LIFE IN AN INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CABIN B AT THE COWELL LIME WORKS HISTORIC DISTRICT, SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA by Patricia L. Paramoure A thesis submitted to Sonoma State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in Cultural Resources Management i Copyright 2012 By Patricia L. Paramoure ii AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS I grant permission for the print or digital reproduction of this thesis in its entirety, without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgment of authorship. DATE:_______________________ ____________________________________ Signature ____________________________________ Street Address ____________________________________ City, State, Zip iii LIFE IN AN INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CABIN B AT THE COWELL LIME WORKS HISTORIC DISTRICT, SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA Thesis by Patricia L. Paramoure ABSTRACT Purpose of the Study: This thesis is based on the excavations carried out at Cabin B to investigate the foundation for the Friends of the Cowell Lime Works volunteers who are restoring the cabin, to recover a range of artifacts left by the occupants of the cabin, and through the analysis and interpretation of those artifacts, to learn more about the daily lives and domestic behavior of the lime workers who lived there. The primary goal of this thesis is to analyze and interpret the Cabin B archaeological collection and related data to learn more about the workers at this complex. This archaeological assemblage consists of the material remains of the daily lives of the lime workers and can contribute information about rural industrial life in California in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This thesis attempts to fill a void in the scholarship concerning the ordinary workers in the Santa Cruz lime industry, who are important because of lime’s significance to the economic and cultural background of the Santa Cruz area. Procedure: Except for the minimal information provided by United States Bureau of the Census documents, history has told us little about these workers. However, additional information provided by other types of historic documents contribute to an investigation of daily life at the ranch and of the lives of individual workers. Oral histories with Cowell employees and their descendants are another valuable resource. The information contained in the archival sources is compared and contrasted with information in the archaeological record, analyzed with the Sonoma Historic Artifact Research Database (SHARD), to show how archaeology can enhance our knowledge of history by supplementing this information, and by substantiating or refuting the information in the historic record. Findings: The findings chapter brings the historical research and archaeological investigation and analysis together in an interpretive framework in order to bring out the meanings and significance of the results of the examination of Cabin B at the Cowell Lime Works National Historic District. I use the results of the Cabin B investigation to compare and contrast this site with other sites at the Cowell Lime Works and with an iv additional site, the Alabama Gates Camp on the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and use this information to reveal more about the lives of the ordinary workers in the Santa Cruz lime industry. My work has contributed to the archaeological and historical trend of the investigation of “households that are poorly documented” (California Department of Transportation 2008:179). Conclusions: I have added substantial personal information about some of the workers that was gathered from historic documents, and used an analysis of the artifact assemblage to view the lives of the residents at Cabin B in more detail. I have uncovered much information about the laborers in the lime industry in Santa Cruz County, the cultures of their homelands, and their daily lives as immigrant laborers in California. Through the comparison of the lives of the Cowell Ranch workers and the Alabama Gates laborers on the Los Angeles Aqueduct, I have exposed similarities and differences between these two groups and the work they did. Although the settings and the nationalities of the men differed, the evidence from the archaeological assemblages shows many similarities among the two groups of workers. The research questions that are the focus of this thesis, when applied to both assemblages, suggest that the daily lives of young, immigrant, single working-class men during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in California, no matter where they were located, were comparable. The similarities and differences in their lives, in many instances, may have been related to the different levels of social control that pertained to the two living situations. Chair: Signature MA Program: Cultural Resources Management Sonoma State University Date: ______________ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee chair, Dr. Adrian Praetzellis, for his instruction and guidance during my years in the Master’s program at Sonoma State University and for his hard work helping me with the thesis process. I would like to thank committee member, Dr. Michelle Jolly for her advice on writing and her historian’s perspective, which has been so important for this project. Committee member, Erica Gibson, of the Anthropological Studies Center, has been a great lab teacher and has been very patient with my many questions. She has also given much help with the database and tables. Sally Morgan is more than a committee member. She is my mentor and my good friend. Sally has been 100% supportive from the moment I mentioned to her my desire to attend graduate school and has encouraged my every endeavor. Her recommendations for CRM work have been invaluable to my professional development. I would also like to thank my Graduate School Cohort (Stacey, Alden, Jules, Evan, and Jessica) for sharing the graduate school experience with me. There are so many people who have assisted with this project in some way, it is impossible to thank them all here, so I will mention those who made significant contributions. I would especially like to thank Dr. Margaret Purser for being a sounding board and for challenging me to think about new angles and most of all, to push myself. I owe special gratitude to Michael Stoyka of the Anthropological Studies Center for the faunal analysis of the bone material from the Cabin B assemblage. Frank Perry’s help and support has been unending and very much appreciated. In addition to the analysis of the shell from Cabin B, he has shared sources and photos and friendship. In addition, he is the primary author of Lime Kiln Legacies, the best source out there on the history of lime in Santa Cruz. Fellow archaeological society board members Ann Ramage, Lyn O’Niel, Kären Johansson, and Cat Nichols generously gave many, many hours of their time. UC Santa Cruz interns Pippa Baker-Rabe, Ianna Angelo, David Poole, Allie Bender, Marina Nelson, Bianka Estrada, and Josh Bowman lent their time and much enthusiasm to the project. Christina Powell has been invaluable in her help cleaning up the database, and in other important aspects of the laboratory process, and she has also become a good friend. Other friends Susan Carter, Sheila Prader, Sarah Brewer, Kelly Dell’Acqua, Esther and Mike Kenner, Jay Todd, and Spencer Frasher also lent their assistance. My family’s, (husband, Mike, and kids, Cassie and Andrew) love and support during my three years at grad school has helped keep me going, and my mom, Carol, has been of immense value as in-house editor and by being a good listener to my ramblings. I would also like to thank Mary Gerbic and Annamarie Leon-Guerrero, who patiently answered my many questions about the Sonoma CRM graduate program, and encouraged me to apply. In addition, I would like to extend my deep gratitude to Angela Locke for her companionship and wonderful friendship, and to Gina D’Ambrogi for being a friend and for giving me a home away from home in Cotati. Alden Neel, who was concurrently writing his thesis, was there whenever I needed someone to commiserate with or had questions. Thank you to Dustin McKenzie of Cabrillo College for allowing me to work in vi the modular building, where it is much quieter than at home, and I was able to work uninterrupted, keep all my sources there, and spread my things around. And finally, many thanks to Rob Edwards and Charr Simpson-Smith, retired, Cabrillo College, for helping me to initiate this long journey into the post-graduate world and giving me much encouragement along the way. I would like to thank Ginny Hagensieker, David Pierce, and Sally Morgan for their map work. Branden Melendez made a beautiful computer drawing of Cabin B, as it may have looked when occupied, based on a ca. 1910 photo of the Cowell lime complex. Carol Paramoure, Evan Elliott, Cat Nichols, Nancy Rivera, and Frank Perry all helped with the seemingly unending editing. Sally Morgan was an immense help with the site description, and Ann Ramage did many hours of genealogy research. Robert Douglass shared many sources on the historic use of lime and his MA Thesis on logging on the Northern California Coast. My husband, Mike Boyd, gave much assistance with the tables and graphs. The Staff at the SSU library and the UCSC McHenry Library Special Collections have been wonderful and very supportive. My hat is off to all of you!! It takes a village to write a thesis! vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION………………………………...……....….…. 2 Overview……………………………...……………...………..… 2 Thesis Focus……………………………...………………........… 2 Thesis Project……………………………...……………...…...… 5 Purpose of the Study……………………………...…………....… 8 Thesis Organization……………………………...……………..… 9 The Cowell Lime Works National Historic District……………... 12 II. HISTORICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND LIME ARCHAEOLOGY.... 15 Introduction…………...……………...……………...………..….