A 16th Street marker designating Denver’s historic Chinatown has gone missing and organizers want it back

A historic marker bringing awareness to Denver’s historic Chinatown is missing and the organization behind the campaign wants it back.

The marker at 1520 16th Street near Wazee Street was reported missing in December by Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU), a coalition of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Denver who were the driving force behind installing the commemorative standing plaques.

The marker on 16th was one of three markers installed around the area reminding Denverites of the city’s Chinatown, a section of LoDo where Chinese and other Asian businesses flourished from the 1870s to 1880s.

On Oct. 31, 1880, the area was destroyed by white rioters, leaving one person dead and  Chinese-owned properties burnt to the ground.

The only recognition the incident and the businesses received was a marker titled “Hop Alley/Chinese Riot of 1880,” that told the story of the riot through the lens of white historians.

To reclaim the area and give the historic Chinatown a proper designation, CAPU, along with the Denver Asian American Pacific Islander Commission, worked on the Reimagining Denver’s Historic Chinatown project that sought to bring more awareness to the area’s history.

The old marker was taken down after the city issued a formal apology for its role in the racist riot and new markers, along with a mural, took its place.

The marker that has gone missing tells the history of the former Chinatown. It tells the story of the first Chinese immigrant who arrived in Denver in June 1869 by way of working on the Transcontinental Railroad. It also tells the story of the growth of the Chinese businesses and how white residents grew hostile to the population and “perceived them as an economic and cultural threat.”

Joie Ha, Vice Chair on the CAPU board, said the organization filed a police report with the Denver Police Department in December but they haven’t received any updates on what could have happened to the marker.

The marker is a tall structure that was bolted to a concrete base. It was made of metal and wood. Ha said it’s unclear what happened. Nearby cameras didn’t catch any footage and it’s possible that a vehicle may have crashed into the structure.

But malicious intent can’t be ruled out because the structure wasn’t placed to the side or simply left there, if someone did crash into it.

“We’re not entirely sure what had happened to it,” Ha said. “We did file a police report and we also checked the CCTVs nearby but unfortunately the marker was just in a blind spot of the cameras. Looking at it, the marker is ripped from its base. It could have been hit by a truck but we don’t know where the marker is. Again, we’re not entirely sure how it went missing, but I think it isn’t out of the question that it could have been for malicious intent, especially with the rise in anti-Asian hate over the last few years.”

Ha said the organization has not recently received any hate rhetoric but there’s a constant conversation from people who don’t believe their efforts to remember Chinatown are worth it.

CAPU is currently running a GoFundMe to re-fabricate the marker and reinstall it. They need about $12,000.

The other markers are fine and so is the mural. Ha said one of the markers, at one point, was a bit crooked, which could have been from someone hanging it on, but that has since been fixed.

She added that once the marker is replaced, they’ll add some reflective tape to it so people can see it easier, in case it was hit by a car.

Really CAPU just wants the marker back and they aren’t interested in pressing charges, if the marker wasn’t taken maliciously.

Ha said the situation is simply disappointing and ultimately feels like another attempt at erasure.

“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years but if you zoom out, the story of Chinatown has been waiting to be told for what, 140 years,” Ha said. “It was disappointing to know that our attempt at trying to reclaim this space and tell people and educate people and say, hey, this used to be Chinatown was in a way forcibly erased.”

DPD didn’t immediately respond to questions about the police report or the missing market. CAPU asks that if anyone has any information, they should reach out to [email protected].