A Wyoming town massacred its Chinese workers 140 years ago. Descendants returned to dig for the Chinatown 'burn layer'

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ROCK SPRINGS—A short drive from Main Street in Rock Springs, two rectangular holes, about 4 feet deep, form a checkerboard pattern in a grassy lawn. The green space, which connects a Slovenian Catholic church with a playground, has attracted a trickle of visitors from all over the country this summer to this small city in southwestern Wyoming.

Inside the holes, six Grinnell College researchers are digging, scraping and screening the soil. Most have never been to Wyoming before.

They’re looking for artifacts from 140 years ago, when a mob burned down what was once Chinatown in Rock Springs . In the violence, the mob killed 28 Chinese migrant worke