Already on the CCC Camps here on the Sequoia NF in California. Gave a paper at SCA this month on the Havilah camp and you can find some info here that was posted on external links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps
Mark Howe
Sequoia National Forest / Arizona State University
"Life is how you make it, the future is how you leave your past."
> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:22:19 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The Southeast US Archaeologically Speaking
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> When there were federally funded projects during the Great Depression, as
> with the WPA program , the field of historical archaeology really was poorly
> defined. We need to keep in mind how truly young this branch of archaeology is
> in relation to the heavy emphasis placed upon prehistoric archaeology.
>
> The program in which I enrolled at the Royal Presidio de San Diego
> (California and only 30-years after the Depression) focused on architecture, buried
> features, and the only artifacts recovered were those noticed while digging or
> dumping the backdirt. My own professor was puzzled by my insistence on
> mapping all the little things according to colored soil layers. Then he was amused
> my students trying to make sense out of the Majolica pottery, various shapes
> of bricks, and small items like pins and needles. The shift from
> architectural sequencing to the study of artifacts, behavioral implications, and
> clustering of items within spatial units came later. I would venture a guess that not
> too many Depression era sites were documented by the WPA since they were
> being created as part of the process at the time. And how many archaeologists on
> those River Basin Surveys could tell the difference between 1930s and 1830s
> dish fragments? The concepts of studying the common "man" or ethnicities or
> gender simply did not exist at that time. In truth, there needs to be a
> Section 110 re-survey of what survived of those River Basin Survey areas to study
> the historical archaeology (as we define it today). So whaddya say, Jason?
>
> Oh, and before I forget, the actual camps of the surveyors ought to be
> studied too. At one of the Pecos Conferences I attended in the 1970s, someone gave
> a paper on the documentation of a 1920s archaeology camp. I recall seeing
> photos of partially disintegrated chairs, foil food wrappers, and a count of the
> beverage bottle types consumed by the archaeologists. I went away thinking
> that paper really should be published. And now I am thinking all those WPA,
> CCC, and NRA camps would prove interesting.
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>
>
> In a message dated 3/26/2009 10:18:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Bob,
>
> I think if we were on a prehistoric listserve, I would agree with you, but
> considering the historical impact of the region in terms of meaty historical
> archaeology themes, like slavery, this area is not well studied
> archaeologically. (of course, I'm considering Virginia & South Carolina,
> Maryland, as really Mid-Atlantic and not Southeastern )
>
> However, the importance of the old Black Belt, or Cotton Belt to the spread
> of Slavery and the lasting effects of that institution is undeniable, and
> yet not that much work has been done in this Southern heartland compared to
> the Mid Atlantic or even the upland South.
>
> Jason asked Why. I think it is precisely due to what Bob referred to. The
> Southeast has been a bastion for
> "Mound builder" archaeology for so long, that there has been little room in
> academic departments for good historical archaeology to take root, which in
> practice is very different in many ways, than the older Southeastern
> tradition in archaeology. Here's the simple truth, graduate students and
> professors often tend to study what is near at hand, hence we know an awful
> lot about Tidewater Virginia.
>
> Anyway, as a participant observer, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
> I do believe that once historical archaeologists make inroads into these
> Southern Colleges, there will be an amazing advance in our knowledge of
> topics like the spread and impact of slavery on the southern culture.
> This is truly an void crying out to be filled! Historical archaeologists
> are nibbling all around the edges, but few have taken a big bite out of the
> southern hearland, the black belt area!
>
>
>
> Linda Derry
> Site Director
> Old Cahawba
> 719 Tremont St.
> Selma, AL 36701
> ph. 334/875-2529
> fax. 334/877-4253
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 11:15 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The Southeast US Archaeologically Speaking
>
> I do not believe that the Southeast is the least known archaeological. It
> is probably only second to the southwest as the best known area of the
> nation.
> I was amazed that you felt the central part of the country (Plains) to be
> better known. A lot of archarchaeology started there as the result of the
> River Basin Surveys in the 1930s, but have they yet to agree on a standard
> chronology and terminology? Since that is an area of present day
> emmigration, not
> as much CRM is called for. What about the Pacific Northwest? There the
> climate and vegetation work against archaeology. It is buried deep or has
> dense
> ground cover.
>
> Sticking strictly to historical archaeology, how about all the colonial and
> Civil War reseaerch in the Southeast? If you are from that area, you are
> truly blessed with the wealth of data.
>
> Bob Hoover
>
>
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