The Kam Wah Chung interpretive center houses important collections for our understandings of the Chinese American lives in John Day and beyond. Stories of Chinese Americans and why they came over, how they lived, what they endured, and how we can learn from them are preserved here at Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site.

There are two main types of collections: archival and objects. The archival collection is of various hand-written and printed materials that include everything from letters, dictionaries, ledgers, advertisements, catalogs and many more. This collection reveals how Kam Wah Chung interacted with local, state, and worldwide communities. The object collection shows the material world of this building: as a store, an apothecary, a community center, and most importantly – a home.  Together the two types of collections help shed light on the stories of not only the Chinese diaspora in Oregon, but of how integrated Chinese Americans were with the rest of the John Day community.