The Wagner-Case Site: Pharmaceutical Historical Archaeology on the Western Frontier

Summary

Examination of the site of a 19th century drug store (ca. 1877-1889) at Silver Reef, a ghost town in southwestern Utah, involved excavations in both the ground and in the archives. Established and run by Julius Wagner (1877-1882) and then taken over by Charles H. Case (1884-1889), the site was the primay pharmacy for this mining community. Excavation under the floor of this former false-fronted, wood frame building recovered a small but informative assemblage of pharmaceutical items.. Many years of parallel and later digging in the local and regional archives revealed an equally fragmentary but more personal record of the druggists who ran this site as well as other drug outlets in the town. Normally Silver Reef had only one active pharmacy (with a sequence of owners) compared to the numerous other internally competing businesses as well as 10 to 15 very active saloons serving an 1880 population of just over 1,000 people.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of the American Dream: Topics in Historical Archaeology West of the Mississippi   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 733