The Technology, Mining Methods and Landscapes of a Placer Mining District in Fairbanks, AK, 1900-1930 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
This thesis examines the social construction of technological practice of the Fairbanks Mining District (1902–1942) in order to enrich an understanding of the relationships among miners, mining endeavors, and cultures of work. Framing the study are the two theoretical approaches: sociotechnical systems and chaînes opératoires. A regional analysis was conducted using archaeological data gathered as a part of a hazard mitigation study of abandoned mining lands. These data are combined with architectural reconstruction drawings, census data, geological reports, and archival materials to posit connections within the district, discern patterns, and examine how these changed over time. This study revealed that people’s relationships in the district were diverse and dynamic, going far beyond simple class hierarchies of labor or capital. A preference for California style milling practices and mill architecture are clear, despite detractors like the inappropriateness for an Alaska climate or the mill’s relative efficiency, indicating that preference ruled over efficiency.
Mining Assemblages from the Empire Mine S.H.P., Navada County
Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 27:217-223
Over the past five years, the Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) has been working at the Empire Mine State Historic Park in Nevada County. In the course of this work, the ASC evaluated four residential sites associated with mining operations within the park boundaries. Three of the sites date from the 1850s to the 1880s, and one from 1900-1920. I compare the assemblages from the four sites to identify changes in living and working conditions as mining operations evolved. This paper presents the results of the analysis and some of the issues in comparing sites of this type.
From cutlines to traplines: Post-industrial land use at the Pine Point mine
Industrial mineral extraction in Northern Canada has had lasting, transformative effects on landscapes and land-based economies. This paper examines post-industrial hunting and trapping at the former Pine Point mine, Northwest Territories, to clarify the effects of environmental and socioeconomic change on land use in the nearby, predominantly Aboriginal, community of Fort Resolution. Pine Point was an extensive open pit mine where failed attempts at remediation have resulted in a landscape that remains drastically altered 25 years after closure. Although the mine employed few individuals from Fort Resolution, the introduction of industrial mineral extraction in the region coincided with a transition from a primarily land-based economy to a mixed economy heavily reliant on wage labor. Map-based interviews with local land users documented ongoing, contemporary interactions between land users and the abandoned Pine Point mine which demonstrate that some of the physical and socioeconomic transformations associated with industrial development continue to shape land use in the Pine Point region. From maintaining a reliance on the mixed economy to appropriating the post-mining landscape in ways that benefit hunting and trapping, land users from Fort Resolution continue to be influenced by the Pine Point mine long after its abandonment.
A Mine of Information: Presenting the Social Histories of Heritage Mining Sites
Heritage inscriptions primarily valorise industrial mining complexes as outstanding physical manifestations of technical development and achievement. Presentation materials and tours are typically organised around an abstract operational sequence of extraction and initial processing technologies. These factors potentially sideline the social and physical existence of the people who lived and worked at the sites, though curators have often developed specific display strategies employing records of the memories of participants and extant material culture to counteract this tendency. This paper explores to what extent and how the social is conveyed at three twentieth century heritage mining sites: Geevor Tin Mine in Cornwall; Kennecott Copper Mine in Alaska and Gold Dredge No.8 located near Fairbanks, Alaska. Analysis will focus on how the physical experience of work and the social structures of vanished mining communities are conveyed and what sources are used to construct interpretations. The partial or complete erasure of implicit or explicit politics, in particular events or actions evidenced by the sites but potentially distasteful to the expected audience, will also be considered.
Environment and History, 2012
This paper explores the history of economic, social and environmental change associated with the Pine Point lead-zinc mine, a now-abandoned industrial site and town in the Northwest Territories. Recent perspectives in cultural geography and environmental history have sought to rehabilitate mining landscapes from their reputation as places of degradation and exploitation - the so-called 'mining imaginary'. We argue that the landscapes of Pine Point epitomise the failures and contradictions of mega-project resource development in the north. While the mine and planned town built to service it flourished for nearly a quarter century, the larger goals of modernisation, industrial development and Aboriginal assimilation were unrealised. Ultimately, the mine's closure in 1988 resulted in the town's abandonment and the removal of the rail link, leaving behind a legacy of environmental destruction that remains unremediated. At Pine Point, the forces of mega-project developmen...
Pre-1900s Chinese Placer Mining in Northeastern Washington State: An Archaeological Investigation
EWU Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, 2016
The lack of organized historical and archival documentation regarding the pre-1900s Chinese placer miners in northeastern Washington has left the historical and archaeological records fragmented. Documentation of the Chinese placer mining activities in the region is poor, at best, and the scars left on the landscape by these miners are often inundated by the damming of the Columbia River (and other major waterways), or the sites are heavily eroded and damaged. The available historic and archival data has been organized and synthesized to create an historical context regarding the pre-1900s Chinese placer miners in the region. Furthermore, archaeological sites previously determined to be affiliated with Chinese placer miners have been evaluated and analyzed to create an archaeological context defining significant Chinese cultural features and/or artifacts of the Chinese placer mining operations. These identified features and artifacts are recommended for the pursuit of future archaeological site evaluations and field work for promising Chinese placer mining sites. The historical and archaeological contexts have been combined to create four cultural components of Chinese placer mining sites that should be evaluated during future archaeological investigations of potential Chinese sites: artifacts, oral traditions, structures, and placer mining features. The combination of two or more of the abovementioned components located within the northeastern Washington State historic Chinese placer mining context is indicative of a Chinese placer mining site, camp, or other operational feature. It is recommended that future archaeological investigation be conducted for the sites identified within this project, with special attention given to the assessment of the four Chinese placer mining cultural components described, in order to determine their potential Chinese affiliations.
Arctic Anthropology, 2004
:Southeast Alaska is bounded by British Columbia and Yukon Territory, and most of the region is Tlingit territory. Haida, Tsimshian, and Athapaskans have all played roles in the region's long-term history. Contemporary political boundaries structure current archaeological work because the United States and Canada have different academic traditions, heritage laws, land management practices, research funding agencies, and publication outlets. To