has also given Pioneer Village a way to tell the story of Lander’s early Chinese residents. The village has around a dozen buildings preserving different parts of the town’s history, but this is the first building there connected to the Chinese community.Sing faced discrimination despite his standing in the community. Some children mocked him for his broken English and Chinese clothing, while he was robbed more than once. The windows of his laundry were also frequently broken by vandals.Despite those experiences, Sing remained in Lander and worked to improve the community. He never married and had no children. When he died on July 4, 1926, his brother travelled from Canton, buried him and returned to China. Sing’s headstone at Mount Hope Cemetery carries his Chinese name and an inscription in Chinese script.Wise expects the restoration of the laundry to take about a year and said more fundraising will be needed. The immediate focus is on protecting the structure from the weather.“There’s an argument to be made that moving a historic building kind of degrades its integrity,” Wise said. “I understand that argument. But the building probably would not have survived.”He added, “The building will be safe here for many, many decades so people can learn another little part of Lander history.”