The community will be given the opportunity to learn a piece of forgotten history through a book The Oregonian listed as one of the top 10 in the Pacific Northwest last year.

Gregory Nokes will discuss his book, “Massacred for Gold, The Chinese in Hells Canyon,” Thursday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room of the Jereld R. Nicholson Library at Linfield College.

His book is the first authoritative account of the 1887 massacre of as many as 34 Chinese gold miners in Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America. The piece uncovers a heinous crime that has been lost to history. Nokes believes it also underscores the often overlooked contribution of Chinese immigrants to the development of the American West.

Nokes also wrote an article on the massacre for the fall 2006 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly and has another book in mind that he hopes to start this year. Nokes retired in 2003 after 43 years in journalism, including 25 years with The Associated Press and 15 years with The Oregonian in Portland. During his career as a journalist, he traveled to more than 50 countries. Since retiring, he has embarked on a second career as a writer and lecturer on the experience of immigrant Chinese in the Pacific Northwest. He is a graduate of Willamette University and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1972.

The lecture is sponsored by the Linfield Mass Communication Department and Friends of Nicholson Library. For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte, college librarian, at 503-883-2517, swhyte@linfield.edu.