From Merchants to Miners: A Comparison of Store Ledgers and Archaeological Assemblages from Chinese Mining Sites in Idaho's Boise Basin

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, a gold rush in Southern Idaho’s Boise Basin spurred a large influx of people into the area. This population boom led to the Boise Basin surpassing Portland, Oregon, as the largest population center in the Pacific Northwest. Many of these miners were Chinese immigrants. These miners left behind a rich archeological record that yields both Chinese and Euro-American artifacts. These artifacts range from mining tools to domestic items. This paper will examine bottle glass and other product containers from several sites in the Boise Basin. These artifacts will be compared to an 1875-1876 mercantile ledger from a nearby town. Through archaeological materials and historical documents we hope to gain a better understanding of how these artifacts fit into the daily lives of the Boise Basin’s Chinese miners.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 423