Second Life Materials: The Historical Archaeology of a Family Blacksmith Shop in Montour Valley, Idaho

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In March 2022, the collapse of a dilapidated, early 20th-century blacksmith shop on my family’s sheep ranch in Montour Valley, Idaho prompted a short archaeological salvage project. The project recovered approximately 6,200 items, most of which were metal and associated with various aspects of farm life. Through investigation of the recovered historical artifacts, this research explores the role of family-operated blacksmith shops in rural Idaho – a lesser-known, yet vital component of Idaho’s agricultural history. By the turn of the century, Montour Valley was a bustling industrial hub, supporting a rural community engaged in intensive agriculture and ranching. Blacksmith shops operating on private properties were necessary to maintain agricultural livelihoods, and served as an integral part of my family’s history. More broadly, this research aims to deepen our understanding of the role of smaller, local blacksmiths in the rural American West and enrich the agricultural history of Southwestern Idaho.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow