Chinese laborers were hired to dig a canal from the Carson River to Gold Canyon to provide a year round source of water for mining in 1856. The’ Reese ditch’ was a $10,000 failure, though.
The northern end of it, where the water was supposed to go, was 43 feet higher than the southern end of it, from which the water was supposed to come.
White American miners resented the ‘Celestials’ because the latter would work for lower daily wages. This made them an economic threat to those Whites who temporarily hired themselves out to other miners.
This had led to hostility and forced segregation in the California goldfields, and the same situation developed in western Utah Territory.
When the Chinese built homes at a trading post on the Carson River and started panning for gold in the river, the Whites referred to their settlement as ‘China Town.’ It was a descriptive name, but it was not intended to be a pleasant one.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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