In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2024

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West," at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Diversity has long been a facet of life in the American West but is commonly understood to be a phenomenon largely confined to urban areas. This session brings together papers that challenge that narrative or question the framing of rural spaces as perpetually homogenous, bucolic, and out-of-the-way places where only a narrowly defined set of actors played any meaningful role. By exploring the unique dynamics of rural communities, these presentations highlight how various groups navigated the opportunities, constraints, and complex social worlds of small-town life. The papers in this session reflect on the various ways that popular Western narratives have romanticized, whitewashed, and winnowed away the complexity of rural spaces. The erasure of these experiences has haunted both currently and formerly rural areas, disconnecting modern communities from their rich social and cultural pasts.  

Other Keywords
Chinese diaspora • Site Formation • Chinese • Zooarchaeology • Gold Mining • Climate Change • American West • Forts • rural • Colonialism

Geographic Keywords
American West • North America • Pacific Northwest • Northern California • Wyoming • California central coast

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Exploring the Uncommon: Irish Whiskey Production on California's Central Coast- An Archaeological Perspective (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex DeGeorgey. Ethan Bertrando.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The archaeological study at CA-SLO-568H in Camp San Luis Obispo uncovered a late 19th century homestead with unique features. Notably, a small stone oven was discovered, believed to have been used for distilling whiskey. Historical records of the Irish-descended landowners...

  • Food, trade, and connection in two 19th-century Chinese diaspora sites in the American West (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only J. Ryan Kennedy.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Chinese migrants were integral to creating the American West, including building much of the Transcontinental Railroad and playing critical roles in early agricultural, mining, and fishing industries. These efforts created numerous rural Chinese communities in the American...

  • Fort Vancouver and the Origins of the Rural American West (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas C. Wilson.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. While usually portrayed as a fur trading post, Fort Vancouver was established because of the agricultural potential of its surrounding prairie. The large company farm established there was modelled after English manorial farms combined with unique fur trade elements. Its...

  • Heritage is Eroding: The Point Molate Shrimp Camp and Coastal Erosion in Richmond, California (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only William A. White. III.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. For over 50 years, Chinese American shrimpers processed their catches on the banks of San Pablo Bay in what is now Richmond, California. Dozens of Chinese Americans lived at the Point Molate Shrimp Camp (CA-CCO-506H) where they worked for competing shrimp processing...

  • Little Evidence of a Large Community: The Almy Wyoming Chinatown (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only A. Dudley Gardner.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Sometime in 1869, the Almy Chinatown began to emerge; by September of 1885, it had vanished. The Chinese community in Almy may have been home to over 200 Chinese at its peak, with most of its residents working as coal miners. The coal mines at Almy were dangerous: the first...

  • Remembering and Forgetting Colonial Violence at Shamrock Ranch, Laytonville, California (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas F. Radtkey.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Mendocino War, an 1850s genocidal campaign against Native peoples in northern Mendocino County, California, was especially fervent in Long Valley. Here, unauthorized paramilitaries freely murdered hundreds of Yuki and Cahto people between 1856 and 1860. The extreme loss...

  • Sacramental Wine Meets Cocktail Culture At Alma College: Religious Tradition And Secular Modernity At A Twentieth Century Jesuit Seminary In The Santa Cruz Mountains (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas E Ross.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Alma College was a Jesuit seminary in the rural Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos, California that operated between 1934 and 1969. It housed an all-male population of up to 150 Jesuit faculty, students, and support staff and provided training for Scholastics seeking a...

  • Small Town Charm: Opportunities, Challenges, and Contested Belonging in Rural Spaces (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chelsea Rose.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site represents one of the key interpretive hubs for Chinese heritage in the Pacific Northwest. Once home to the John Day Chinatown, its residents provided medical care, groceries, automobiles, and employment to the citizens of eastern...

  • Women, Chinese Miners, and Gold Rush Relationships in the Boise Basin (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Renae J. Campbell.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Southern Idaho’s Boise Basin was the site of a late-nineteenth-century mineral rush that attracted gold seekers from around the globe to the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. For more than fifty years, this pluralistic population took up residence in small towns...