One of the largest-ever collections of Chinese medicinal artifacts isn't where you might expect to find it

At the Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum in John Day, Ore., visitors can enter “a time capsule of a late 1800s general store and Chinese medicine emporium,” reported curator of oddities and unique attractions, Atlas Obscura. The building is where Ing “Doc” Hay and Lung On, who both immigrated from Guangdong in southern China, ran their herbalist shop, dry-goods store and import business for more than 60 years. The space was also a religious and community centre, as well as a boarding house for migrant workers. Today, the site houses “the largest intact collection of Chinese medicine and formulas in the world,” according to the Friends of the Kam Wah Chung, a non-profit working to preserve public access to the historic site. The site looks mostly as it did in the late 1940s, thanks to restoration and preservation work. According to Atlas Obscura, the museum is “filled with thousands of period artifacts and relics such as herbs and instruments from [Hay’s] practice,” and boasts “a number of pieces of vintage furniture outfitting the space just as it did in the 19th century.” The building was originally constructed in 1864-65 as a trading post, with Hay and On purchasing it in 1887. Ing quickly established himself as a medical authority in eastern and central Oregon, according to a brochure published by Oregon State Parks, which now owns the property. Both Chinese and non-Chinese people purportedly travelled great distances to be treated by “Doc Hay.” The general store closed after On’s death in 1940. Hay ran the apothecary until 1948, when an injury forced him to relocate to a nursing home in Portland. He died in 1952. After Hay left for Portland, the building was locked up for the next 20 years, according to the Friends of Kam Wah Chung. The building was inherited by Hay’s nephew, Bob Wah, who leased the building to the city on the condition that it be kept as a museum in testament to Chinese immigration to the region. After Bob Wah’s death in 1966, the estate was handed over to the city, which later sold the property to the state. The building opened its doors as a museum in 1976, after several years of renovation.

One of the largest-ever collections of Chinese medicinal artifacts isn't where you might expect to find it

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