Beneath Still Waters: Charting the Hidden Landscapes of Gold Milling

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.

During the late-nineteenth- to mid-twentieth centuries, three mining companies situated near Juneau, Alaska achieved international acclaim for the profitable working of immense low-grade gold deposits. Salvage and abandonment have subsequently reduced the surface visibility of the Treadwell, Alaska-Gastineau, and Alaska Juneau mines, but legacies of these operations endure in Gastineau Channel, where more than 99 percent of the material processed by these companies – amounting to several million tons of rock – was discarded. This paper combines the analysis of historic bathymetric maps with the results of environmental testing to identify lasting footprints that contrast with the "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy that so often justified industrial waste management.

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