The “Tacoma Method” Drove Chinese Residents Out and Left Two Men Dead

In November 1885, Tacoma vigilantes and city leaders forced the Chinese residents of Tacoma from their homes in what contemporaries called the “Tacoma method.” The Oregonian said a mob of 500 broke into houses, marched the Chinese “some eight miles through a rain storm,” kept them under guard at Lake View, and burned their homes. During the forced march, two sick men “died from the exposure.” A speech reprinted in The Anaconda Recorder and New Northwest condemned the expulsion as unlawful and said “two hundred human beings were driven out of Tacoma like dogs.” This, according to the same newspapers, was the "‘Tacoma method,’ without coloring or exaggeration.” The same editorial rejected the claim that the Chinese left Tacoma voluntarily.