4
Barbara L. Voss (芭芭拉‧沃斯) Pacific Railroad, complained about the scarcity of white labor in California. Crocker proposed that Chinese laborers would be hardworking The Historical Experience and reliable; both he and Stanford had ample of Labor: Archaeological prior experience hiring Chinese immigrants to work in their homes and on previous business Contributions to Interdisciplinary ventures (Howard 1962:227; Williams 1988:96). Research on Chinese Railroad construction superintendent J. H. Stro- Railroad Workers bridge balked but relented when faced with rumors of labor organizing among Irish immi- 劳工的历史经验：考古学对于中 grants. As Crocker’s testimony to the Pacific 国铁路工人之跨学科研究的贡献 Railway Commission later recounted: “Finally he [Strobridge] took in fifty Chinamen, and a ABSTRACT while after that he took in fifty more. Then, they did so well that he took fifty more, and he Since the 1960s, archaeologists have studied the work camps got more and more until we finally got all we of Chinese immigrant and Chinese American laborers who could use, until at one time I think we had ten built the railroads of the American West. The artifacts, sites, or twelve thousand” (Clark 1931:214; Griswold and landscapes provide a rich source of empirical informa- 1962:109−111; Howard 1962:227−228; Chiu tion about the historical experiences of Chinese railroad 1967:46; Kraus 1969a:43; Saxton 1971:60−66; workers. Especially in light of the rarity of documents Mayer and Vose 1975:28; Tsai 1986; Williams authored by the workers themselves, archaeology can provide 1988:96−97; Ambrose 2000:149−152; I. Chang direct evidence of habitation, culinary practices, health care, social relations, and economic networks. As archaeologists 2003:56); see also Heath (1927). expand collaboration with each other and with scholars in The 10,000 to 12,000 Chinese who labored other fields, interpretations of archaeological research move on the first transcontinental railroad were the beyond site-specific description into analyses that trace the largest corporate wage-labor force in the 19th- changing experiences of workers as they entered new envi- century Americas. Some historians argue that ronments and new landscapes. The materiality of daily life the actual number was much higher, at least at railroad work camps is interconnected with the risks the 14,000 and perhaps 23,000 (Griswold 1962; workers endured and the wealth that their labor generated for railroad owners and investors. Mayer and Vose 1975; Tsai 1986; Chew 2004). Working alongside an estimated 2,000 additional 自1960年代以来，考古学家已经研究了修建美国西部铁路 non-Chinese workers—mostly European immi- 的中国移民与美国华裔劳工的劳工营。这些文物、现场以 grants, but also European Americans, African 及景观为我们提供了有关中国铁路工人之历史经验的丰富 Americans, and Native Americans—the Chinese 实证材料。尤其在工人们自身书写的文件相对匮乏的情况 下，考古学能为他们的居住，饮食，健康，社会关系与经 laborers on the first transcontinental railroad 济网络提供直接的证据。随着考古学家拓展彼此协作，以 were recruited first from within California and 及他们与其它学科学者之间合作，考古学研究的诠释范 possibly Nevada. Most were young men who 围已经超出了对特定现场的描述：如今，我们已能够追 had earlier worked in mining, logging, road 踪分析工人们在进入新的环境与景观后所发生的经验变 building, and other trades. Some may have 化。铁路劳工营的日常物质生活与工人们所承受的风险， 以及他们为铁路拥有者和投资者所创造的财富，都是相 worked on earlier railroads, as small numbers of 互关联的。 Chinese immigrants were employed on railroad construction on the Central California Railroad Introduction as it passed by Marysville in 1858, and on the San Jose−San Francisco Railroad constructed The story has been repeated in history books in the early 1860s (Barth 1964:117−120; Chiu since shortly after the completion of the first 1967; Chinn et al. 1969:43; Bain 1999:209). transcontinental railroad: in 1865, Leland Stan- But, for most, railroad construction was a new ford and E. B. Crocker, investors in the Central line of work.
Historical Archaeology, 2015, 49(1):4–24. Permission to reprint required. BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 5
Soon the potential pool of new Chinese Chinese immigrant and Chinese American immigrant laborers in California was exhausted, workers continued to build and operate the rail- and beginning in March 1865 the Central roads of the American West for several decades Pacific Railroad contracted with Cornelius following the completion of the first transcon- Koopmanschap, a Dutch sea captain, to recruit tinental in 1869. Yet for all of their significant thousands of new workers directly from villages accomplishments, there is very little known about in southern China (Griswold 1962:17). their own perspectives and experiences. To be Construction Superintendent Strobridge and sure, Chinese railroad workers were described the acting chief engineer, Samuel S. Montague, (often in racially charged language) by newspaper marveled in late 1865 at how quickly Chinese journalists, and the owners and managers of the workers became “skillful in the performance of Central Pacific Railroad described Chinese work- their duty. Many of them are becoming very ers in reports, letters, and congressional testimony expert in drilling, blasting, and other depart- (U.S. Congress 1877; Hoffmann 1879; Heath ments of rock work” (Heath 1927:12). Through 1927; Kraus 1969a, 1969b; Williams 1988; Bain these skills, Chinese workers on the first trans- 1999:222,237). But, in the archives the voices continental railroad were responsible for some of the workers themselves are silent. With few of the most significant civil engineering feats in exceptions (Chew 2004), the Central Pacific Rail- the 19th-century United States: carving roadbeds road did not record the names of the individual out of cliff faces at the Cape Horn passage and Chinese workers, instead “working and paying blasting tunnels through Sierra Nevada bedrock. them by the wholesale” (Kraus 1969a:51,54, Their experienced and efficient labor was also 1969b:204,221; Williams 1988:97−98; Huang central to the epic feat of laying 10 mi. and 56 2006:90). Journalists of the time and historian ft. of track in a single day on 28 April 1869. Hubert Howe Bancroft’s researchers interviewed At the driving of the Last Spike (Figure 1) on only white supervisors and workers (Kraus 10 May 1869, E. B. Crocker remarked to the 1969a; Deverell 1994). Chinese workers were assembled crowd: “In the midst of our rejoic- not called to testify in the court proceedings ing at this event, I wish to call to your minds and congressional hearings that unfolded in the that the early completion of this railroad we wake of the completion of the Central Pacific have built has been in great measure due to Railroad, including the 1876−1877 congressional that poor, despised class of laborers called the investigation of Chinese immigration and the Chinese—to the fidelity and industry they have 1887 investigations of the United States Pacific shown” (Griswold 1962:322). Railway Commission (1887).
FIGURE 1. The Last Spike. William T. Garrett Foundry, San Francisco, 1869. (1998.115, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University; gift of David Hewes.) 6 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1)
Additionally, to date, no personal writings, descriptions of the lives of Chinese workers. In letters, or diaries of Chinese railroad construc- this context, historical archaeology—always an tion workers on the first transcontinental have important source of information about “those been found, although concerted international of little note” (Scott 1994)—emerges as a efforts are underway to locate such traces critical body of evidence that can provide (Chang and Fishkin, this issue). Unlike the direct access to the lived experiences of the correspondence of white railroad workers, let- tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants who ters sent home by Chinese workers to villages labored to build the railroads that transformed in Guangdong and Hong Kong did not end up 19th-century North America. in regional historical society archives in the United States. In China, the many wars, revolu- Archaeology and the Chinese Railroad tions, and cultural upheavals throughout the 20th Workers in North America Project century also led to the widespread destruction of family and town archives. In 2012, Gordon H. Chang and Shelley As a consequence, the same few descriptions Fisher Fishkin formed the Chinese Railroad of Chinese railroad workers on the Central Workers in North America Project (CRWNAP) Pacific Railroad are repeated again and again in to “give a voice to the Chinese migrants whose history books and on public monuments. They labor on the Transcontinental Railroad helped note that Chinese railroad workers were hired to shape the physical and social landscape of and managed in gangs of 12 to 20 people, each the American West” (Chinese Railroad Workers of which had its own cook and a headman who in North America Project 2012). Gordon H. handled accounts. They describe how Chinese Chang (2001, 2008), an historian who has been workers were responsible for their own board central to the development of interdisciplinary and ate a diet that included imported Chinese Asian American studies, and Fishkin (2005), staples, such as dried shellfish, fish, fruits, veg- an American-studies scholar who, among etables, and seaweed, as well as locally sourced other accomplishments, is widely credited with rice, pork, poultry, and tea. They recount that developing transnational American studies, Chinese railroad workers bathed daily, chang- articulated a clear vision for an interdisciplin- ing into clean clothes after work, and preferred ary, international research collaboration that to build their own dugouts and stone shelters would open new perspectives on a topic that rather than use company-provided tents. The is paradoxically emblematic of American his- Chinese railroad workers, it is recounted, kept tory, yet often represented through stereotypes to themselves and, other than gambling, enjoyed and misinformation (Chang and Fishkin, this few vices. issue) (Figure 2). Yet nearly all of these widely repeated descriptions are derived from a handful of New Directions, New Challenges primary sources. For example, Nordhoff’s (1874) California, which is widely quoted Chang contacted me in February 2012 to in the historical accounts of Chinese railroad ask if I knew whether archaeologists had ever workers on the first transcontinental, actually studied Chinese railroad workers, and, if so, describes a small crew of Chinese railroad whether I and other archaeologists might be workers in the Central Valley of California interested in joining in this effort. Over the next nearly a decade later. Another widely quoted few months, I met several times with Chang, source is a three-paragraph description of the Fishkin, and other researchers on the CRWNAP “First Chinese” by Heath (1927), an employee to explore possibilities for archaeological col- of the Southern Pacific Railroad public relations laboration. I also met with scholarly delegations department, published in the corporate newsletter from Guangdong, China, the home province of Southern Pacific Bulletin. This, however, was most 19th-century Chinese immigrants to North written nearly 60 years after the fact. Similarly, America, including those who worked on the journalists’ accounts from short publicity railroads. These conversations identified several junkets to view railroad construction are also priorities for archaeological involvement, along frequently reprinted by historians as generalized with several core challenges. BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 7
FIGURE 2. Public commemorations of Chinese railroad workers on the first transcontinental railroad: (a) The Chinese Coolie, Kenneth H. Fox, 1972, Auburn, California; and (b) detail of mural Shadows Past, J. Bowers Foxey, 2012, Colfax, California. (Photos by author, 2012.) 8 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1)
For the CRWNAP, the research priority for Chinese railroad workers has been largely archaeology was clear. In the absence of direct descriptive. Studies that have moved beyond written evidence from the workers themselves, description to interpretation often focused on could archaeology be used to reconstruct the questions of assimilation and acculturation. In historical experience of Chinese laborers who contrast, the questions posed by the CRWNAP built the first transcontinental and many of the challenge archaeologists to reconstruct the other railroads in the American West? What experience of Chinese railroad workers from was daily existence like? How was it the the workers’ own vantage point, a deeply con- same or different on particular segments of textual, inside-out perspective. the railroad? What was the workers’ sensory Chang, Fishkin, and I also noted several chal- experience—what did they see, smell, touch, lenges in bringing archaeology into this inter- hear, and taste? What did they eat, and how disciplinary, transnational collaboration. First, did they cook their food? What was their there are problems of translation. Few North housing like, their bedding, and any furniture American archaeologists speak or read Chinese, they might have had? How did they manage and consequently historical archaeology has sanitation? What health challenges did they not engaged very much with Chinese-language face, and how did they care for themselves in archives and scholarship. Similarly, the his- this new environment? What leisure activities torical archaeology of Chinese immigrants and did they enjoy? Chinese Americans is exclusively published in Along with the potential for archaeology to English. The CRWNAP’s translation programs reconstruct historical experience, CRWNAP are addressing the former; the publication of this scholars posed a number of questions related thematic issue with titles and abstracts trans- to demography and social life. What was the lated into Chinese is a small first step toward social organization of work camps? Were remedying the latter. Beyond language, there is women and children present in the railroad the issue of disciplinary translation. The jargon work camps, even though they are not docu- and conventions of historical archaeology are mented in historical records? What was the largely opaque to those outside the field. The relationship between Chinese and non-Chinese practice of thinking with places and objects laborers? Can anything be learned about the is unfamiliar to those who are trained in the relationship between railroad workers and their analysis of texts. Bridging these disciplinary home villages in China? differences requires sustained communication, Still another set of questions focused on as non-archaeologists learn about the practice material culture and economics. How were of archaeology, and we archaeologists reframe the goods found on railroad worker camp our research in ways more compatible with sites procured? What was brought from China, humanities-centered scholarship. and how were imported goods obtained and The second challenge is methodological. distributed? Did Chinese railroad workers Archaeology is inherently place-based, and participate in local and regional economies? most archaeological research on 19th-century Did they produce their own objects from local railroad workers is site specific. Yet the materials and eat food gathered from the local construction and operation of 19th-century environment? railroads was inherently about expanding and These research priorities are all questions transforming mobility. How can the place- that archaeology is well positioned to address. based strengths of archaeology contribute to Where people lived, what objects they used this study of movement? Similarly, one of in daily life, how they interacted with their archaeology’s core methodological strengths environment and each other, and how they is the study of change over time. Railroad cared for their bodies and nourished themselves construction occurred rapidly, and work camps are central themes in archaeological research. were short term, some occupied for only a day. They are also questions that move the histori- What can archaeology bring to the study of cal archaeology of Chinese railroad workers in such ephemeral sites? These place- and time- new directions. As discussed at greater length based methodological issues challenge us as below, much prior archaeological research on archaeologists to think beyond our site-specific BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 9 research and ask how we can collaborate better scholars representing history, literature, visual with each other to study the highly mobile studies, cultural studies, urban studies, geography, historical populations of the 19th-century American studies, Asian American studies, and American West. digital humanities; and several descendants of The third challenge concerns access. The railroad workers. A key priority that workshop majority of historical archaeology studies are participants identified is to make archaeologi- presented in “gray literature”: site records, cul- cal research on Chinese railroad workers more tural resource management reports, government accessible to other scholars and to the public, agency studies, environmental impact studies, both here and in China. This thematic issue of technical reports, and unpublished theses. Most Historical Archaeology is one concrete step in of these documents are stored in regional or that direction, more than doubling the number of government agency repositories; many contain published articles and book chapters on the sub- privileged information and are not accessible to ject. For public outreach, Rebecca Allen, Mary other researchers or the public. Consequently, Maniery, and Sarah Heffner are developing an even though a large body of scholarship on interpretive book centered on artifacts found on the archaeology of Chinese railroad workers Chinese railroad worker sites. To facilitate access already exists, it has been nearly impossible for to gray literature, Christopher Merritt coordinates non-archaeologists to access this research. This an archaeology bibliography for the CRWNAP: thematic issue of Historical Archaeology is an
FIGURE 3. October 2013 workshop of the Archaeology Network of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project. (Photo courtesy Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, 2013.)
Under Chang and Fishkin’s leadership, digital humanities platforms for international Archaeology Network scholars are forging collaboration. transnational connections with scholars in China and other Asian countries. In September 2014, The History of Archaeological Research on representatives of the Archaeology Network Chinese Railroad Workers in North America participated in a CRWNAP delegation to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. As historical The rich history of archaeological research on archaeology is still an emerging field in Asia, Chinese railroad workers in North America has the strongest connections at present are with much to contribute to this shared effort. Formal researchers in folk culture, overseas Chinese investigations of Chinese railroad work camps history, architecture, and geography. Looking began in the 1960s, although undoubtedly sites ahead, future interdisciplinary conferences and and artifacts had been studied prior to this by workshops are planned, both in the United States railroad historians, avocational archaeologists, and and China; the CRWNAP is also developing collectors. This coincided with the formalization BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 11 of historical archaeology as a professional and of the first U.S. transcontinental were joined academic discipline in North America (the on 10 May 1869, at Promontory Summit, Society for Historical Archaeology, for example, Utah, in the famous Golden Spike ceremony. was founded in 1968) and the advent of historic The first known professional presentation of preservation laws in the United States, such as archaeological research on a Chinese railroad the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, that worker site was delivered nearly 100 years required assessment of historical archaeological later, at the 1969 annual meeting of the Society resources. Since then, the archaeology of Chinese for Historical Archaeology. Chace and Evans railroad workers has largely been conducted as (1969) reported the findings of a surface survey part of the growing field of overseas Chinese at Summit Camp at Donner Pass, California, archaeology (Schuyler 1980; Greenwood 1993; where Chinese immigrants labored for four Wegars 1993; Maniery 2004; Voss 2005; Voss years to blast tunnels through the Sierra Nevada and Allen 2008; Staski 2009; Ross 2013), also summit. The transcript of Chace and Evans’s referred to as Chinese American archaeology and presentation is printed as the opening article Asian American archaeology. in this thematic issue, making it publically Most archaeological studies of Chinese railroad available for the first time. Their research at worker sites have been conducted to comply Summit Camp supported important descriptive with historic preservation laws. In research for analyses of artifacts commonly found on this overview, a thorough effort was made to Chinese immigrant and Chinese American sites locate site records and cultural resource manage- (Chace 1976; Etter 1980; Evans 1980). Summit ment (CRM) reports related to Chinese railroad Camp, in Tahoe National Forest, was formally workers, but undoubtedly many more remain. recorded in 1997 and was recommended for Besides CRM studies, student theses have gener- eligibility to the National Register of Historic ated important bodies of research, most notably Places in 2008. The California State Office through anthropology programs at the University of Historic Preservation concurred with this of Nevada at Reno, University of Idaho, Univer- recommendation in 2009. As one of the largest sity of Montana, Western Wyoming Community and longest-occupied residential bases for College, and University of Texas at Austin. Chinese railroad workers in North America, This overview of the history of archaeological Summit Camp has continued to be a focus of research on Chinese railroad workers in North archaeological research (Baxter and Allen, this America is organized by railroad line, beginning issue; Molenda, this issue). with the western divisions of three United States Railroad grade survey in the Tahoe National transcontinental railways: the Central Pacific, the Forest has also yielded evidence of two other Southern Pacific, and the Northern Pacific. In substantial Chinese worker camps: Windmill all three, Chinese immigrants were the major- Tree and China Kitchen (Molenda, this issue). ity of workers for the western divisions, while The Tahoe basin is also notable for extensive white (American-born and European immigrant) studies of Chinese immigrant woodcutters and workers were recruited for the eastern divisions. colliers who provided lumber and fuel to the (Chinese immigrants also constructed two other Central Pacific Railroad during its construction transcontinental lines: segments of the Atchison, and operation (Chung 2003; Smith and Dixon Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and the western 2005; Lee 2008). division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. How- Promontory Summit near Ogden, Utah, has ever, no archaeological studies of Chinese work also been the subject of long-term archaeo- camps on these railroads have been identified.) logical research programs. The symbolic and Discussion of regional, branch, and narrow-gauge historical importance of the “meeting of the railroads follows. rails” led to this area being designated as Golden Spike National Historic Site (GSNHS) Central Pacific Railroad, 1865−1869 in 1957. As Polk (this issue) summarizes, the archaeological and historical resources of the Connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa, with GSNHS have been the subject of multiple Sacramento, California, the eastern (Union historical and archaeological surveys since Pacific) and western (Central Pacific) divisions the 1960s, although little subsurface work has 12 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1) been conducted. The GSNHS contains at least on 25 Utah branch stations, 6 of which showed 19 construction camps, many of which likely evidence of substantial Chinese habitation from represent worker residences during the bitterly the 1870s to the 1910s. Gardner (2004, 2005) cold 1868−1869 winter. At least four camps and colleagues (Gardner et al. 2002; Mac- are identified as Chinese (Polk and Simmons Naughton 2012) have studied Chinese workers Johnson 2012; Polk, this issue). The work camp at the Aspen and Hampton Union Pacific sta- sites in the GSNHS are notable for the variety tion camps on the first transcontinental railroad of architectural remains represented, including in Wyoming. dugouts, pit structures, leveled platforms, and masonry foundations (Anderson 1983). Southern Pacific Railroad, 1873−1883 One of the most unusual documented archaeo- logical sites associated with Chinese workers on Formally incorporated in 1865, the Southern the first transcontinental is a deposit of Chinese Pacific Railroad was acquired by the Central cultural material, including a Chinese brown- Pacific Railroad in 1868, with the formal glazed stoneware liquor jar, on a small knoll merger completed in 1870. Construction of near Monument Rock on the Central Pacific this southern transcontinental railway began Railroad grade near Promontory Summit. Unlike in 1873. The route connected Sacramento, the large-group work camps at Summit Camp California, to New Orleans, Louisiana, via and Promontory Summit described above, the Los Angeles, California. Strobridge, the former presence of this jar “indicates an individual act construction supervisor for the Central Pacific of agency, possibly seeking a place of quiet Railroad, came out of retirement to complete refuge from the daily toils of laboring” (Mer- the job. The Southern Pacific relied heav- ritt 2013). ily on the labor of veteran Chinese workers Prior archaeological work on the first trans- from the first transcontinental. By completion, continental shows a tendency toward study of the Southern Pacific employed an estimated large base camps used for specialized opera- 6,000 workers, 5,000 of whom were Chinese tions. As Molenda (2013:5) notes: “larger and (Briggs 1974:31). The Golden Spike joining more permanent camps tend to be located near the western and eastern divisions was driven walls, culverts, and tunnels, with stone structural on a bridge crossing the Pecos River in Texas remains visible on the surface. ... In contrast, the on 12 January 1883. Overseas Chinese seem to have occupied much Fedick and Stone (Fedick and Stone 1988; more ephemeral ‘tent camps’ in areas where Stone and Fedick 1990) conducted an archaeo- construction proceeded quickly.” For example, logical survey near Phoenix, Arizona, on a 100 archaeologists studying the Fenelon, Nevada, ft. wide corridor along 22 mi. of the historic railroad grade identified sparsely distributed Southern Pacific Railroad. They identified Chinese ceramic fragments that were interpreted seven sites associated with railroad construc- as possible evidence of 1860s Chinese railroad tion and maintenance. One of these, Site 12, construction crews (Turner 1982:19). Molenda’s was investigated through surface collection, test ongoing survey in the Tahoe National Forest excavation, and data recovery. “An abundance identified several diffuse artifact scatters adjacent of Chinese ceramics, and opium cans, and food to the railroad grade that may also represent remains associated with a traditional Chinese these ephemeral tent camps. diet” (Stone and Fedick 1990:146) indicate the After the construction of the first transcon- site was inhabited primarily by Chinese work- tinental was completed, many Chinese work- ers. Chronologically sensitive artifacts indicate ers were hired as section hands to repair and that the site was more likely related to main- maintain the lines. Notably, the Union Pacific, tenance and repair of the railroad, pointing to which did not hire Chinese workers during the important role of Chinese employees in the construction, quickly engaged Chinese veterans operation of the Southern Pacific Railroad, as of the Central Pacific to support railroad opera- well as in its construction (Stone and Fedick tions in the eastern division of the first trans- 1990:144−145). continental. Raymond and Fike (1981) con- Briggs (1974) investigated two railroad con- ducted surface studies and historical research struction worker encampments, the Langtry BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 13
Camp and the Upper Rio Grande Tunnel No. Landreth and colleagues (Landreth et al. 1985). 1 Camp, at the Pecos River crossing in Val Comparative analysis of the 10 sites shows Verde County, Texas. The Langtry Camp, several general similarities: they are oblong, which housed Chinese workers, consisted of linear camps along river valleys, and they all stone-lined tent platforms associated with dou- have tools representing the labor of railroad ble-hearth features. Briggs (1974:53) estimated construction, along with horseshoes and other the camp likely housed between 500 and 665 hardware from draft-animal tack (Merritt et Chinese residents. Artifacts were primarily resi- al. 2012:677). Beyond this, the distribution of dential and include a much higher percentage material culture bifurcates along ethnic lines. of European- and American-produced goods Spatial analysis shows clear segregation, with than seen at Chinese construction camps on distinct separate areas for Chinese workers, the first transcontinental. The remote location often with natural topography creating a spatial of the camp, distant from both the Pecos River buffer between Chinese and white workers. and the railroad alignment, may have been Chinese encampments were invariably located selected to minimize confrontations with white in uneven, mosquito-infested areas, indicating and Mexican workers on the eastern division. that camp geography reinforced ethnic hier- This locale placed stress on Chinese workers archies among workers. The material remains by increasing distance to water sources and on Chinese camps “emphasize foodways, folk increasing Chinese dependence on company beliefs, and leisure—all of which represent suppliers (Briggs 1974:197−204). means to help balance a life of hard work” The Chinatown in El Paso, Texas, was (Merritt et al. 2012:686). The loss of life established by Southern Pacific construction among Chinese railroad workers on the NPRR veterans, many of whom continued to work was severe, and the Thompson River, Heron, for the southern transcontinental railroad after and Noxon camps include rare extant examples its completion. Archaeological research has of graves and grave markers (Merritt et al. shown that in contrast to coastal Chinatowns 2012:680−681). Additional work to document where residents had ready access to imported Chinese work camps along the NPRR is cur- goods from China, El Paso’s Chinese commu- rently under way in Bonner County, Idaho, nity relied heavily on locally available material through the University of Idaho (Stokeld and culture and foods. For example, American- Petrich-Guy 2014). Research by Urbaniak and manufactured bottles were often relabeled for Dixon (this issue) also documents the even- secondary purposes, including laundry bluing, tual replacement of Chinese workers on the Chinese wines, and traditional Chinese medi- NPRR with a multiethnic workforce including cines (Staski 1993). Japanese, Norwegian, and English immigrants.
Northern Pacific Railroad, 1870−1883 Other Railroads
The Northern Pacific, linking Chicago to Along with the transcontinentals, railroad Seattle, employed an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 companies soon built “thousands of rail lines— Chinese construction workers, most of whom large and small gauge—leaving extensive den- were also veterans of the first transcontinental. dritic networks of railroad grades, trestles, and The railway was completed on 8 September tunnels throughout the West” (Dixon 2014:193). 1883, with the driving of a golden spike near From the 1860s to the 1890s, Chinese workers Gold Creek, Montana. were central to the construction and operation Avocational archaeologist Gary Weisz (2003) of many of these railroads. and colleagues (Merritt 2010; Merritt et al. In Nevada, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad 2012; Akin et al., this issue) have identified (V&TRR), linking the Comstock Lode in and recorded nine line camps on the Northern Nevada with silver ore processing and supply Pacific Railroad (NPRR) alignment through the centers in Reno, Carson City, Silver City, rugged valley of the Clark Fork River in west- and Virginia City, was constructed primarily ern Montana. A 10th, the NPRR front town by 1,200 Chinese workers recruited after the known as Cabinet Landing, was studied by completion of the first transcontinental. Chinese 14 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1) workers on the V&TRR were especially tar- consortium as the V&T, the Bodie & Benton geted by the anti-Chinese movement, which linked lumber mills with mining sites. Currently marched on railroad work camps in American studied by Sunseri (this issue), the Mono Mills Flats near Virginia City and drove Chinese site associated with the Bodie & Benton was workers off the grade into the surrounding a locale in which Chinese workers lived hills. Railroad executives brokered a deal that alongside Native American Paiutes. Sunseri’s reserved some railroad segments for white investigations reveal evidence of transcultural workers. Wrobleski (1996) conducted a pedes- interactions and cooperation between these two trian survey of a 6 mi. section of the V&TRR subjugated worker populations. grade and analyzed three Chinese construction In Utah, archaeologists recorded a small itin- worker sites. One site was badly eroded; the erant Chinese railroad encampment associated second was a residential site with 13 tent with the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway, com- platforms, as well as numerous hearth features; pleted in 1879, and identified rock structures and the third included a single flat area with a likely representing Chinese work camps on the dense distribution of artifacts related to food, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, com- alcohol, and opium consumption. Wrobleski pleted in 1883 (Merritt 2013). In Mesa County, concluded that this third site likely represented Colorado, Conner and Darnell (2012) conducted a separate recreation area, possibly the head- an archaeological assessment of the Excelsior quarters of a sutler who sold goods to railroad Train Station site on the Denver & Rio Grande workers. Wrobleski (1996:66−68) interprets this Railway. Their research identified a distinct separation of recreational activities from sleep- concentration of Chinese artifacts, including ing and resting areas as a common aspect of porcelain tablewares, Chinese brown-glazed working-class life, in which the shared con- stoneware, and opium paraphernalia. They con- sumption of foods and social drugs facilitated clude that, although historical records for the camaraderie in the midst of a harsh, central- railroad do not list any Chinese employees, the ized, and regimented work life. site represents a Chinese labor camp associated A fourth V&TRR work camp, the Lakeview with the railroad’s construction or operation Camp, was recorded and excavated in the late (Conner and Darnell 2012:36) 1990s (Rogers 1997; Furnis and Maniery, this In Roundup, Montana, Urbaniak and Dixon issue). The site housed an estimated 40 to 70 (this issue) identified rock inscriptions likely Chinese men during grading and tunneling. In carved by Chinese workers employed to mine their contribution to this issue about the Lake- coal for the Milwaukee Road. In San Diego view Camp, Furnis and Maniery show how County, California, Hallaran et al. (1989) systematic excavation and recording methods studied a late-1910s construction camp on can reveal patterns of activity areas even in the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway. shallow and ephemeral work camp sites. Echo- Research revealed a diverse multiethnic work- ing Wrobleski’s findings, Furnis and Maniery force including Mexicans, European Americans, found distinct public spaces for cooking, Native Americans, Indians, Pakistanis, Greeks, eating, and socializing separate from sleeping Swedes, and Chinese. areas. Like the V&TRR, the Eureka & Palisades Existing Themes and New Directions Railroad was built to link silver mines in the Eureka, Nevada, region with the first trans- Prior archaeological research reveals tan- continental in Palisades, Nevada. Zier (1985) talizing glimpses of the historical experience investigated a Chinese railroad workers’ site of Chinese railroad workers in the Ameri- representing a temporary camp possibly occu- can West, and it also exposes large gaps in pied for only a few days. The site included archaeological knowledge. Only a few short three artifact clusters, interpreted by Zier as segments of historical railroad alignments have each representing one group of 12–20 workers. been systematically surveyed. Most archaeo- Other railroads in Nevada, such as the logical investigations have centered on a few narrow-gauge Bodie & Benton Railroad, large, long-term work camps associated with served local interests. Operated by the same intensive grading, tunneling, and bridgework. BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 15
These represent only one aspect of railroad frequency of opium-pipe bowls on nonurban construction: most railroad construction work- work camps, including railroad sites, with that ers typically lived in small groups in isolated on urban Chinatown sites. They concluded short-term camps. While archaeologists have that there was a pattern of heavier opium developed models predicting the locations and use in work camps, perhaps to buffer work- attributes of railroad worker camps based on related discomforts. This finding was recently slope, water access, and relationship to railroad corroborated by research on Northern Pacific features (Briggs 1974; Buckles 1983; Wrobleski Railroad camps in Montana, where the ubiq- 1996:24), more field research is needed. uity of opium paraphernalia was interpreted Methodologically, surface survey and col- as a source of “relief from the physical and lection predominate, although important case psychological pain of manual labor ... the most studies show the value of excavation at both effective pain remedy on the market until the short-term (Furnis and Maniery, this issue) and introduction of aspirin in the 1890s” (Merritt long-term work camps (Briggs 1974; Wrobleski et al. 2012:689). Gust’s (1993) foundational 1996; Baxter and Allen, this issue; Sunseri, comparative study of faunal remains at Chi- this issue). nese immigrant sites included several historical Many of the reports are primarily descrip- communities formed largely through railroad tive, providing an account of the work camp’s construction and operation; drawing on more location, visible archaeological features, and recent studies, Kennedy (this issue) expands observed artifacts. This provides a rich corpus on this analysis to highlight patterns and local of primary observations for comparative analy- variations in railroad workers’ diet. sis, and since the 1970s archaeologists have While artifact-focused studies of railroad successfully drawn on these descriptive reports worker sites have tended to emphasize material to develop taxonomic studies of the mate- culture unique to Chinese immigrants, several rial culture of Chinese immigrants in North recent projects have emphasized the importance America, including guides for ceramics (Chace of Chinese railroad camps to working-class 1976; Evans 1980), opium paraphernalia (Etter history and the formation of the capitalist 1980; Wylie and Fike 1993), and gaming- world system. In a programmatic archaeological related artifacts (Jolly 2012). Additionally, the research design for work camps, the California study of Chinese railroad worker sites affords Department of Transportation (2013:8) notes opportunities for fine-grained chronological that, from 1848 to 1941, most new migrants comparison. Sando and Felton (1993) noted and immigrants to the American West par- that Double Happiness–pattern rice bowls pre- ticipated in work camps at some point in vailed in camps in the 1860s, being replaced their lives, yet for “most of the 19th century, by Bamboo-pattern rice bowls after about 1870. neither the government nor private companies Similarly, Akin, Bard, and Weisz (this issue) made any concerted effort to document the note that the temporal control afforded by state’s transient labor force or its work camps.” railroad worker camps enables refined models Such camps, including those used by railroad of the import of Asian coins to North America. workers, were “integral parts of profit-driven Researchers have also used evidence from enterprises and often were the direct result of Chinese railroad worker camps as a point of large expenditures of capital. ... The economy comparison with daily life in historic Chi- of work camps involved the flow not only natowns, which had greater diversity in age, of capital and commodities but also of the gender, and class. Felton and colleagues (Felton workers themselves” (California Department of et al. 1984; Sando and Felton 1993) note that, Transportation 2013:10). In this context, Chi- while ceramic assemblages at Chinese railroad nese railroad camps share characteristics with worker sites are dominated by inexpensive work camps associated with other industries in Double Happiness– and Bamboo-pattern rice the American West: a narrow economic focus; bowls, urban Chinatowns tended to include relative geographic isolation; impermanence; the more expensive porcelains decorated with and interconnections with and dependence on Winter Green and Four Seasons patterns. Wylie regional, national, and global economies (Van and Fike (1993:292) compared the relative Bueren 2002; Dixon 2014). Engaging with 16 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1) this world-system approach, Gardner (2004, opportunity for comparative archaeological 2005) has argued that regional core–periph- research on ethnicity and consumption, for the ery relationships developed within Chinese archaeological record of railroad labor contains immigrant communities in the American West: spatially discrete sites occupied by working- Chinatowns near large permanent operations, class men of different ethnic and racial groups. such as mines, functioned as core settlements, Yet, as Merritt et al. (2012) noted, the sepa- whereas peripheral Chinese settlements, such as ration of workers’ camps by ethnicity was those associated with railroad section camps, itself a process of racialization that produced, faced isolation, which is materially reflected in not simply reflected, social categories. As decreased dietary diversity and greater reliance Molenda (this issue) and Sunseri (this issue) on non-Chinese material culture. demonstrate, Chinese railroad workers were not Concern with race, ethnicity, and national- passive recipients of the racist ideologies that ity circulates throughout prior research on fostered a segregated workforce. the archaeology of Chinese railroad workers. The articles presented in this issue also But the question of how race, ethnicity, and begin to contribute to the “inside-out” per- nationality came to matter in these archaeo- spective on the historical experience of Chi- logical studies merits closer discussion. From nese railroad workers that CRWNAP scholars the beginning, archaeologists have studied the requested. Chace and Evans’s (this issue) study distinctive assemblages left by Chinese rail- of Summit Camp introduces the suite of mate- road laborers to define and describe the mate- rial culture that most Chinese railroad workers rial culture of overseas Chinese communities. used in day-to-day life, while Molenda (this Archaeological research aiming to investigate issue) questions whether such material culture assimilation, acculturation, or traditionalism can be studied to address common themes in through the study of Chinese railroad worker the archaeology of labor, such as overt and assemblages is common, but archaeologists covert resistance to capitalist ideals. Baxter have rarely considered how the commodity and Allen’s (this issue) article, also discussing chains created by railroad labor contractors Summit Camp, emphasizes the power of place and suppliers may have constrained work- in evoking the hardships and accomplishments ers’ consumption practices. It is unclear, for of Chinese laborers in the High Sierras, while example, whether the ubiquity of certain Asian Polk’s (this issue) synthesis of archaeological ceramic types at railroad work camps reflects research at the Golden Spike National Historic the preferences of the workers themselves or Site calls attention to a landscape fractured the profit-driven decisions made by the labor by corporate greed and ethnic and religious contractors, railroad suppliers, and their import/ divisions. Furnis and Maniery’s (this issue) export partners. work presents a methodology for differentiating Emergent capitalist enterprises throughout activity areas within ephemeral work camps. the 19th-century American West recruited Sunseri’s (this issue) study of Chinese labor- their workforces from diverse local, regional, ers at Mono Mills documents the interconnec- national, and international populations (Dixon tions forged between Chinese immigrants and 2014; Sunseri, this issue; Urbaniak and Dixon, Native American Paiutes, while Urbaniak and this issue). Workers were often organized into Dixon’s (this issue) report on rock inscriptions ethnically distinct work groups—at times, as documents the presence of Chinese, Japanese, the opening vignette of this article indicates, in and European immigrant workers in railroad- order to deliberately divide workers from each associated labor contexts. other and suppress labor organizing. The Cen- Other contributions move beyond site- tral Pacific Railroad’s approach to staffing the specific research, bringing together evidence construction of the first transcontinental was from multiple work camps and, in some cases, particularly significant in forging and codify- multiple railroads. Akin, Bard, and Weisz (this ing this ethnic contract-labor system during the issue) analyzed Asian coins from railroad early stages of industrial development in the worker sites on the NPRR, noting the uses American West. Briggs (1974) and MacNaugh- of such coins to promote health, bring good ton (2012) note that this practice provides an luck, and for gambling. Kennedy (this issue) BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 17 traces dietary practices through comparative of the industrial age, 19th-century railroads in analysis of animal-bone studies, challenging the American West were built with manual stereotyped historical accounts with evidence labor. Brush clearing, grubbing, grading, tun- of local variation. Heffner (this issue) examines neling, bridging, track laying—all of these health-related artifacts, affording an entry point relied primarily on human muscle. Most of the into ways that railroad workers managed the construction work was painstakingly completed physical stress of their work, as well as their with hand tools under time pressures driven by vulnerabilities to exposure and disease. Harrod profit motives and government incentives. The and Crandall (this issue) presents the findings pride of work that many laborers rightfully of bioarchaeological research, revealing not felt at their accomplishments was shadowed only the physical toll caused by hard labor, by a tremendous loss of life caused by work but also the impact of interethnic violence on accidents, environmental exposure, illness, and individual life histories. This thematic issue interethnic violence. To fulfill their obligations, closes with two commentaries. Praetzellis and labor contractors and work-gang headmen Praetzellis (this issue) and Chung (this issue) on the first transcontinental often maintained note the value, and the current limitations, a pool of able-bodied camp followers who of the rich, place-based, descriptive evidence could replace injured and dead workers at a generated by archaeology. Both commentaries moment’s notice (Hoffmann 1879:221−225; encourage archaeologists to reach beyond the Barth 1964; Saxton 1971:60−66). The Central discipline to work closely with descendant Pacific and most other railroads did not keep communities in North America and in China records of Chinese construction casualties as sources of new, interesting questions for (Ambrose 2000:156; N. Lee 2002; I. Chang future research. 2003:59). Many historical texts estimate that as many as 1,000 to 1,500 Chinese workers The Other Materialities lost their lives in construction of the first of Chinese Railroad Workers transcontinental alone, which, if correct, would indicate a death rate of around 1 in 10 work- The research presented in this thematic issue ers (Kraus 1969a; Saxton 1971; Yen 1976; Tsai is a strong beginning for an ongoing collabora- 1986). For years following the completion of tion that will open new research directions in the first transcontinental, veteran railroad work- the years to come. Along with conventional ers journeyed back to the Sierra to search for archaeological survey, excavation, artifact the human remains of their lost colleagues studies, and data analysis, plans are underway in a practice called jup seen you (retrieving for geographic information systems, digital deceased friends) (I. Chang 2003:63−64). In humanities archives, and three-dimensional light of the precariousness of workers’ bodies, visualizations that can integrate archaeological, seemingly mundane results of archaeologi- archival, pictorial, geographic, oral-history, and cal research—traces of shelter, nourishment, cultural-studies sources. Transnational research medicine, and pain-numbing opium—take on partnerships promise to forge unprecedented heightened significance as efforts to care for collaboration between historical archaeologists one’s own and one’s fellows in a dangerous in the United States and scholars in related environment. fields in Asia. The government incentives that rewarded As archaeologists and others develop new speed of railroad construction without regard methods and new questions for analyzing the to worker safety no doubt contributed to the archaeological landscapes, features, architectural callous disregard for life shown by railroad traces, dietary remains, and fragmented mate- magnates and construction bosses. The profits rial traces of Chinese railroad workers, it is from railroad construction—and the financing equally important to consider other materialities schemes that developed around it—were con- of railroad labor that are rarely represented in siderable indeed (Riegel 1926; Saxton 1971; the archaeological record of laborers’ camps. Mayer and Vose 1975; White 2011). It is no The first is the bodies of the workers them- coincidence that the Chinese Railroad Workers selves. Although widely heralded as a vanguard in North America Project began at Stanford 18 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1)
University, which was founded by Leland and (Figure 4). The lavish landscape and monu- Jane Stanford with the wealth that they had mental architecture of the campus are one of amassed through the construction of the Central many Gilded Age materialities that should be Pacific Railroad and their related economic and credited to Chinese workers. political enterprises. Leland Stanford had a par- Few Chinese railroad workers became ticularly contradictory relationship with Chinese wealthy themselves. Paid less than most immigration: early in his political career, he white workers and responsible for their own supported legislation to restrict Chinese immi- room and board, they had few financial gration, referring to Chinese immigrants as “an resources and often owed considerable debts inferior race” (Stanford 1862). Yet as one of to immigration recruiters and labor contractors the “Big Four” owners of the Central Pacific (Griswold 1962:118−119; Chiu 1967:46−47; Railroad, he reversed his anti-immigrant stance Kraus 1969b:217; Saxton 1971:60−66; Dan- only two years later, at one point suggesting iels 1988:19; Williams 1988:97−98; White that it would be good if a half-million more 2011:294−297). For some, however, railroad Chinese immigrated to the United States (Wil- construction led to steady careers in railroad liams 1988:97). The self-interested opportunism operations (Southern Pacific Company Bureau of this reversal is revealed by Stanford’s later of News 1917; Chiu 1967); for others, sav- support of the 1892 Geary Act, which extended ings from their wages enabled them to pay off and strengthened exclusion of Chinese immi- loans, support their kin in North America and grants (Tsai 1986). Throughout these politi- China, and start small businesses that afforded cal machinations, the Stanfords continued to greater stability and self-determination (Kraus employ hundreds of Chinese workers at their 1969a; Cassel 2002). This opportunity to earn ranches and vineyards, as well as in the con- and invest wages, however small, is another struction and operation of Stanford University significant materiality of Chinese railroad
FIGURE 4. The other materialities of Chinese railroad workers: entrance to the main quadrangle at Stanford University. (Photo by author, 2012.) BARBARA L. VOSS—The Historical Experience of Labor 19 laborers’ historical experience. In the American both discussants at the workshop, contributed West, the business districts of towns and cities key perspectives that shaped the direction of were transformed by expanding Chinatowns, this thematic issue. Funding for the workshop fueled by businesses supplying workers and was provided by several Stanford University supplies to the railroad construction projects, programs, including the Office of the President, as well as new businesses started by former the Department of Anthropology, the Stanford railroad workers (Chiu 1967; Tsai 1986; Chan Archaeology Center, the Department of History, 1991:30). In China, remittances from railroad the American Studies Program, International workers and other migrants transformed the and Comparative Area Studies, the Center for landscape of 19th-century Guangdong Prov- East Asian Studies, and Ming’s Chinese Cui- ince, sponsoring public works, such as schools, sine and Bar. orphanages, hospitals, assembly halls, roads, The review of prior archaeological research bridges, and even railroads (Dehua 1999). presented in this introduction relied heavily The workers who built the railroads con- on unpublished reports and hard-to-find docu- structed far more than a new means of com- ments that members of the Archaeology Net- mercial transportation. The identities and work shared with the CRWNAP. At Historical communities they formed reshaped the fabric Archaeology, Rebecca Allen (past editor), Joe of social life in the Americas and China, and W. Joseph (past editor), Christopher Matthews the wealth generated by their labor continues (current editor), and Richard Schaefer (copy to influence commerce, education, and philan- editor) provided support and guidance through- thropy today. Through the study of the material out the publication process. I am especially objects, residues, and places that the railroad grateful to Keren He, who translated the titles workers left behind, archaeology provides a and abstracts into Chinese, to Hsinya Huang tangible point of entry into these dense webs and her colleagues at National Sun Yat-sen of political machinations, economic relations, University in Taiwan for proofreading the cultural meanings, and historical experiences. Chinese titles and abstracts, and to Corey Johnson and Laura Daly, who assisted with Acknowledgments various stages of manuscript preparation. My final thanks are to the contributing authors. My first thanks are to Gordon H. Chang and I am truly fortunate to have such wonderful Shelley Fisher Fishkin, codirectors of the Chi- colleagues. nese Railroad Workers in North America Proj- ect, for so warmly welcoming me and fellow References archaeologists into this exciting collaborative project. CRWNAP Associate Director Hilton Ambrose, Stephen E. Obenzinger and Director of Research Denise 2000 Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863−1869. Simon Khor have been especially helpful in work- & Schuster, New York, NY. ing through the details of archaeological par- ticipation. Lynn Meskell graciously offered the Anderson, Adrienne B. Stanford Archaeology Center as host institution 1983 Ancillary Construction on Promontory Summit Utah: Those Domestic Structures Built by Railroad Workers. for the October 2013 workshop of the Archae- In Forgotten Places and Things: Archaeological ology Network of the CRWNAP. Megan Kane Perspectives on American History, A. E. Ward, editor, served as workshop local-arrangements chair, pp. 225–238. Center for Anthropological Studies, Chris Lowman as information officer, and Albuquerque, NM. Christina MacDonald as note taker. Stanford Bain, David H. University staff Ellen Christensen, Lancy Eng, 1999 Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Julie Hitchcock, Jen Kidwell, Monica Moore, Railroad. Penguin, New York, NY. Laura Rossi, and Beth Stutsman contributed invaluable assistance in workshop planning and Barth, Gunther 1964 Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the organization, and several Stanford student vol- United States, 1850−1870. Harvard University Press, unteers assisted with registration and workshop Cambridge, MA. logistics. Phil Choy and Connie Young Yu, 20 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1)
Briggs, Alton King Chinn, Thomas W., Him Mark Lai, 1974 The Archaeology of 1882 Labor Camps on the and Philip P. Choy (editors) Southern Pacific Railroad, Val Verde County, Texas. 1969 A History of the Chinese in California: A Syllabus. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco, University of Texas, Austin. CA.
Buckles, William G. Chiu, Ping 1983 Models for Railroad Construction-Related Sites in the 1967 Chinese Labor in California, 1850−1880. State West. In Forgotten Places and Things: Archaeological Historical Society of Wisconsin/Department of Perspectives on American History, A. E. Ward, editor, History, University of Wisconsin, Madison. pp. 213−223. Center for Anthropological Studies, Albuquerque, NM. Chung, Sue Fawn 2003 The Chinese and Green Gold: Lumbering in the California Department of Transportation Sierras. Report to Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, 2013 Work Camps: Historic Context and Archaeological Carson Ranger District, Passport in Time, Carson Research Design. Prepared by HARD Work Camps City, NV, from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Team and California Department of Transportation Staff, Sacramento, for California Department of Clark, George T. Transportation, Sacramento. 1931 Leland Stanford: War Governor of California, Railroad Builder and Founder of Stanford University. Cassel, Susie Lan Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. 2002 To Inscribe the Self Daily: The Discovery of the Ah Quin Diary. In The Chinese in America: A History Conner, Carl E., and Nicole Darnell from Gold Mountain to the New Millennium, S. L. 2012 Archaeological Investigation of Site 5ME7351.1, Cassel, editor, pp. 54−74. AltaMira Press, Walnut Excelsior Train Station, Mesa County, Colorado. Creek, CA. Report to Colorado Historical Society State Historical Fund and the Bureau of Land Management, Grand Chace, Paul G. Junction, from Dominquez Archaeological Research 1976 Overseas Chinese Ceramics. In The Changing Faces of Group, Grand Junction, CO. Manuscript, Colorado Main Street: San Buenaventura Mission Plaza Project Historical Society, Office of Archaeology and Historic Archaeological Report, 1975, R. S. Greenwood, Preservation, Denver. editor, pp. 510−530. City of San Buenaventura Redevelopment Agency, Ventura, CA. Daniels, Roger 1988 Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United Chace, Paul G., and William S. Evans, Jr. States since 1850. University of Washington Press, 1969 Celestial Sojourners in the High Sierras: The Seattle. Ethno-Archaeology of Chinese Railroad Workers (1865−1868). Paper presented at the Second Dehua, Zheng Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater 1999 Taishan. In The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Archaeology, Tucson, AZ. L. Pan, editor, pp. 36−37. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Chan, Sucheng 1991 Asian Americans: An Interpretive History. Twayne, Deverell, William New York, NY. 1994 Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850−1910. University of California Press, Berkeley. Chang, Gordon H. 2001 Asian Americans and Politics: An Exploration. Dixon, Kelly J. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. 2014 Historical Archaeologies of the American West. 2008 Asian American Art: A History, 1850−1970. Stanford Journal of Archaeological Research 22(3):177−228. University Press, Stanford CA. Etter, Patricia A. Chang, Iris 1980 The West Coast Chinese and Opium Smoking. In 2003 The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Penguin, Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: New York, NY. Afro-American and Asian American Culture History, R. L. Schuyler, editor, pp. 97−101. Baywood, Chew, William F. Farmingdale, NY. 2004 Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental. Trafford, Victoria, BC. Evans, William S. 1980 Food and Fantasy: Material Culture of the Chinese Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project in California and the West, circa 1850−1900. 2012 About Our Project. Chinese Railroad Workers in In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in North America Project, Stanford University
Fedick, Scott L., and Lyle M. Stone Heath, Earle 1988 Working on the Railroad: Social and Organizational 1927 From Trail to Rail: The Story of the Beginning Aspects of an Historic Work Camp of the Southern of the Southern Pacific. Southern Pacific Bulletin Pacific Railroad near Maricopa, Arizona. Paper 15(5):9−12. presented at the 21st Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, Reno, Nevada. Hoffmann, Hemmann 1879 Californien, Nevada und Mexico: Wanderungen eines Felton, David L., Frank Lortie, and Peter D. Schulz Polytechnikers (California, Nevada and Mexico: A 1984 The Chinese Laundry on Second Street: Archaeological polytechnic’s wanderings). Hugo Richter, Basel, Investigations at the Woodland Opera House Site. Germany. California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Archaeological Reports, No. 24. Howard, Robert W. Sacramento. 1962 The Great Iron Trail: The Story of the First Trans- Continental Railroad. Bonanza, New York, NY. Fishkin, Shelley Fisher 2005 Crossroads of Cultures: The Transnational Turn in Huang, Annian American Studies. American Quarterly 57(1):17−57. 2006 The Silent Spikes: Chinese Laborers and the Construction of North American Railroads. China Gardner, A. Dudley Intercontinental Press, Beijing, China. 2004 The Chinese in Wyoming: Life in the Core and Peripheral Communities. In Ethnic Oasis: The Jolly, Elyse Chinese in the Black Hills: South Dakota History, L. 2012 Chinese Gaming in the Nineteenth-Century American Zhu and R. Estep, editors, pp. 86–96. South Dakota West: An Ethnic and Cultural Reassessment. Master’s Historical Society Press, Pierre. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of 2005 Cores and Peripheries: Chinese Communities in Nevada, Reno. Southwestern Wyoming, 1869−1922. Wyoming Archaeologist 49(1):19−39. Kraus, George 1969a Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Gardner, A. Dudley, Barbara Clarke, Pacific. Utah Historical Quarterly 37(1):41−57. and Lynn Harrell 1969b High Road to Promontory: Building the Central 2002 Final Report for the Aspen Section Camp 48UT660 Pacific (Now the Southern Pacific) across the High and the Associated Union Pacific Railroad Grade Sierra. American West, Palo Alto, CA. 48UT668. Report to Wyoming Bureau of Land Management, Cheyenne, from Western Wyoming Landreth, Keith, Keo Boreson, Community College, Rock Springs. and Mary Condon (editors) 1985 Archaeological Investigations at the Cabinet Landing Greenwood, Roberta S. Site (10BR413). Eastern Washington University 1993 Old Approaches and New Directions: Implications Reports in Archaeology and History, Report Number for Future Research. In Hidden Heritage: Historical 100-45. Cheney. Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese, P. Wegars, editor, pp. 375−403. Baywood, Amityville, NY. Lee, Jane M. 2008 “Fidelity and Industry”: The Archaeology of a Late- Griswold, Wesley S. Nineteenth Century Chinese Woodcutter Camp in 1962 A Work of Giants: Building the First Transcontinental Dog Valley, California. Master’s thesis, Department Railroad. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.
Gust, Sherri M. Lee, Nancy S. 1993 Animal Bones from Historic Urban Chinese Sites: 2002 Telling Their Own Stories: Chinese Canadian A Comparison of Sacramento, Woodland, Tucson, Biography as a Historical Genre. In The Chinese Ventura, and Lovelock. In Hidden Heritage: in America: A History from Gold Mountain to the Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese, P. New Millennium, S. L. Cassel, editor, pp. 106−121. Wegars, editor, pp. 177−212. Baywood, Amityville, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. NY. MacNaughton, James W. Hallaran, Kevin B., Karen K. Swope, 2012 A Historical Investigation of Changing Ethnicity and and Philip J. Wilke Consumption Patterns at the Union Pacific Railroad 1989 Historical and Archaeological Documentation of a Section Camp of Peru (48SW3795): How Changing Construction Camp (“China Camp”) on the San Diego Ethnicity Can Be Interpreted in a Nineteenth Century & Arizona Railway, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Railroad Landscape. Master’s thesis, Department of San Diego County, California. Report to California Anthropology and Sociology, Illinois State University, Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, Normal. from Archaeological Research Unit, University of California, Riverside. 22 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 49(1)
Maniery, Mary L. Ross, Douglas E. 2004 The Archaeology of Asian Immigrants: Thirty-Five 2013 Overseas Chinese Archaeology. In Encyclopedia Years in the Making. SAA Archaeological Record of Global Archaeology, Claire Smith, editor, pp. 4(5):10−13. 5675–5686. Springer, New York, NY.
Mayer, Lynn R., and Kenneth Vose Sando, Ruth Ann, and David L. Felton 1975 Makin’ Tracks: The Story of the Transcontinental 1993 Inventory Records of Ceramics and Opium from Railroad in the Pictures and Words of the Men Who a Nineteenth Century Chinese Store in California. Were There. Praeger, New York, NY. In Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese, P. Wegars, editor, pp. 151−176. Merritt, Christopher W. Baywood, Amityville, NY. 2010 “The Coming Man from Canton”: Chinese Experience in Montana (1862−1943). Doctoral dissertation, Saxton, Alexander Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, 1971 Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Missoula. University Microfilms International, Ann Movement. University of California Press, Berkeley. Arbor, MI. 2013 The Continental Backwaters of Chinese Railroad Schuyler, Robert L. (editor) Worker History and Archaeology: Perspectives 1980 Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: from Montana and Utah. Paper presented at the Afro-American and Asian American Culture History. Archaeology Network Workshop of the Chinese Baywood, Farmingdale, NY. Railroad Workers in North America Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Scott, Elizabeth M. (editor) 1994 Those of Little Note: Gender, Race, and Class in Merritt, Christopher W., Gary Weisz, Historical Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, and Kelly J. Dixon Tucson. 2012 “Verily the Road was Built with Chinaman’s Bones”: An Archaeology of Chinese Line Camps in Montana. Smith, Carrie E., and Kelly J. Dixon International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2005 Determination of Eligibility for Inclusion in the 16(4):666−695. National Register of Historic Places of 19 Historic Sites within the Heavenly Ski Resort, Douglas County, Molenda, John Nevada, Report No. R2004-0519-00048. Manuscript, 2013 Aesthetically-Oriented Archaeology. Paper presented U.S. Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management at the Archaeology Network Workshop of the Chinese Unit, South Lake Tahoe, CA, and Heavenly Ski Resort, Railroad Workers in North America Project, Stanford South Lake Tahoe, CA. University, Stanford, CA. Southern Pacific Company Bureau of News Nordhoff, Charles 1917 Japanese and Chinese Section Hands Aid in Liberty 1874 California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence. A Loan. Bulletin 5(21):2. Book for Travellers and Settlers. Harper & Brothers, New York, NY. Stanford, Leland 1862 Inaugural Address, Delivered: January 10, 1862. Polk, Mike R., and Wendy Simmons Johnson Governors’ Gallery, California State Library
Stone, Lyle M., and Scott L. Fedick Weisz, Gary 1990 The Archaeology of Two Historic Homestead and 2003 Stepping Light: Revisiting the Construction Camps Railroad-Related Sites on the Southern Pacific on the Lake Pend d’Oreille and Clark Fork Division Main Line near Mobile, Maricopa County, AZ. of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 1879−1883, 3 vols. Report to Dibble and Associates, Phoenix, AZ, from Manuscript, Idaho State Preservation Office, Boise. Archaeological Resources Services, Inc., Tempe, AZ. White, Richard Tsai, Shih-shan Henry 2011 Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making 1986 The Chinese Experience in America. Indiana of Modern America. W. W. Norton, New York, NY. University Press, Bloomington. Williams, John Hoyt Turner, Arnie L. 1988 A Great and Shining Road: The Epic Story of the 1982 The History and Archaeology of Fenelon, a Historic Transcontinental Railroad. University of Nebraska Railroad Camp. Bureau of Land Management, Press, Lincoln. Archaeological Studies in the Cortez Mining District, Technical Report No. 8. Reno, NV. Wrobleski, David E. 1996 The Archaeology of Chinese Work Camps on the U. S. Congress Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Master’s thesis, 1877 Report of the Joint Special Committee to Investigate Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Chinese Immigration. 44th Congress, 2nd session, Reno. Senate Report No. 689. Washington, DC. Wylie, Jerry, and Richard E. Fike United States Pacific Railway Commission 1993 Chinese Opium Smoking Techniques and 1887 Testimony Taken by the United States Pacific Railway Paraphernalia. In Hidden Heritage: Historical Commission, 9 vol. 50th Congress, 1st session, Senate. Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese, P. Wegars, Washington, DC. editor, pp. 255−303. Baywood, Amityville, NY.
Van Bueren, Thad M. Yen, Tzu Kuei 2002 The Changing Face of Work in the West: Some 1976 Chinese Workers and the First Transcontinental Introductory Comments. Historical Archaeology Railroad of the United States of America. Doctoral 36(3):1−7. dissertation, Department of Asian Studies, St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY. University Microfilms Voss, Barbara L. International, Ann Arbor, MI. 2005 The Archaeology of Overseas Chinese Communities. World Archaeology 37(3):424−439. Zier, Charles D. 1985 Archaeological Data Recovery Associated with the Voss, Barbara L., and Rebecca Allen Mt. Hope Project, Eureka County, Nevada. Bureau 2008 Overseas Chinese Archaeology: Historical of Land Management, Cultural Resource Series, No. Foundations, Current Reflections, and New 8. Reno, NV. Directions. Historical Archaeology 42(3):5−28. Barbara L. Voss Wegars, Priscilla (editor) Department of Anthropology 1993 Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese. Baywood, Amityville, NY. Stanford University 450 Serra Mall, Main Quad, Building 50 Stanford, CA 94305-2034