Rock Springs was just the first outbreak of many in the West of anti-Chinese violence. It occurred in Rock Springs, in the Wyoming Territory. In the 1870s, the Union Pacific coal mines began firing white strikers and replacing its previously all-white work force with cheaper Chinese laborers. The incident occurred on September 2, 1885. Fighting broke out in the mines between white and Chinese laborers. A mob destroyed and set aflame many Chinese homes, causing an estimated $140,000 of damage, killing 28, injuring 14, and sending the remaining immigrants fleeing into the surrounding area. Later, Governor Francis Warren telegraphed President Cleveland requesting federal military assistance, due to a report that had surfaced that the Chinese, who had fled the town earlier, had now regrouped in nearby Evanston and had armed themselves.