Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Linear historic properties occupy a middle ground between archaeology, landscape and the built environment. They may represent transportation features such as roads, railroads, trails, or engineered waterways – or large infrastructure including ditches, fortifications or boundaries. Such categories can be subdivided further: for example, as portage or oxcart trails, stagecoach or military roads, aqueducts or drainage ditches, etc. As extant systems or abandoned segments, many linear properties have associated archaeological sites, features or artifacts. When known, these often contribute to the property’s historical significance. Or the linear feature itself may no longer be visible, but is archaeologically identifiable, or reflected in the configuration and functions of agricultural, military, commercial or residential areas. These papers present diverse and interdisciplinary contributions from archaeological research on linear historic properties, including details of their construction, use and change through time, associated sites and data, and effects on cultural landscapes and settlement patterns.

Other Keywords
Landscape Archaeology • LiDAR • roads • Canal • Gis • Rio Grande • water • Lead • Agriculture • Transportation

Temporal Keywords
19th Century • Late 19th Century • Early 20th Century • 19th and 20th Century • Historic • Various • 17th-19th century • Spanish Colonial California • 1826-1860 • 1848 to present

Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) • Delaware (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-18 of 18)

  • Documents (18)
Documents
  • Bridges and Booze: Understanding the Development of the "Saloon Row" Along the Red River (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Betsinger.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The lives of the people in Moorhead, Minnesota were changed when in 1890 the neighboring state of North Dakota became dry. Saloons expanded greatly in Moorhead, reaching 47 to serve the combined city populations of Fargo and Moorhead. These saloons were positioned nearest to the Red...

  • By River, By Road, and By Rail (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mercedes E Harrold.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In St. Johns County, there are 64 historic linear resources recorded in the Florida Master Site File, including bridges, roads, and railways. Linear resources played an important part in our history. The rivers, roads, and railways brought people to settle and visit the area. The rivers...

  • A Chronicle of the Historic Military Railroad Corridor at Fort Belvoir (Camp A.A. Humphreys) (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ethan A. Bean. Eva E. Falls. Christine H. Heacock.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Historic Military Railroad Corridor at Fort Belvoir (formerly Camp A.A. Humphreys), Virginia is a National Register listed linear resource consisting of a four-mile-long main line track bed, five-and-a half miles of sidings, and forty-one associated buildings, sites, and structures....

  • CRM And The Significance Of Identifying And Mapping Historic Extant Trail Remnants: A Study In Mapping The Santa Fe Trail Through The State Of Kansas Utilizing Available LiDAR Data And GIS Mapping. (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only douglas shaver.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Douglas Shaver, MS, RPA (Burns & McDonnell) CRM and the Significance of Identifying and Mapping Historic Extant Trail Remnants: A Study in Mapping the Santa Fe Trail through the State of Kansas Utilizing Available LiDAR Data and GIS Mapping. A key early role in any CRM project is the...

  • From Native American Trail to Railroad to Underground Railroad: the Michigan Central Railroad and its Relationship to Abolitionist Theodore Foster (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Misty M. Jackson.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The relationship of present day roads to Native American trails is a common theme in transportation history. Less common may be the study of railroad footprints in relation to these trails. A portion of the Michigan Central Railroad in Washtenaw County, Michigan appears to be one such...

  • Ghost Road: Tracing El Camino Viejo Through Southern California (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James E Snead.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The study of historic roads in the North American West is a complex process. Pragmatic issues of scale, accessibility, and preservation are accompanied by aspects of interpretation and meaning. This is particularly evident in southern California, where the vast physical transformations...

  • Homestake Aqueduct: Bringing Water to Mines and Mills in the Black Hills (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey D. Larson.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Homestake Aqueduct (39LA2057) in Lawrence County, South Dakota is a pipeline constructed by the Homestake Mining Company to transfer water from Spearfish Creek to the mines and mills of the Lead-Deadwood area. This predominately subterranean system was likely started in 1879 and...

  • Imagining and Analyzing Paths: Using Modern GIS Techniques to Identify Historical Trails (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Connor C Johnen. Michael J. Prouty.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Since 2011, Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. of Montrose, Colorado has documented a number of historic trails for the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service (USFS). Most of our work has occurred on the Old Spanish (OST) and the Santa Fe National Historic...

  • The International Boundary of the U.S. and Mexico: Water, Rock, Steel and Concrete (2020)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Mark L Howe.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The International Boundary between the United States and Mexico was first established in the 1850’s by rock monuments, then permanently marked by Steel, Stone and Concrete monuments in the 1890’s and now stand as sentinels along the southern border of the United States. Today, the...

  • Kayaking the Main Line Canal along the Kiski: Use of LiDAR in Predictive Modelling for Historical Linear Structures (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Angela S Jaillet-Wentling. Donald Burden.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As part of a complex transportation project, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s cultural resource professionals developed an interdisciplinary approach to identifying and managing extant and abandoned portions of the Main Line Canal’s Western Division in western Pennsylvania....

  • Landscapes of Economic Liberalism: Archaeological Survey of the Muskingum River Navigation in Southeast Ohio (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Chidester.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Muskingum River Navigation, a slackwater canal system constructed from 1837-1841, made use of the natural topography of southeastern Ohio to transport agricultural and commercial products from the regional interior to the Ohio River. The first slackwater canal system built in the...

  • Making the Invisible Visible: LiDAR and the hidden sites of Plantation labor (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Reeves. David Berry.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. LiDAR at President Madison’s Virginia plantation has highlighted fields, ditches, and even plow furrows in areas that have been overgrown or wooded since abandonment in the 1840s. In these same areas, metal detector surveys have revealed work sites (barns, sheds, and fence areas) that...

  • Navigable Waterways as Plantation Landscapes (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily A. Schwalbe.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Navigable waterways were essential to European colonization of the South Carolina Lowcountry beginning in the late 17th century. Despite early attempts by colonial leaders to keep land grants within close proximity to Charleston, colonists quickly began to establish plantations where...

  • ‘Over The Hill’. A Stratified Approach To The Archaeology Of The Donner Pass Route Through The Sierra Nevada. (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stuart Rathbone.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Donner Pass Route through the Sierra Nevada has successively featured emigrant trails, a military survey route, a wagon road, the transcontinental railroad, the transcontinental telegraph, hydroelectric power stations and lumber mills connected to long distance box flumes, the...

  • Railroads and the Lumbering Frontier in Michigan (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Surface-Evans.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The expansion of the lumber frontier in the Great Lakes region was constrained by the ability to move lumber from wilderness to centers of production. Within a brief timespan, from A.D. 1870 to 1900 thousands of miles of rail were laid to access the timber of the northern interior of...

  • Trails of ‘A‘ā: Mobility and Social Networks within the Manukā Lavascape, Hawai‘i Island (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nick Belluzzo.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The environmentally-marginal Polynesian hinterland of Manukā, Hawai‘i is composed of interwoven, young, and often barren lava flows. Both historical and traditional accounts depict Manukā as an inhospitable, desolate landscape. Yet, the extant archaeology indicates an expansive use of...

  • Uncovering and Interpreting the Acequia Madre at Mission Santa Clara de Asís (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda Hylkema.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Urban archaeology is challenging, especially when discontinuous projects, separated by both space and time, affect the same linear resource. Such is the case at Mission Santa Clara de Asís, which lies beneath Santa Clara University and numerous individually owned properties. For years,...

  • Voices Beyond the Rapids: Archaeology and Linear Historic Properties (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David J. Mather.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the late 1960s, the Voices from the Rapids project identified underwater archaeological information from fur trade travel routes in Minnesota and Ontario. By the 1980s, historic preservation surveys began identifying former transportation routes such as roads and trails as...