A Mid-19th Century Lighter from San Francisco Bay’s Yerba Buena Cove: Context, Documentation and Conservation

Summary

In 2013, WSA recovered a well-preserved Gold Rush Era lighter from the original shore of Yerba Buena Cove. This class of boat, used to load and unload ships where there is no adequate harbor, was used extensively in San Francisco prior to the completion of sufficient deep-water wharfs in the 1860s. This paper contextualizes the use of lighters in frontier San Francisco and presents new insights into the construction of the recovered lighter gained from the creation of a 1:12 scale model. The authors also describe the methods and results of the conservation effort undertaken by the National Park Service to stabilize the lighter for future study and possible public display

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Spanish to the Silicon: The Diversity of San Francisco Historical Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage