Carl,
Jennifer Camp is studying the rise of communities around bush pilot
landing sites in Alaska. The last time I talked to her, it occurred to
me that she should look into the rise of river ports in interior Africa
during colonial expansion through 19th and early 20th centuries. Could
that work for you?
By the way, for those out there that may be interested, a few years ago
Carl gave an interesting paper on the defensive works at Dooley's Ferry
as being most successful for control of the local population than
protection from the enemy.
William E. McAlexander Jr.
Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department
Little Rock, Ar 72209
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-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carl
Carlson-Drexler
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 10:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ferry Crossings
In short, there's not a wealth of archaeological literature on ferry
crossings.
For Dooley's Ferry, it's shaping up to look like there was a small
community surrounding the ferry crossing. We've got a store, warehouse,
church (which probably doubled as a Masonic lodge), and several
residences on the east side of the river, and a number of houses on the
other side.
It's not a large settlement, but one whose position along the roads into
Texas caused it to be fortified against a possible U.S. Army movement to
take cotton lands in the Lone Star State at the end of the Civil War.
Those trenches are still quite visible on the landscape. After the war,
there were a succession of stores there that appear in the R.G. Dun &
Company Records at Harvard Business School's Baker Library. It never
grew into a large community, probably because 1) it's out in the Red
River valley, which is great agricultural land and was too valuable for
cultivation and
2) it's really, really hot here in the summers, and early settlers found
places like it to be too malarial and unpleasant to inhabit. Nearby
upland communities, such as Washington and Spring Hill, grew much
faster.
Ferry landings in general are fascinating and important parts of the
economic network. They often served as ports where cargo would be
transferred to either wagons for overland shipment or smaller watercraft
for ascent of tributaries. Anywhere where road and river met
(particularly in Arkansas, where railroad construction didn't take off
until after the Civil War) became important hubs. Dooley's Ferry was one
place where steamboats from New Orleans would call to pick up passengers
and freight.
In addition to the conflict aspect, my research focuses on commodity
flows through the region, of which Dooley's Ferry was an integral part.
It strikes me that most of the construction associated with the ferry is
on the east side of the river, though at this point that's based more on
historic maps than on archaeological data. I know that at times, the
single ferry boat was insufficient to support the influx of goods coming
in overland from Texas, so some kind of depot/storage activity would be
entirely unsurprising. The west side of the Red River at Dooley's Ferry
was an agricultural community (plantations mostly) known as the Lost
Prairie settlement. One of the things I'm looking to establish through
this work is the archaeological resources on the east side of the river.
One small problem, though, is that the first 100 yards up from the
riverbed has clearly been flood-scoured, so probably much of that has
been lost.
----
Carl G. Carlson-Drexler, MA
Department of Anthropology
College of William & Mary
[log in to unmask]
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Linda Derry <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Carl,
>
> I've never heard of an archaeological report on ferry crossings. Are
> there many? Would love to hear more about your dissertation research.
> (my email is posted below, if you chose not to answer online).
>
> I'm curious because I am involved in land purchases (& fund raising )
> to protect an entire antebellum town (town created in 1819) and need
> to justify why this protection should extend across the river to land
> that was set aside for the ferry crossing. So, If, it would be most
> helpful if I could cite some information on what is likely to remain
> there archaeologically and what activities these remains might
represent.
> Unfortunately, remains are buried under much silt from flooding, so
> this will not an easy field investigation.
>
> Most of the activities I've picked up from documents represent gun and
> knife fights over who gets to use the ferry first!
>
> Was your ferry associated with a town?
>
> 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
> Carl Carlson-Drexler
> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 8:13 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Introductions
>
> I am Carl Carlson-Drexler, a doctoral candidate at the College of
> William & Mary, the station assistant for the Arkansas Archeological
> Survey's SAU Research Station in Magnolia, and on leave from my
> position as a project archaeologist with the U.S. Army Engineer
> Research and Development Center's Construction Engineering Research
Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois. Whew!
> I've been in archaeology for 12 years, working in ten states and three
> foreign countries.
>
> I started out doing prehistoric Southwest archaeology through Grinnell
> College, but got hooked on historical through Doug Scott and Richard
> Fox's work at the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana. I went to
> Nebraska for my MA, where I worked on Pea Ridge and Wilson's Creek
> battlefields, writing up some of the research on the former for my
> thesis. My first dissertation project was going to be San Juan Hill in
> Cuba, but that encountered some paperwork issues, so I'm doing my
> dissertation on a 19th century ferry crossing in southern Arkansas
> that was integral to the antebellum economic networks of the region
> and was significantly impacted by the Civil War.
>
> ----
> Carl G. Carlson-Drexler, MA
> Department of Anthropology
> College of William & Mary
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 9:09 PM, Benjamin Carter <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Histarchers,
> >
> > Thanks to Anita, I have learned much about many folks on this
list-serve.
> > I thought I ought to repay the favor instead of just lurking.
> >
> > I am Ben Carter. I am a prehistoric(al) archaeologist and a newbie
> > historical archaeologist. I am generally a coastal archaeologist (I
> > gotta have ocean nearby!) My dissertation (Washington University in
> > St. Louis,
> > 2008) was on shell bead working on the Ecuadorian coast from c. AD
> > 800- 1532. Much of that work deals with early historical reports of
> > shell bead making and trading, especially of the famous "Spondylus"
> > (hence my email
> > address) also known as "mullu" or Inca Red Gold. So, my research was
> > always at the edge of PreColumbian/historical archaeology, but in
> > 2008, due to a serious of odd occurrences, I ended up working on a
> > small structure on the coast of Maine that was occupied between the
> > 1760s and 1811. While my previous projects continue, I am completely
> > enthralled by this particular
> > project- and only partially because we eat lunch sitting on the
> > beach with the mountains of Acadia National Park just across the
> > bay. In general, the project revolves around understanding the
"other"
> > pioneers- the ones that went east (Downeast, that is deah...
> > hopefully someone will get my Maine accent). Documentation is
> > sketchy during this time period, so it is a perfect situation for
> > historical
> archaeology.
> >
> > Beyond this, one of my central concerns is the appropriate use of
> > digital resources. As such, I have begun to create what I like to
> > call a digital ecosystem for archaeology. The purpose is to make
> > data collection easier and less prone to error, for students to be
> > able to see the use of data in the field, to integrate field and lab
> > data, and to make this available to the public (with appropriate
> > site location data removed). And, at the same time, increase
> > efficiency and reduce errror. I am a one-man show- the only
> > archaeologist at a small liberal arts college- Muhlenberg College in
> > Allentown, PA. My goal is to provide my students some of the same
> > resources that you generally find only at larger research
> > institutions. I am still in the early stages at this point, but this
> > project is coalescing- due partially to some information that I have
gleaned from this listserve (and others).
> > I could provide lots more details but will stop there. If you would
> > like
> to know more, email me off-list.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Ben Carter, PhD, RPA
> > aka spondylus.princeps
> >
> >
> > On 5/7/2012 6:09 PM, Anita Cohen-Williams wrote:
> >
> >> With so many new and old friends signing on to HISTARCH in the last
> >> few weeks, I think introductions are needed. I'll start:
> >>
> >> I am Anita Cohen-Williams, your friendly list owner and bouncer of
> >> Histarch. I have a BA in Anthropology and a Masters in Library
> >> Science. I have been running Histarch since 1994 as a discussion
> >> list on historical archaeology. I also run ArchaeoSeek
> >> (http://www.archaeoseek.com), an archaeological network, SUB-ARCH
> >> (a discussion list for underwater archaeology), and an archaeology
> >> blog, Archaeology Online ( http://archaeology.blogspot.**com
> <http://archaeology.blogspot.com>).
> >>
> >> My main business is search engine optimization (SEO) for websites
> >> and social media management.
> >>
> >> Feel free to ask me any questions, as I am now a cybrarian.
> >>
> >>
>
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