Rethinking "Hell's Four Acres": Consumerism at Whiskey Row

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Building Bridges: Papers in Honor of Teresita Majewski" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The historic town-site of Agate Bay, on the north shore of Lake Superior in present-day Two Harbors, was developed in the 1880s in conjunction with and as a consequence of the opening of Minnesota’s first (Vermilion) Iron Range. Popular historic accounts claim that Agate Bay was a rough-and-tumble frontier settlement that became commonly known as “Hell’s Four Acres,” with an especially notorious section called Whiskey Row. Other research suggests that this wild reputation was a myth perpetuated by Minnesota Iron Company in order to leverage a buyout of prime waterfront real estate. Though occupied for only a short time, Agate Bay is a textbook example of archaeological potential because much of the platted town-site was capped by a wood platform shortly after its abandonment in the late 1880s, then by a large concrete coal storage slab from the late 1920s until October 2006, effectively sealing the site as a time capsule. Archaeological investigations resulted in the recovery of more than 40,000 artifacts, which enabled focus on consumerism as a means of separating myth from reality and indicates a that reconsideration of the reputation of “Hell’s Four Acres” is in order.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Building Bridges: Papers in Honor of Teresita Majewski

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39594.0