Old Records and New Tools: Using Historic Land Records to Structure Archaeological Survey and Historic Site Management on the Siuslaw National Forest

Summary

Over 3,900 land records are housed at the Siuslaw National Forest (SNF) headquarters offering valuable information on early 20th Century homesteading in Oregon’s Coast Range. Current SNF program direction aims to summarize this information to support archaeological site identification and the development of a historic context that will lead to a more effective management strategy for homestead sites.

Initial work to meet this goal is underway through this author’s research, which will focus on historic land records and associated sites in the Indian Creek watershed in Lane County, Oregon. New methods involving integration of land record information into a database and GIS will be used to formulate expectations concerning site size, layout, and complexity that will be tested through archaeological fieldwork on a sample of homestead sites in the watershed. Archaeological data combined with historical information on consumer and agricultural trends will provide insight into material life of these homesteads.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Management Challenges, Public Relations, and Professional Issues

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 582