...is the only rural Chinese town left in the United States...
It was founded in 1915 and was occupied almost entirely by
Chinese until relatively recently...
In 1990 it made it onto the National Historic Registry.
It was a thriving rural town in the 20's-40's with over 600
Chinese residents and about 1000 seasonal farm workers.
Al's has been a thriving stopping point for food and cocktails
since 1934. Now, when we were there, there were just a few Jovial
customers probably due to the rain and it being the middle of the week and all.
My Jewel of a tour guide (my cousin) told me that Al's place is a favorite for...
you guessed it...Biker's!!! It's also been known to be a hang out for various
folk of the political persuasion on a Jaunty Journey out of town (the capitol)!
Now...according to the brochure, in it's heyday, Locke
had as many as 4 grocery stores and numerous dry goods stores...
I peeked in the window, and didn't see what looked to be a
grocery store currently...(which is probably a good thing)
Also in reading about Locke, I found that many of the buildings are in Jeopardy,
as in quite dilapidated and in drastic need of repair. If you are interested,
there is a foundation dedicated to the restoration work...
My cousin and I agreed that it might not be a good idea to go out on this
deck when the weather is better...as we might be in Jeopardy of Joining
those on the first floor rather quickly...
I also peeked into the windows in this building and did see evidence that
it was indeed set up like a Chinese herbalists office, but didn't look like it was
necessarily in use at the moment.
It was raining fairly steadily when we visited Locke so it looked all the more dreary.
It's very sad to me that this little town has gone to such disrepair as it does have
a very interesting history.
