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.