Wagons, Trains, Trucks, and Bottles: Transportation Networks and Commodity Access in Castroville, Texas.

Summary

Transportation networks greatly influence the movement of commodities into a community. This paper uses a model of commodity flow developed by Pred (1964) and elaborated on by Adams and colleagues (2001) to analyze glass bottle assemblages from Castroville, Texas. The model suggests that a combination of commodity value, shipping costs, and distance from the North American manufacturing hub influence the movement of goods around the country ca. 1880-1950, creating regional differences in market access. However, the local impact of changing transportation networks has been little explored. This paper argues that changing transportation networks (freight wagons, trains, and then trucks) significantly affected market access for Castroville residents, influencing their commodity choices and purchasing habits. Transportation therefore played an important role in the maintenance and negotiation of identity within the early-20th-century Castroville community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Memory, Materiality, and Alsatian Identity in Castroville, Texas   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 114