Give Me a Y-Beam: Architecture and Agency at Rural Chinese Woodchopping Camps, Mineral County, Nevada

Summary

For the turn-of-the-century rural Chinese woodchoppers of Mineral County, Nevada, the construction of cabins, dugouts, corrals, and fences served myriad functions. Yet, architecture, even in its simplest forms, consistently goes beyond the functional. The orientation of and relationships between structures, material preferences, and diverse construction techniques demonstrate the choices made by the Chinese as they strove to make a living supplying firewood to nearby mining boomtowns. This paper will discuss the ways the Chinese adapted their construction methods to the rural environment, their various needs, and lack of traditional architectural materials and how the architecture informs on the builders’ ethnicity, masculinity, and sense of community.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeology of the American West   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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