Herrett Forum Distinguished Speaker Series Presents:
The Twin Falls County Historic Preservation Commission’s current project is the establishment of a National Register Snake River Canyon Historic Mining District. Ron James will provide an update on the findings from recently completed archaeological surveys expanding the boundaries of the previously reported 19th century Chinese and 1930s Depression-era Snake River Canyon gold mining sites.
Time & Location
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Cost: Free
Doors open: 6 p.m.
Presentation starts: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Rick Allen Room in the Herrett Center, Twin Falls, ID
Presenter
Ron is a retired English and Social Studies teacher. He is currently an adjunct instructor of East Asian History at Idaho State University and a member of the Twin Falls County Historic Preservation Commission.
He earned his B.A. (majors: History & Secondary Education, minors: English & Psychology) at ISU in 1979.
He later received his master's degree in anthropology from the University of Idaho, with a special focus on the historical archaeology of the 19th Century Chinese gold mining sites. His M.A. thesis Ruins of a World: Chinese Gold Mining at the Mon-Tung Site in the Snake River Canyon was published in 1993 as part of the Interior Department's Idaho Cultural Resource Series.
He has done extensive archaeological and ethnographical research on the Chinese and Japanese immigration experience in Idaho. His interests also include the Astorians and the early Pacific NW fur trade period.
During 2001 - 2004, he worked with the National Park Service during the establishment of the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome County and was a founding member of the Friends of Minidoka non-profit organization.
He lived and taught English in Shanghai during the summers of 2000 and 2001. In 2002 he was awarded Japan's version of a Fulbright scholarship to visit schools in Japan.
In 2003 he returned to China, this time Xiamen, Fujian, China (located directly across from Taiwan), where he met and married his wife and lived until 2005.
He and his wife LiLi currently reside in Twin Falls, ID.
