Exploring Place in the American West

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Drexler.

Archaeology has a long history with the tourism industry. Thanatourism focuses on sites associated with death and violence, such as battlefields, and conflict archaeology can be a powerful means to connect with the public and aid in the development of war-related sites as tourist draws. For American Civil War sites, thanatourism is a potential boon to depressed rural southern economies and a means to improve preservation and interpretation of archeological sites. Archaeologists can have a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily S. Dale.

Nineteenth and twentieth century western mining landscapes were characterized by urban centers that served as hubs of economic and social activities and rural sites that provided the towns and cities with needed goods. Aurora, Nevada and Bodie, California were two prominent mining towns that were serviced by a multitude of rural sites, such as ranches, farms, and woodcutting camps. Chinese immigrants resided in both the urban and rural spaces. This paper compares and contrasts the archaeology of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark L Howe. David Camarena Garcés.

After the Mexican – American War (1846-1848) the International Boundary Commission (IBC) was formed. In 1944, this changed to International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and its counterpart la Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (CILA) due to evolving regulatory duties along the U.S. – Mexico Border for both Sections. Since the inception of the formal IBC in 1889, the present International Border from the Pacific Ocean to El Paso, Texas has increased to 276 international border...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leo A. Demski.

Before the invention of refrigeration and artificial ice, naturally harvested ice was an important seasonal commodity for food storage and heat regulation.  In 1852, Boston ice was shipped to San Francisco and sold as a luxury.  Shortly thereafter, high demand led entrepreneurs to create ice companies in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the newly-completed transcontinental railroad.  The railroad could transport ice to customers, and utilized it to ship perishable food items over long distances...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren A Walkling.

Negotiation and agency are crucial topics of discussion in areas of colonial and cultural entanglement in relation to indigenous groups. Studies of negotiation often explore not only the changes, or lack thereof, in material culture use and expression in response to colonial intrusion and cultural entanglement, but how landscape use and material culture are related to negotiation and resistance techniques used in response to cultural contact or colonial intrusion.  In these contexts, landscape...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Feit.

The EP & NE rail system in New Mexico was built between1898 and 1903. This railroad system immediately became a critical economic force, opening an uninhabited frontier of deserts and mountain forests to exploitation. The EP & NE system also comprised an immense sociopolitical machine that controlled vast lands, timber and mineral resources, water rights, and towns. This talk discusses the historical context for the railroad, and its impact on the settlement of eastern New Mexico. Archeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Hegberg.

In 2016 the Office of Contract Archeology surveyed 9,466 acres of private land in northeast New Mexico. The block survey included several entire homestead allotments belonging to Hispanic families between 1900 and 1940. Due to their location on private land, many of the sites are in relatively pristine condition. Analysis of the sites, architecture, and archival documents was a unique opportunity to understand how these dispersed Hispanic homesteaders relied on each other and organized into a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn White.

Present-day Granite Creek Station is located on the edge of the Black Rock Desert, 10 miles north of Gerlach where the sign welcoming visitors to town says, "Welcome to Nowhere." Described as an "awful gloomy" resting place by one of many travellers, Granite Creek Station was one of several significant stopping places for emigrants, travelers, saddle trains, and stagecoaches passing through the Black Rock Desert region of northwestern Nevada, USA, on their way to California in the mid-19th...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris Merritt.

While Utah is not known for its mining heritage, the Bingham Copper MIne located west of Salt Lake City is one of the few human manifestations visible from space. While the massive open-pit is a testament to human engineering, fortitude, and profit, the copper extracted from its stony core brought thousands of immigrants to Utah during the 19th and 20th centuries. These immigrants created places, communities, and a cohesive social identity. The same mines that created their community in the late...