Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan," at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

An entire world turned its eyes upon north-central Utah on May 10, 1869 and then 150 years later on May 10, 2019, to commemorate the achievement of connecting the east and west coasts of the United States by a ribbon of steel. The Transcontinental Railroad forever changes the world by connecting foreign and domestic markets and migration in ways never-before achieved in North America. Today a dedicated team of researchers and descendants are committed to uncovering the untold stories of the railroad’s construction, maintenance, and abandonment and those who lived, worked, and died along the rails in Utah.

Other Keywords
Railroad • Chinese • Remote Sensing • Research • Railroads • Geophysics • Infrastructure • Foodways • industrial • Landscape

Geographic Keywords
Intermountain West • United States of America (Country) • United Mexican States (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country) • Bermuda (Country) • Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre (Country) • Republic of Cuba (Country) • Canada (Country) • Commonwealth of The Bahamas (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)

  • Documents (6)
Documents
  • 120 Miles of Track in 2 Months: Where Did They Get All That Timber? (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Hora. Matt Bekker.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Dendroprovenance testing has been commonly used to determine the species, provenance and cutting dates of wood from historical structures. We examined 60 core and cross-sectional wood samples from trestles, culverts, and crossties at...

  • Applying Geophysical Survey for Research, Preservation, and Interpretation along the Transcontinental Railroad (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly S Cannon. Ethan Ryan.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Geophysical survey techniques offer unique approaches to research, preservation, and interpretation, particularly when subsurface testing is limited or untenable. Historic archaeological excavations are severely limited in Utah, given...

  • Descendant Community and the Transcontinental Railroad: Intersection of Archaeology and Real Life (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Karen Kwan. Margaret Yee.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the years leading up to the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion, the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association (CRWDA) formed in order to organize the celebration of the contributions of the Chinese...

  • Exploring Domestic Food Origins of the Chinese Community At Terrace (42bo547) Through Isotopic Studies (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenneth P Cannon.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Analysis of stable isotopes in bone collagen has been widely used to determine diet in humans and other vertebrates. The methods are well established in theory and practice. This exploratory project is focused on pig and cattle bones...

  • Railroads and the Historic Resources to Understand their Significance (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael R Polk.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeological research of a railroad, while not dissimilar to researching the history of a place, has unique aspects that make it challenging if one is not familiar with the subject. When envisioning a railroad, most people think of...

  • Transcontinental Railroad as a Landscape not a Ribbon (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher W Merritt. Michael S. Sheehan.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Transitioning from Commemoration to Analysis on the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah: Papers in Honor and Memory of Judge Michael Wei Kwan" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. When historians and archaeologists typically analyze a historic railroad, the frame of reference generally rests on the railroad line itself, and those few and scattered places where workers lived during construction and maintenance. A...