Pristine Wilderness or Industrial Heritage? Creating a Critical Public Archaeology at Frost Town, New York

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Frost Town Archaeology is a public-facing project that integrates community-based practices, affordable undergraduate training, and ecological study in the Finger Lakes Region of Western New York. Frost Town itself was a small logging village founded in the late 18th century and almost entirely abandoned in the early 20th century. The loggers of Frost Town decimated the old growth forests surrounding the settlement, forever altering the area’s ecosystem.

Frost Town Archaeology focuses on telling the story of Euro-American settlement and ecological collapse, making this history of the area accessible. The project uses public events and excavation opportunities to complicate narratives of pristine or untouched wilderness in the region, showcasing both the damage inflicted by Euro-American industrial logging, as well as the importance of industrial heritage in the lives of modern inhabitants and descendants. This paper will discuss the intersections of heritage and environmentalism through public archaeology in rural Western New York.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2023 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow