"Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over": The Harrison Spring, Water Control, and Strategic Gift Exchange on Palomar Mountain

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Water was central to Nathan Harrison’s existence on Palomar Mountain; in fact, he filed a water claim for his spring two years before he homesteaded the property. The stakes were high for water control in the Old West and the emerging hydraulic American society. This paper examines changing water-rights rules during the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods in Southern California, the development of Harrison’s spring, pump, and trough during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the factors that made the spring a necessary stop for nearly every traveler venturing up the west side of the mountain. It presents the Harrison artifact assemblage as the fusion of a traditional rural habitation and an exchange outpost, one fueled by water control and distribution. This paper also notes the role that Harrison’s strategic gift giving of water played in building social capital in a time of racial animus and strife.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• On the Centennial of his Passing: San Diego County Pioneer Nathan "Nate" Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 416