(in alphabetical order by first author's last name)
Archimede, Gianfranco—
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
"Commuting in the Copper Country: Railroads and the Company Town of Mason, Michigan"
In 1888, the Keweenaw copper range in Michigan's upper peninsula was beginning a period of great expansion. The Quincy Mining Co., one of the area's largest and most successful operations, began construction of a stamp mill on Torch Lake to accommodate a significant increase in production due to the acquisition of additional copper mines. In support of the new mill, construction of the Quincy &Torch Lake Railroad and the company town of Mason was simultaneously under way. The complex and railroad were completed and operational in 1890.
Railroads played a vital role in the development of Michigan's copper range, providing the necessary linkages for commercial mining activities by moving raw materials between local sites, shipping depots, and by delivering outside supplies and equipment. Just as important and often overlooked, however, is how they facilitated the movement of people in and out of this remote area, and locally as well.
By 1903, three railroads and one major roadway passed through Mason, all within 200 feet of the housing. This paper presents the physical layout and actual traffic patterns of these railroads to demonstrate the poor quality of life they created in this company town, through proximity, noise, air pollution, and the continuous threat of physical danger. Examination of occupation and mill employment data shows that the majority of workers at Quincy's new mill were commuters, and not Mason residents. Drawing from this example, it is clear that railroads provided new opportunities for copper country workers in light of previous decades of corporate paternalism, isolation, and social immobility. After fifty years of paternalistic hegemony, a worker's ability to commute redefined the worker/company relationship and the traditional role of the company town in Michigan's copper country.
Connors, Ned—
Edward Connors and Associated, Barrington, RI
"Deforestation and Distant Rail: The Transformation of a Rural Industrial Landscape"
Just before the Civil War a group of investors, most of whom represented Chepachet textile interests, incorporated a new rail line to serve a dozen manufacturing villages that had sprung up in northwestern Rhode Island. Chepachet and the other villages needed coal and better access to markets. This early effort to establish a rail connection failed. When finally built in the early 1870s, the line bypassed Chepachet completely.
In desperate need of steam to supplement insufficient waterpower, and now four miles distant from the nearest freight depot, Chepachet industrialists denuded the landscape of trees to feed their boilers. While late 19th century textile expansion was carried out successfully in other remote industrial villages served by rail, Chepachet struggled to maintain its share of the market. The largest mill complex grew quiet in the depression of 1893 and burned a few years later, never to be rebuilt. The one mill left standing by 1900 struck a novel arrangement with the trolley company that later extended its light rail line to the town. After the evening closing of passenger service, the trolley hauled coal to the village on gondolas c.1914-1928.
The deforestation so evident in turn-of-the-century photos of the village is now reversed. The surface remains of the mill buildings and waterways are found along the river in a forested area adjoining an historic commercial and residential district. Chepachet today would likely be unrecognizable if unreliable waterpower and failed rail service had not conspired to move the village closer to its quiet beginnings as an agricultural crossroads.
Cooleybeck, Patrick—
Moshe Safdie & Associates, Somerville, MA
"Iron ore docks of the Great Lakes"
Pocket ore docks are monumental structures used to transfer iron ore from railway cars traveling from nearby mines to ships that carry the ore to steelmaking centers or transfer points on the Lower Great Lakes. These structures were constructed from wood, steel, or reinforced concrete. The twelve pocket docks that remain today are approximately 80 feet in height, 60 feet in width, and range between 900 to 2400 feet in length. Movable steel chutes project out over the water at a slight angle from the sides of the docks. The hinged chutes, which when lowered allow ore to drop into ships from storage bins in the dock, are located at twelve-foot intervals over the length of the dock and lend a sense of scale to these massive structures
This work will present a survey of the various types of the gravity-operated pocket docks, from the first wooden dock of 1857 in Marquette, Michigan to the latest concrete dock of 1944 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The work will also present a brief look at the more recent conveyor-operated shiploading facilities built since 1956. A description of how pocket docks work and a brief history of the ore dock on the Great Lakes will be presented. Comparative drawings of wooden, steel, and concrete docks and shiploaders will be shown. A photographic survey of the existing docks on the Lakes will be presented, highlighting current conditions, structural alterations, removal of components, and threats to their future existence.
da Costa Nunes, Jadviga M.—
Muhlenberg College
"The Art of Steel: The Industry in American Art. 1880-1945"
One of the turning points in the industrial revolution was the invention of the Bessemer converter in 1856 which allowed low cost, mass produced steel. After a slow start, the steel industry advanced rapidly in America, and by 1886 the nation became the leading steel producer in the world. The center of the steel industry was Pennsylvania, since it was the location of iron ore, anthracite and bituminous coal, and it developed superior water and rail systems of transportation to facilitate steel production.
Since American in general enthusiastically supported industry and technology, American artists began to explore industrial themes early in the 19th century. They traveled to Pennsylvania to observe and record the development of the steel industry by the 1880s. These early images tend to depict the industry in accordance with traditional "machine in the garden" iconography (Wm. Wall, Pittsburgh, Bessemer Steel Co., 1884). By the turn-of-the-century the art of Whistler became a primary inspiration for artists' interpretation of the industry (A. Gorson, Pittsburgh in Winter, n.d., and Joseph Stella, Pittsburgh in Winter, 1908). The first murals of steel also date from this period (E. Abbey, State Capital Dome, 1902-08).
During the early decades of the new century the adoption of avant-garde expressions such as Cubism and Futurism enhanced artistic fascination with machines and encouraged artists to continue to represent the steel industry. Since many of the artists were based in New York, they tended again to use nearby Pennsylvania steel industries as their subject matter. The majority of their interpretations focus upon the industrial landscape, transforming the steel-producing factories into icons of timeless monumentality, rationalism, and order. Artists who portrayed the subject include: R. Crawford, Worth Steel Plant, 1936; E. Driggs, Pittsburgh, 1927, L. Lozowick, Pittsburgh, 1922, N. Spencer, Steel Country, 1937, C. Demuth, End of the Parade, Coatesville, c. 1920, F. Criss, Rhapsody in Steel, 1939.
In response to the Great Depression and its attending issues of labor strife, unemployment and a dramatic decline in the fortunes of the steel industry, an impetus to explore the human dimension of steel production arose during the 1930s and '40s among the American Scene painters. T. Benton's mural America Today, 1930 for the New School For Social Research, H. Gottleib's graphics on the steel workers (Going to Work 1941) and other muralists commissioned by the Treasury Dept. to decorate Pennsylvania post offices, convey the ordinary steel worker heroically and sympathetically. C. Carter's War Bride, 1940 and E. Hoppers, Dawn in Pennsylvania, 1942 explore them from a personal, rather than social or economic perspective.
This paper examines these representations of the steel industry in Pennsylvania from 1880 to 1945, the years in which the steel industry experienced its heyday and in which American artists demonstrated their strongest desire to record its activities. It explores the imagery both for its stylistic and thematic evolution and in relation to the economic, labor and political events which shaped the industry's development and progress. Just as important it considers the works of art in relation to the attitudes in American culture towards technology, industry and progress.
Daley, Matthew L.
University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI
"Alexander McDougall, John D. Rockefeller, and the S.S. Meteor: A case study in the rise and fall of a technological innovation, 1888-1969"
When the Duluth entrepreneur Alexander McDougall set out in late 1887 to construct a new kind of bulk freighter, he did so not only for his own profit, but to recreate the marine transport industry. This new vessel, called a "whaleback" or "pigboat" for its unusual shape had a difficult birth, a truncated period of growth, and a rapid demise from the major Great Lakes commodity system: iron ore. To carry out his "gospel of progress" McDougall, though the originator of the concept, had to rely on outside resources to construct the vessels, and to produce a workable design. This reliance on outside sources weakened not only his ability to direct the future of his creations but also his financial and business future.
Though nominally backed by John D. Rockefeller, the Panic of 1893 brought the direct involvement of the oil tycoon in the investments in Minnesota's iron mines and other ventures McDougall's benefactors had enmeshed him. This study deals with the issue of what constitutes a technological "failure": economics or design It also examines McDougall and his ships' role during the consolidation and vertical integration Great Lakes transportation system in the 1890s, and the results of Rockefeller's involvement. The last whaleback, S.S. Meteor, with its long career serves as the central artifact of this project.
Deininger, Tina A.
Northern Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Lester, PA
Rachleff, Allison S.
TAMS Consultants, New York City
"Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation: Growth and Decline of the Military-Industrial Complex"
The expansion and contraction of the American military-industrial complex can be understood through a physical examination of the World War II-era Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, New York. In the 1940s, the military subsidized the construction of government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities to help private industry meet wartime production demands. Under this program, the Navy created a GOCO at Grumman that produced renowned aircraft of the Pacific fleet, including the F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat and TBF Avenger.
During the Cold War, Grumman expanded its plant around the GOCO to diversify its client base and product range. However, the federal government remained Grumman's primary contractor, resulting in the production of the Apollo Lunar Module for NASA and the F-14 fighter for the Navy. After the Cold War, Grumman merged with Northrop Corporation as defense contractors consolidated to compete for fewer military contracts. At the same time, the Navy began the process of closing the Grumman GOCO in accordance with the military downsizing trend.
This paper will examine how the Navy influenced the architectural development of Grumman during World War II and the Cold War. It will also briefly explore the aircraft manufacturing process and variety of aerospace products produced at the Grumman QOCO from the 1940s until the creation of Northrop Grumman Corporation in 1994.
The paper will conclude with an analysis of the impact that defense consolidation and Navy transfer has had on this World War 11©era industrial landscape, and how current public policies are reshaping these landscapes formed over fifty years ago.
Durfee, Don
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
"The Portage Lake Foundry and Machine Company (Ripley, Michigan): An early mining machinery manufacturer for Michigan copper mines"
Crucial to the early development and success of the copper mining industry in the Keweenaw and the Portage Lake region of Michigan was the development of locally based mining machinery manufacturers and distributors. The most enduring and successful of these enterprises was the Portage Lake Foundry and Machine Company. The company grew, prospered and withered along with the Portage Lake copper mining industry between the 1860s and 1920s. The company designed and built mining machinery for the copper mines and later iron mines (including an existing rock crusher built about 1893 for the Soudan Mine, Tower, Minnesota). The primary products of the company included stamping equipment, stamp shoes, rock crushers, jigs and pumps. The company designed and patented many of its own products. In order to stay competitive with larger big city manufacturers, the company built and rebuilt its manufacturing facility several times. The facility grew in size with separate and dedicated foundry, pattern shop, machine shop, blacksmith and storage structures. The blacksmith and pattern shop structures still exist today. This paper examines the development of the firm in the context of the Portage Lake copper mines.
Durst, Donald M.
Hardlines Design Company
"Historic American Engineering Recordation Project of Locks and Dams along the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania"
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District contracted Hardlines Design Company to produce all the necessary HAER material to document Lock and Dam Nos. 2, 3, and 4 along the Monongahela River. Our office is developing over 500 large-format photographs, 29 ink-on-mylar drawings, and over 100 pages of written text.
The Monongahela River Navigation System is a series of dams and locks that was built nearly 160 years ago. The Monongahela Navigation Company built the original locks and dams in the 1840s and was acquired by the Corps in 1905. This documentation project will show the evolution of Corps facilities from 1905 to 2005. The recordation package will include the contextual treatment of the Monongahela River Navigation Company, the builders of the original locks and dams.
The project commenced in the spring of 1999 and is now scheduled to be completed in winter of 2000. It is an immense task in terms of field research and site coordination, with a limited time schedule to complete all work. Mr. Durst will share some of his experiences in meeting the challenges of completing such an immense assignment.
Elliott, Joseph—
Sellersville, PA
"Palazzo of Power: HABS Photographic Documentation of Port Richmond Generating Station of Philadelphia Electric Company"
Between 1914 and 1928, the Philadelphia Electric Company constructed five massive generating stations along the banks of the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Rivers, the results of a collaboration between the prominent Philadelphia architect John T. Windrim and engineer William C.L. Eglin. These structures represented a cohesive architectural response to the public image that PECo. wanted to project, as well as an engineered response to huge new horizontal AC turbo generators that made it possible to generate the ever-increasing volume of power required by it's customers. Reflecting the neoclassical style favored by the City-Beautiful movement, the resulting structures were "palazzos" on a monumental scale. They exhibited advanced uses of structural steel and concrete, power production and switching technology, and enhanced facilities for the welfare of workers. Remarkably, all of these plants still exist. Two are still in operation, and two others retain most of their original machinery.
This photographic survey is part of a work in progress. The goal is to record, at least photographically, all five of the PECo. plants. One plant , in Chester, PA, was fully documented by HAER in 1998. The HAER report on Chester, by Aaron Wunsch and Matthew Snedden will be the main source of background material for the presentation. I am seeking foundation funding to document the remaining three plants.
The presentation will describe the history, technology, and the design aesthetics of the Port Richmond Plant, from the point of view of a photographer.
Fairchild, Shawn—
Citizens for Our Bridge, Sturgeon Bay, WI
"Crossing Our (T's), and Dotting Our (I's): Historic Michigan Street Bridge, Sturgeon Bay, WI"
In early 1999, at the presentation of the" Millennium 2000" project toward saving America's treasures, Richard Moe made a statement that sums up the mission our group set out to achieve nearly tour years ago. "Not every community has an Independence Hall, but every single community in America has treasures that make it unique, that make it a special place. Saving these treasures is not someone else's job!"
In 1986, Wisconsin conducted an evaluation of its historic bridges, as part of their Historic Preservation Plan, that allowed for the integration of these structures, when possible, into the WisDOT's programs and planning processes. In that plan, twenty four bascule bridges were evaluated for their potential to be listed on the NRHR Our Michigan Street Bridge was one of those twenty four. Jeffrey Hess was contracted to perform the study, and concluded that ten of those twenty four merited NRHP recognition. In 1996, only seven of those ten remained. Three of those were slated for replacement, and three others were considered functionally obsolete. Due to the rapid loss, the SHPO called for a re-evaluation of several of those previously ineligible bridges, Upon further review, the WisDOT developed a Bascule Bridge Inventory of thirteen bridges that met the NRHP's 50 - year age requirement. The Michigan Street Bridge is on that list.
Our Michigan Street Bridge is the only example of an overhead-truss, Scherzer-type, double-leaf, rolling-lift bascule in the State of Wisconsin. The inventory form states, "that overhead truss construction was reserved for movable spans subjected to great stresses. Thus, this method was appropriate for the windy Sturgeon Bay site, the bridge's heavy vehicular use, and the required 140 foot clear span crossing. This span was the largest in Wisconsin at the time of construction." (1931) The other area of historic merit lies in the design of the bascule span itself. It was designed by the Chicago firm of Keller and Harrington, both from the former Scherzer Company, specialists in movable bridges.
In 1994, during an inspection of the bridge, stress cracks were discovered in the rolling and track gears, that were creating stress in the drive gears of the lift spans. In the eyes of WisDOT, this was a significant ailment that left no alternative, but to slate the bridge for replacement, and they then set that plan into motion. In 1995, a band-aid repair was made to the track and roller gear, in order to give the drive gear enough clearance to "operate for the next ten years". In the mean time the Programmatic Process was moving forward, and the WisDOT was negotiating bridge replacement in the City of Sturgeon Bay.
In January of 1997, the Programmatic Agreement had been completed, and signed by all parties involved in its creation. We were unaware of this process at this time, and were only aware of the bridge issue at the local level, and through the WisDOT negotiations with the City of Sturgeon Bay. It was in early 1997 that the DOT presented the "first" public hearing for the 'replacement" of the Michigan Street Bridge. It was also at this meeting that a number of us wondered why they were replacing the bridge, and why it could not be rehabilitated, or restored. We were told at that meeting that it could in fact be rehabilitated, but that the costs of that endeavor would just not be feasible. We then inquired about any evaluations toward rehabilitation that might have been done, that would have determined feasibility. There were none!! II was at this time that we questioned the SHPO as to how this could happen, with such an important icon to the State of Wisconsin.
At this point we researched the Programmatic Agreement, and stumbled into the opportunity to provide objection to the to the process. It is in this process that we found avenues to have a say in what happens to our Historic Bridge, and it Is in this process that we found opportunity. We have found that the weakness in this situation, lies with our own WisDOT, and their steadfastness to hold their ground, and the mis-information they brought to our community. When Richard Moe said that, "Saving these treasures is not someone else's job!", we believe he really meant that it is everyone's job! We believe it is FHWA, SHP, NTHP, SHTP, DOT's, State, County, and City Governments, and the Public, should do everything possible, exhaust all possible avenues, toward saving valuable historic structures, and re-using them in our everyday lives, as well as those of our children. The very idea of replacing a structure as significant as our bridge, our treasure that makes us unique", should be the hardest thing do. Unfortunately, in our experience quite the opposite is true. It is this that we would like to bring to the table and discuss. We have never taken the position of "Save the bridge at all costs", but have been open to getting all" of the information necessary to make the right decision, and then would live by that decision.
Gregersen, Charles F.
Pullman Civic Organization, Chicago, IL
"The Pullman Water Tower"
Designed by architect Solon S. Beman in collaboration with civil engineer Benezette Williams, the ten story, 185 foot high, 68 foot square Pullman Water Tower at the Pullman Company car works, on what is now Chicago's Far South Side, was for all practical purposes, the tallest multi¨story building in America at its completion in 1881. This structure housed a 550,995 gallon Water tank in its top floor, a 200,000 gallon sewage reservoir in its base and nine floors of manufacturing and storage space between them. In spite of the intense study which George Pullman's model town has engendered since its founding in 1880, relatively little attention has been paid to this unique structure. This paper describes the building, its technical features, its history and its role in the town's plan. It also demonstrates through an analysis of contemporary documents and recent archeological findings at the site that the system of cage construction which Beman developed to support the immense tank and floors below was well in advance of any other structure built prior to William Le Baron Jenney's first use of full skeleton construction in the Home Insurance Building in Chicago in 1885.
Hampton, Roy A.
Hardlines Design Company
"Lower Girard Dam: A Study of an Ambursen Type Buttress Dam in the Mahoning Valley"
As Youngstown grew into an industrial center, the demand for water to feed the Mahoning Valley's steel factories increased. In 1916, the Ohio Water Service Company decided to build a dam on Squaw Creek that would create a large lake to supply the region's industrial needs. It was decided to build an Ambursen type dam.
Ambursen dams, named after a Scandinavian immigrant engineer who developed this type of structure, are a series of connected concrete buttresses that are sloped on the upstream side. When the reservoir is lull, the water's downward pressure on these sloping buttresses helps keep the dam from being pushed downstream by the water behind it. The buttresses support a thin concrete watertight membrane.
Lower Girard Dam, located near Youngstown, Ohio, has a number of important historical associations. Technologically, the concrete buttress dam was still a novel concept compared to a gravity dam. An Ambursen dam's main advantage was the small amount of material needed to build it. In many cases, Ambursen dams used up to 40% less concrete than comparable gravity dams, significantly reducing construction costs. The skeletal design of the Ambursen type dam can be seen as the structural equivalent of the open spandrel concrete arch bridge.
Lower Girard Dam is a symbol of the remarkable industrial growth of the Mahoning Valley area in the early twentieth century. The dam provided the region's growing industries with a large and continuous supply of water. The dam's structural design is a reflection of the early twentieth century's fascination with light, skeletal reinforced concrete structures. Lower Girard Dam is also important as one of only two intact large-scale Ambursen type dams that have survived in Ohio.
Kierstead, Matthew A.
Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., Pawtucket, RI
"Whitman Roundhouse Park: Interpreting an industrial Archaeological Landscape"
During the environmental review process for the Old Colony Railroad Rehabilitation Project on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) rail lines south of Boston, archaeologists from the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) located the foundations of an 1880s Old Colony Railroad steam locomotive facility at the site of the proposed Whitman, Massachusetts, commuter rail passenger station. The integrity of the site and its location adjacent to a planned high-level passenger platform made it an ideal candidate for interpretation. As part of the site's historic preservation program, the MBTA agreed to completely excavate the site and develop it as an interpretive archaeological park. PAL put together a team including a landscape architect, materials conservator, stonemasons, and other contractors to design and build Whitman Roundhouse Park. This paper tells the story of the park project, and the development of the interpretive program that uses a combination of landscaping and signage to explain how the site functioned to commuters and visitors. It begins with a history of the site and the excavation of the steam locomotive maintenance features, which include the track layout, engine house, turntable pit, and water tank foundations, and includes a discussion of the features and artifacts uncovered. The paper then follows the park design process from the archaeological site plan, to the development of the interpretive philosophy, to its expression through the landscaping plan and signage, and the final construction phase. It discusses the numerous challenges and limitations encountered, including wetlands, endangered species, access and safety issues. The park officially opened during the October 1999 Massachusetts Archaeology Week, and the ongoing interpretive programming includes guided tours by arrangement. Whitman Roundhouse Park, which was recently donated to the Town of Whitman by the MBTA, is a dramatic example of how the history and function of an industrial landscape can be interpreted through public archaeology.
Kouchoukos, Nicholas—
Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago
"Industrial growth and the production of space in the Birmingham District (Alabama)"
The Birmingham District is widely recognized by economic and historical geographers as a case study in rapid industrialization at the nexus of accessible mineral resources, a pliant labor base, and abundant external capital. Surprisingly, amid now numerous histories of technology, labor, and business in this region, there has been little discussion of its spatial evolution-of the ways in which the interplay of local and global forces was expressed in patterns of residence and land ownership, communication and transshipment networks, strategies of resource use, and trends in urban planning and design. As a consequence, space and its well-known power both to reproduce and transform social relationships have been largely excluded from historical analysis. This paper traces broadly the changing spatial organization of the Birmingham District from the late nineteenth century to the present, identifying links between spatial and social change at different scales and suggesting lines of further research. It goes on to show how Birmingham's industrial landscape, far from being the inert by-product of an earlier age, has actively shaped the 'post-industrial' city of the present. As a consequence, it is argued, the practice of industrial archaeology can provide insight into the origin and possible resolution of what are viewed as contemporary urban problems and can contribute to better understanding of complex issues in planning policy, social justice, and environmental conservation.
Lowe, Jet—
Historic American Engineering Record, Washington, DC
"The Craft of Production, A study in the craft of guitar construction at Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth Pennsylvania"
This study looks at the mechanisms of technological diffusion between an artisan, in this case the New York luthier Thomas Humphrey, and the manner in which his knowledge is segmented and diffused amongst the workers and machines of the Martin Guitar production line. Since 1998 Martin Guitar Company has been producing a "Martin-Humphrey" Classical guitar as a result of a collaboration between the two parties. This paper will be the result of a process study conducted by me during the years 1998, 1999, and 2000 looking at the sequence of jobs that make up the production of guitars at Martin Guitar Company. There will be a comparison between the production of the "Millennium" guitar designed by the New York Luthier Thomas Humphrey, and produced by Martin Guitar Company, with production of the same instrument as built individually by the Luthier himself. Some of the early results conclude that the feed back loop works in both directions, the luthier gaining some production techniques from Martin Co. while Martin Guitar has gained a design accompanied by a luthier with a concept of the acoustic qualities desired in the end product.
Since this is an on going process and the production is still being perfected the study will also illustrate the sometimes conflicting interests of the Martin Guitar company as they clash with the design objectives of the artisan-builder Thomas Humphrey.
Macasek, Joseph
(see Riley, Bierce)
McGaw, Judith A.
Independent Scholar/Consultant, Portland, OR
"Portland, Progressive Politics, and the Vertical Lift Bridge"
Although we know a good deal about how consulting engineers create bridges, we know far less about how political processes promote innovation. When we do talk about permits, public hearings, and other legal steps, we too often treat them as mere hurdles: obstacles in the path of creative genius. This paper offer a different perspective. By examining two of the nation's earliest vertical lift bridges, I show how political events encouraged the City of Portland and the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company to become two of Waddell & Harrington's earliest vertical lift bridge customers and also determined these structures' configurations in highly specific ways. The results are embodied in Portland's Hawthorne Bridge, the first in which most major components of the vertical lift took their "standard" form, and the nearby Steel Bridge, whose massive dimensions and independently moving lift and lifting decks demonstrated the new form's range of possibilities.
Between 1909 and 1912 when these bridges took shape, Portland's Progressive Era political scene made virtually every political step in bridge building an occasion for vocal public discussion. In the presence of engineering experts employed by agencies such as the Army Corps and the Port of Portland Commission (exercising the State of Oregon's authority), shippers, pilots, pedestrians, street railway owners, and real estate interests raised a host of technical challenges and, occasionally, highly specific proposals for their solution. Simultaneous early proposals for the City's Broadway Bridge (Ralph Modjeski's famous Rall bascule) also fueled the furor and helped influence the outcomes. Comparison with Waddell & Harrington's other three early lift bridges helps clarify the technical feats Progressive debates helped Portland bridge builders achieve.
Millstein, Cydney E.
Architectural and Historical Research, Kansas City, MO
Roise, Charlene K.
Hess Roise and Company, Minneapolis, MN
"Ubiquitous, Utilitarian, and Under Appreciated: The Wooden Trestle Spans of the Chicago and North Western Railroad"
One of the largest categories of bridges to serve the historic Chicago & North Western Railroad on its route through South Dakota and Minnesota was comprised of simple timber stringer spans with timber pile bents and open deck.
Although none of the 19th century trestles are extant, the surviving 20th century trestles, totaling over 250 dating from 1915-1975, were used alone or as approaches to longer steel or iron spans. The C&NW's general design and specifications for the open deck pile trestle, including wood type and grade for piles and flooring, pile driving, and metal details, were adopted from contemporary publications such as the Manual for the American Railway Engineering Association.
Due to their physical makeup, timber trestles along the historic railroad have been in constant need of maintenance. Timber piles and stringers, for example, are often renewed, strengthened or replaced Because of the general characteristics of this bridge type and the somewhat limited life span of its materials, changes are anticipated and warranted. In most cases the alterations/additions to this property type have not impacted the overall integrity of materials and design.
These open deck timber trestles, along with other types of significant spans, were the focus of a year-long Section 106 evaluation to be included in an Environmental Impact Study undertaken by Burns and McDonnell, Kansas City, Missouri. The EIS encompasses the rebuild portion of the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern Railroad Powder River Basin Expansion Project, specifically the reconstruction of the DM&E's existing system (the abandoned Chicago and North Western Railroad) in South Dakota and Minnesota covering more than 630 miles of track. As one of the largest historic railroad corridor studies of its kind, this intensive-level assessment examines eligible and potentially eligible structures for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and those spans that may be adversely effected by the proposed railroad reconstruction.
MacDonald, Stuart
(see Roise, Charlene)
Maddex, Lee R.
West Virginia University
"Northern West Virginia Iron Workers"
When one thinks of West Virginia industry, King Coal immediately comes to mind, but ironmaking was one of her earliest industries. This industry dates to 1742 and production continues into the modern era at the great steelmaking centers in Wheeling and Weirton. Prior to the Civil War, ironmaking was well-diffused across the upper tier of the state with the most significant antebellum production occurring in Monongahela and Preston counties, in what was then northwestern Virginia.
For the past decade, I have been researching the northern West Virginia charcoal iron industry and locating the remains of this important early industry. Although abandoned for nearly one-hundred fifty years, several furnaces still stand, and there are physical remains of both charcoal making and iron mining scattered across the mountains. At this point, with the field work has been completed and the local history and geological survey sources exhausted, I have turned to previously ignored sources, and have begun to examine public records, such as population census, chancery court records, and land books with several questions in mind. Who were the iron workers? Where did they came from? Did they stay after the industry declined? If they stayed, how were they employed? By answering these questions, I hope to broaden and enliven my research on the northern West Virginia iron industry.
Malone, Patrick M.
Brown University
"Pond at Night and Pray for Rain: Waterpower development on an unreliable river"
Without human intervention, the Chepachet River was a torrent in spring and a trickle in summer. Wildly variable flows created severe problems for early millowners and made industrial expansion difficult. Small dams near the waterpowered mills could not prevent occasional work stoppages during floods or droughts. The situation improved by the middle of the nineteenth-century with the construction of two reservoirs above Chepachet Village. Reservoirs could store water in wet seasons and provide controlled releases in dry seasons. However, these particular bodies of water were still insufficient for the increasing power demands of the local textile industry. In 1865, a Chepachet woolen manufacturer rebuilt one of the two reservoir dams with a slightly higher elevation to expand storage capacity. Local industrialists had been trying for years to get owners of mills far downstream to help pay for substantial reservoirs that would improve flow patterns not only in the Chepachet tributary but also in the main Blackstone River. The last effort to involve downstream millowners was m 1871, when engineer Samuel B. Cushing prepared a detailed report on an ambitious reservoir enlargement plan. Once again, there were not enough outside investors to implement this grand plan, and Chepachet's mills continued to have water shortages. Using Cushing's report in combination with other historical documents, material evidence, and modem hydraulic data, we can investigate the use of waterpower in Chepachet. The millowners made heroic efforts to pond water in their reservoirs at night and on Sundays. They showed remarkable ability to estimate minimum flow, and (before the addition of steam power) they matched their production machinery very closely to the actual capacity of the river.
Mannikko, Nancy Farm—
Independent Scholar, L'Anse, MI
"The Finnish Immigrant Press, Company Spies, and other Strange Stories from the Mining Ranges: A Brief History of Tyomies
In 1903 in Worcester, Massachusetts, a group of immigrant Finnish socialists met to discuss forming a corporation to publish a newspaper to serve as the voice of the working classes. Within a few months they succeeded in selling sufficient shares to start their enterprise, had published a number of issues of the newspaper, Tyomies (Workingman), and moved to Michigan's Copper Country to promote the cause of social justice in the Lake Superior region. The Tyomies Society established a socialist commercial printing operation that eventually published not only the daily newspaper, which was circulated nationally, but numerous books, pamphlets, and sheet music for the Finnish immigrant community. Driven out of Upper Michigan following the copper industry strikes of 1913-14, the Society settled in Superior, Wisconsin, where it became known as a publisher that would print material other presses refused to touch. The paper is credited by some labor historians as being almost the sole source of news for the country as a whole regarding labor disputes in isolated mining districts. TheTyomies survived the red-baiting scares of the 1920's, 1930's, and the McCarthy era, finally ceasing publication in 1998 when the number of Finnish language readers dropped too low to sustain publication.
Marston, Christopher—
Historic American Engineering Record, Washington, DC
Rotenstein, David—
Michael Baker Jr., Inc. (Engineers), Charleston, WV
"Pittsburgh Wool Company: Pulled out of Pittsburgh"
The Pittsburgh Wool Company survived into the new millennium as one of the last vestiges of the declining animal pelt trade that had lasted 400 years in America. Once a major center for the transfer and production of animal products, the City of Pittsburgh is instead aiding in the closure of a 150 year-old company. The Pittsburgh Wool Company building will be soon be demolished to make way for the expansion of the Heinz Corporation on the North Shore of the Allegheny River.
The machinery and structure were recorded by HAER in January 2000 on an emergency documentation project. What survives is a wool pulling enterprise run by the same father and son, Roy and Jeff Kumer, for the last 45 years. This paper will focus on describing the process of wool pulling by examining the extant machinery and working conditions. These artifacts include some unique tools and processes developed by the Kumers themselves, as well as once-common equipment in this niche operation of the wool industry.
This paper will provide a brief contextual overview of the history of the meat-packing and tanning industries in Pittsburgh, and examine the changes in the landscape in recent years as these sites have turned in valuable real estate. Finally, it will discuss the current business operations of the Pittsburgh Wool Co., which involve wool pelt drying, grading, and trading overseas to Spain, India and Pakistan, and the future of the company and the industry.
Mathiason, Jerry
(see Roise, Charlene)
McCormick, Mary—
Renewable Technologies, Inc., Butte, MT
"Controlling the Flow: The U.S. Reclamation Service and State of the Art Concrete Water Control Technologies on the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project, Montana-North Dakota"
In 1902, the newly created U.S. Reclamation Service embarked on the first government-sponsor program for the development of large-scale water projects in the American West. Reclamation drew from the ranks of the nation's top engineers to design and oversee this massive undertaking. Over the next seven years, Reclamation oversaw the implementation of state of the art technologies at over 25 major irrigation systems. While perhaps its most renown feats of engineering were in the design and construction of massive concrete dams, Reclamation also pioneered the use of concrete for a variety of structures need to control water flow through and past irrigation waterways. Many of these technologies were ultimately abandoned, but some remained standard in irrigation practice for decades.
The Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project of eastern Montana and western North Dakota proved a testing ground for many of Reclamation's concrete technologies of the early twentieth century. At the time of its original completion in 1909, the system boasted a wide array of major structures. In addition to a massive headworks, these included concrete flumes, conduits, siphons, and underpasses that allowed the system's main canal to pass by major drainages as well as concrete spillways and sluiceways for the release of waste. Remarkably, most of these appliances survive and still function on the system to the present day.
Noyes, Sandy
Chatham, NY
"Inside Clairton Coke Works: Discovery and Intuition at a Large Working Industrial Complex: IA Photography Issues"
At visually rich industrial sites like USS Clairton Works, Clairton, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh (the world's largest by-product works during World War I), numerous valuable images can be made from vantage points at 200 yard intervals or less. The photographer is challenged by the problem of not enough time and too much subject matter. Studying the site plan, however, then touring the road grid methodically and taking advantage of expert advice from photographer's escort, helps solve the problem. One is further saved from overload of choices by safety restrictions (trains are always moving through the coke yards) and by open response to the meticulous and logical nature of industrial architecture and design. Slow view camera pace and mechanics add further discipline, helping to make the project more manageable.
Is there a moment to consider artistic questions in such a situation? Probably not, at least not consciously. The IA photographer will likely rely on unexamined intuitive sense in selecting exact vantage points and finding the frame. The photography is driven primarily by anticipation of discoveries and respect for the subject matter's integrity and IA importance, and is not so much a deliberate pursuit of artistically ambitious imagery. However, images of fine art interest are often produced in the recording process, as will be shown. Slides of original 5 x 7 inch contact prints will be used to illustrate commentary.
Raber, Michael S.
Raber Associates, South Glastonbury, CT
"Industrial Power, Transportation, and Underdevelopment in a Rhode Island Textile Manufacturing District"
The village of Chepachet, on a Blackstone River tributary of the same name, had waterpower resources well suited to the needs of several late-18th-century forges, gristmills, sawmills, fulling mills, and tanneries. The river dropped about 70 feet in a third of a mile, along which four mill sites developed before the early 19th century appearance of cotton manufacture. The earliest Chepachet cotton mill, built c. 1812-14, occupied a fifth privilege. By 1830, two groups of cotton manufacturers controlled three of the mill sites and nearly all the available waterpower, which had severe seasonal limitations for larger industrial operations. Local mill owners cooperated in several reservoir construction episodes before the end of the Civil War, but were unable to attract investors for later reservoir expansion. Lack of rail connections probably discouraged much outside investment in Chepachet mills, which faced less competitive transport costs and poor access to coal fuel for the steam engines needed to supplement waterpower. Although the mills remained profitable for another generation by shifting from cotton production to satinets, cassimeres, woolens, and worsted goods, they were too marginal to replace after late-19th-century fires destroyed two of the three textile complexes. The village's power and transport problems stunted the manufacturing district, but left much of the 18th and 19th-century village intact. Today, physical remains survive from all periods of Chepachet's industrial history at four of the five privileges. A combination of ruins, standing structures, and dams along a riverside greenway offer opportunities to interpret a historic landscape of underdevelopment in a recreational setting.
Rachleff, Allison S.
(see Deininger, Tina)
Riley, Bierce
Macasek, Joseph
Roebling Chapter
"Forging in the Highlands: A Hundred Forges in the North Jersey"
In a long-term project, 103 forge sites are being located as a personal effort to document this once-thriving industry. The inventory includes bloomeries, fineries, and anchor shops in the North Jersey Highlands, located in three counties:Morris,Passaic,Sussex
A few of the 18th century forges had completely disappeared by the early 1820s when James Renwick plotted a route for the Morris Canal. Some that Renwick noted as being "in ruins" never reopened. Others, however, weathered the numerous and sometimes severe financial turns of the 19th century, changing their output to meet market demand.
Published sources include maps, atlases, state and industry inventories, deeds, and tax records. Field research involves a combination of landscape detective work and a sharp eye for hearth trash. Documentation includes measurement, construction of possible site plans, and photography. The paper will present an overview of the region and views of selected sites. It will include a review of extensive remnants of an industry that was once important to both the local economy and national defense and from which international policy was also forged.
Roise, Charlene K.
(see also Millstein, Cydney)
Hess, Roise and Company, Minneapolis, MN
Mathiason, Jerry—
Photographer, Minneapolis, MN
MacDonald, Stuart—
MacDonald & Mack Architects, Ltd., Minneapolis, MN
"A Tough Rock to Crack: Pioneering Efforts in Taconite Processing"
The Mines Experiment Station, rechristened the Mineral Resources Research Center (MMRC) in 1970, was established in Minneapolis in 1911 in conjunction with the University of Minnesota's School of Mines. The nucleus of the station's Renaissance Revival building, constructed in 1922-1923, was a pilot plant where researchers could run large-scale tests of ore processing equipment and methods that could be applied to commercial operations.
The facility was most renown for making breakthroughs in taconite processing. Unlike Minnesota's premium ores, which were 90 to 95 percent iron oxide, taconite from the same mines averaged only 25 to 35 percent iron oxide, and the mineral was imbedded in small particles and streaks throughout extremely hard rock. Improving the quality of the ore, a process called "beneficiation," involved extensive and expensive treatments. It took many decades of experimentation to develop efficient techniques to make industrial taconite production economical. At the same time, as higher grades of iron ore were depleted in the United States by the mid-twentieth century, taconite processing became strategically significant as a means of maintaining a domestic source of ore for the nation's steel mills.
The university shut down the MMRC in 1988, leaving the equipment and many of the MMRC's files in place. Several years ago the school made plans to renovate the structure for student housing. MacDonald and Mack Architects were retained to document the facility for the Historic American Engineering Record before the construction began. Hess, Roise and Company prepared the narrative for the report; Jerry Mathiason completed the large-format photography.
Rotenstein, David
(see Marston, Christopher)
Saldibar, Joseph—
Colorado Historical Society, Denver, CO
"Hoosier Heritage: The Second Indiana Bridge Survey Program"
Computer technology has changed our world as much as iron bridge technology changed the landscape of 19th century Indiana. Now the DHPA has brought the world of electronics and microchips together with the world of iron and steel with the Historic Bridge Survey Database.
The first survey of Indiana's surviving iron bridges was completed in 1987. Since that time, a number of bridges have vanished; still others, hidden on abandoned railways and lonely county roads, have been discovered. Because of this, Dr. James Cooper (author of the first survey) is now traveling around the state, updating each county's survey one by one.
The database will combine.information from these two surveys, along with a survey of timber bridges and another of historic concrete bridges to create one of the most comprehensive bridge lists in the country. The database will also include information from National and State Register listings, county inventories, county commissioner records, and site visits.
Photographs of each bridge are currently being scanned into the computer database to provide a visual record of Hoosier bridges. By 2001, the records will be linked with computerized maps so that users can see, at a glance, how to get to the bridge they're studying. Having a complete database will allow Hoosiers to find out more about the old bridges in their neighbor-hoods. It will give preservationists a resource which they can use to protect and preserve these 'iron monuments'. People across the country, and even the world, will be able to learn about Indiana's bridge heritage!
Schruers, Eric J.
Mesa State College
"Industrial Art as Educational Tool: Images of the Coal Industry from the Edward Steidle Collection"
In 1929, Edward Steidle, Dean of The Pennsylvania State University's College of Mineral Industries, established an art gallery to depict the wide variety of fields that the graduates of his school were being prepared for. This significant collection of art has only recently been brought to the attention of the scholarly community, and has become a major resource for the study of early-2Oth century American industry. The majority of the paintings in the collection depict the Pennsylvania coal industry and its associated industries, such as the Pittsburgh steel mills. Produced by largely forgotten artists of the Realist and Regionalist traditions, such as John Willard Raught, Richard Crist, Louise Pershing, and Edmund Marion Ashe, the collection is a treasure trove of visual imagery from the peak of American industrial production. In my paper I will present a brief history of the collection, with a focus on the coal industry and those artists who applied their talents to recording images of the industrial world they were immersed in.
Shayt, David H.
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
"Picking the Locks: Industrial Salvage at the Panama Canal"
This slide-illustrated talk presents the results of the Smithsonian's success last year in prying loose for preservation at Washington, D.C. one significant but surplus element of the formerly American Panama Canal This massive miter gate pintle ball became the centerpiece of Smithsonian programming on the canal's transition to Panama and serves as a point of departure in addressing both the canal's industrial fabric and historical resources available to canal researchers in Panama and the United States, now that a new era in the life of the Panama Canal has begun.
Shovers, Brian—
Montana Historical Society, Helena, MT
"The Evolution of Montana Irrigation Practice and the Triumph of Cooperation"
In Donald Worster's classic study of hydraulic societies, Rivers of Empire, he points to the importance of centralized authority in ancient Egypt and China in creating agricultural systems dependent on irrigated water. Montana's pioneer farmers, ranchers, and politicians ignored the lessons learned over five thousand years in Asia and Africa when devising irrigation policy for their new state.
From the beginning of the Montana territory in 1864 right up into the late twentieth century, irrigated agriculture remained hampered by a set of water laws predicated on individual rights without regard for the community at large. The result was disastrous. Rather than fertile fields the legal system cultivated decades of lawsuits and expensive litigation. Montana ignored the example provided by western neighbor Wyoming, clinging instead to a system of local water rights which encouraged the over-appropriation of streams and perpetual legal battles over a scarce resource.
In the summer of 1889 John Wesley Powell appeared before the Montana Constitutional Convention in Helena, pleading to the delegates drafting a new constitution to consider organizing local government geographically by watershed to promote a cooperative and beneficial use of precious water, pasture, and timber, a particularly important concept in an arid, mountainous region. Montanans ignored Powell's rationale and established a decentralized and inefficient system of water rights and irrigation policy that ignored the welfare of the community at large by granting extraordinary rights to the individual.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a system based on "individual rights" by analyzing the efforts of the Montana Arid Land Commission (1895-1902) and the Carey Land Act Board (1903-1959 ), and contrasting these early results with the 1933 creation of the State Water Conservation Board (SWCB) and its response to agricultural drought and depression in Montana. I will present a case study of the largest Carey Land Act project established at Valier, Montana, a striking example of the system predicated on individual initiative. By contrast I will examine the success demonstrated by projects selected, planned, and financed by cooperative efforts of farmers, ranchers, professional engineers, the SWCB, and the Public Works and Works Progress Administrations. In both instances I will analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the State Engineer's office in promoting sound irrigation policy in a political climate of misunderstanding and distrust.
My paper will conclude with a 1944 Circuit Court of Appeals case pitting Montana Power Company against Broadwater County irrigators and the State Water Conservation Board. In this landmark case a lower court granted Montana Power exclusive rights to all water in the Missouri River for power generation, denying the established water rights of hundreds of farmers and ranchers along the upper Missouri. The success of the SWCB on appeal provides further example of the importance of group cooperation in agricultural affairs.
Spivey, Justin M.
Engineer, Historic American Engineering Record, Washington, DC
"The Politics of Railroad Bridge Construction in Chicago, 1890-1930"
Chicago's railroad bridges are products of technological change driven by political and regulatory decisions. Perceived needs for improved waterways, more often than structural obsolescence, resulted in an intense period of bridge replacement during the early twentieth century. Such demands introduced new functional requirements, particularly increased span length, that challenged engineers to improve existing movable bridge designs or invent new ones.
Horizontally rotating swing bridges were ubiquitous among Chicago river crossings during the nineteenth century, but were rarely constructed in the twentieth. The U.S. War Department made this type increasingly difficult to construct in Chicago by prohibiting mid©river piers after 1890. I will present three railroads' responses. One early strategy was to produce a unique variation on the traditional swing bridge form to meet the new requirement. Continued insistence on longer spans, however, soon forced engineers to develop other movable bridge types. The War Department praised the new designs, many of them proprietary, actively encouraging their use and refinement. Years of debate between regulators and railroads resulted in a record installation of patented vertical-lift bridges over the Calumet River in 1915. The city of Chicago itself applied political pressure to the railroads, especially in conjunction with plans to straighten the Chicago River. This reached an extreme when the city's requirements forced a railroad to construct the world's longest bascule bridge in 1919, then move it eleven years later. Recent debate over this span as an obstacle to development indicates that bridges remain an active part of Chicago politics.
Stroud, Andrew E.
Nevada State Engineer's Office, Carson City, NV
"History of Irrigation and Associated Water Rights of the Truckee River: 1848 to 1944"
The Truckee River has its source in Lake Tahoe and terminates 80 miles below in Pyramid Lake. The earliest recorded irrigation was done by Mormon settlers who arrived in Washoe Valley in 1853 and stayed until 1857 when recalled during the Mormon War. Large scale farming did not take commence until 1859 when the Comstock Lode was discovered leading to the development of Virginia City, Gold Hill, and Silver City. The Sierra Nevada Mountains effectively isolated this region from produce raised in California, so local farming and ranching became highly profitable. Ditches up to 10 miles in length were constructed to irrigate the lower portions of the basin, and also isolated strips of land along the river.
With the arrival of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1867 produce prices dropped and the region concentrated on alfalfa and hay production. The greatest increase in irrigable land was from 1870 to 1880 during the 'Big Bonanza' period of Virginia City. Over 100 miles of new ditches were constructed in the Truckee Meadows, with each new ditch being longer and higher on the sides of the basin than the previous ones. After 1880 the region went into a slump.
Between 1900 and 1910 Reno experienced a dramatic increase in population as a supply site to the newly created mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield. In 1903 the Reclamation Service began the first federally funded irrigation project, called the Truckee©Carson Project (later Newlands Project), in the Carson Sink, 50 miles east of Reno. A large canal was built to divert water from the Truckee River to the Carson River. In order to increase the storage capacity for the Project the Reclamation Service began a condemnation suit to gain control of the outlet dam to Lake Tahoe in 1912. To restrict Reno farmers from diverting this stored water the Reclamation Service filed for a federal adjudication to delineate water rights on the entire Truckee River. The adjudication was not completed until 1926 after much political haggling, and was first issued as a temporary restraining order. The Truckee River Agreement was jointly created in 1935 by all of the water users on Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River, and the Newlands Project, to regulate the flow of water in the river. In 1944 the federal court combined the 1926 adjudication and the 1935 operating agreement to form a final decree.
Included in this paper is a series of six time-sequential maps at a scale of 1:100,000 that portray the evolution of irrigation on the Truckee River.
Updike, William—
Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc., Hurricane, WV
"Archaeological and Historical Investigations at a 19th-Century Kanawha Valley Saltworks"
Today while travelling though the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia many may wonder why there are many chemical manufactories located in this region. Few however, may realize that the reason lies in the presence of abundant natural resources, chiefly, brine. Prior to the 20th century use of its chemical properties, these brines were boiled for salt. From the 1790s to the 1940s, millions of bushels of salt were produced and distributed from the Charleston, West Virginia area. Using historical sources and archaeological data from a furnace site excavated during 1999, this paper will discuss the technological foundations of the Kanawha salt industry, its evolution, and finally its demise due to flood, war, and western expansion.
Walker, Charles E.
Texas Dept. of Transportation, Austin, TX
"Rehabilitation of the Regency Suspension Bridge"
Previously Published:
Proceedings,
Texas Section-ASCE, Fall Meeting
Abstract: The efficiency of suspension bridges in achieving long spans made them an ideal bridge type in Texas where crossings of flood-prone rivers were required. Many bridges of this type were built in Texas during a 70-year period from the Reconstruction through the Great Depression. Built in 1939 by the Austin Bridge Company, the Regency Bridge is an example of a later style from this period. One original design feature, the elimination of discrete main cable anchorages by direct concreting of the main cable wires into the soil, proved to be problematic when the Texas Department of Transportation began efforts to restore the historic Regency Suspension Bridge. Following a brief historical overview of suspension bridges relevant to Texas, a description of the method used to re©anchor the original main cables of the Regency Bridge is presented.
Weinstein, Gerry—
New York City
"20 Years Behind the Ground Glass: Some Photographs from IA Sites"
I started large format documentation of historic engineering sites in 1980, but my photographic roots go further back. I got my first camera from my father who was a photographer for the Air Force in WW2 shooting with Speed Graphics and K20 aerial cameras. Thanks to that, I knew a few things about the art when in 1980 I convinced the New York City Transit Authority that their electrical substations which had survived intact since 1902 should have a large scale in-depth photo documentation. Two years of photography resulted in an extensive technical record plus a few shots that have been exhibited in gallery shows. The experience led to contacts with archeologists and engineering firms expanding the photographic opportunities to factories, power stations, bridges and harbor facilities. Some of the sites were so prosaic or the job so tightly budgeted that there was little room for creativity, just hard shots. Others just naturally resulted in some views worth exhibiting. I'm going to show some views that were technically challenging and a few that were beautifully easy. Most were successful, a few, not so. Along the way, photographic technology has changed a lot. From plain old Tri-X, to the T-Max's, plus some much better color films, and now the digital threshold. Will the NPS eventually accept color or digital images as an archival format? Or will HABS/HAER photography be one of the last bastions of silver based black and white? New image editing programs now make it possible to rectify photos on the computer. Could the days of the view camera numbered? No matter what the format or medium, there are plenty of IA sites out there that need to be documented!
White, Paul
Brown University
"Confessions of the Small-Scale Lode Mine: The Archaeology of the Asa Baldwin Diary"
The recovery of a manager's diary during the archival research of a Depression Era gold mining operation offers an extraordinary glimpse into the small-scale lode mining industry. Primarily a technical record of work conducted at the Yellow Band Gold Mines, a marginally profitable venture situated in Alaska's rugged Chugach Mountains, the diary notes the daily activities of the company conducted during the open season (April-October). Most significantly, the diary also identifies the workers assigned to each task.
The collation and analysis of diary entries enables a closer study of how the small-scale mine functioned. Beyond identifying various mining practices, such as the seasonal scheduling of tasks and employment of jack-of-all-trades" miners often employed at small-scale mines, the richness of the diary facilitates their critical examination. In revealing work strategies peculiar to small-scale mines, the Asa Baldwin Diary serves much more than an "insiders" view of mining life, but as an excellent resource in which to understand the greater industrial experience.
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