The 140‑year‑old log cabin that once served as a Chinese laundry and bathhouse for Lander’s early Chinese residents has been relocated from a storage shed behind the former McRae Pharmacy to the Fremont County Pioneer Museum’s Pioneer Village. The move follows an eight‑year donation by property owner Tony McRae and a community‑raised $20,000‑plus fund that will finance the restoration.
Sam Sing Yee Wind, born in Canton Province in 1859, migrated to the United States in search of gold, first working in California’s fields before heading to South Pass City and eventually Lander. He leveraged his geological knowledge to identify gold and oil deposits, saving enough to open the laundry and bathhouse that served the town’s households in the early 1900s.
The laundry offered services that were otherwise labor‑intensive, charging 25 cents per bath in 1903 and later 40 cents. Clients brought water, cut wood, boiled pots and scrubbed clothes on metal washboards, tasks the cabin’s proprietor made more efficient by providing a dedicated space.
McRae, unaware of the structure’s heritage, used it as a storage shed for decades, until he recognized its historic value and offered it to the museum. The museum accepted, but the relocation demanded a new concrete pad, prompting the Lander Ambassadors to raise the required funds.
Restoration work will replace rotten logs, renew chinking, inspect the roof, and install a historically accurate single door and side windows. The museum’s collection includes a working water pump and other artifacts, but no photographs of the original interior exist, so the design will reflect typical 19th‑century Lander laundry layouts.
The project gives Pioneer Village a tangible link to Lander’s early Chinese community, whose 30‑member population faced discrimination yet contributed to the town’s growth. Local residents, including families who still operate laundries in the area, view the restoration as a tribute to their shared heritage.