The final report
on the Barnette Street Archaeological Project presents the results of
five years of research on the early 20th century historic archaeology of
Fairbanks, Alaska. This project was funded by the Federal Highway Administration
and administered by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public
Facilities as part of a Section 106 testing and mitigation program associated
with a proposed bridge across the Chena River. Research was undertaken
by Hart Crowser, Inc., in association with Northern Land Use Research,
Inc. of Fairbanks.
This recently-completed research of the
Fairbanks waterfront has refined our understanding of the community's transition
from frontier trading post to urban center during the early 20th Century.
The Barnette Street Archaeological Project comprised the excavation of
a pre-1904 cabin, the cellars of two early saloons, and the Northern Commercial
Company dock and warehouse, all located within the core of the town's original
commercial district. More than 100,000 well-preserved artifacts were recovered,
including much material relating to waterfront saloon life (e.g., full
whiskey and beer bottles, coins, trade tokens, gaming pieces, condiment
containers, and a gold poke bearing the label of the Washington-Alaska
bank). Data derived from archaeological and historical sources help to
characterize cultural aspects of the early saloons, gold-rush driven selection
and transportation of goods, construction techniques, and the town's continual
struggle with floods and fires. Interpretation of gold rush and steamboat
era material culture suggests that urbanization took place rapidly during
the heyday of the early bonanza mining period. Fairbanks was, in effect,
on the periphery of the Klondike sphere of influence during its earliest
two to three years, but quickly became the core and urban center for the
burgeoning Fairbanks Mining District.
The final report on the project is being
released on compact disk. This interactive CD-ROM combines text, hundreds
of color photographs, black and white photographs, tables, graphs,
artifact descriptions, an illustrated trademark and manufacturer mark catalog,
and a summary of the project database. The CD is expected to be released
on an initial run of 1,000 copies in late 1998.
Report Title: Historic Development of the Chena
River Waterfront, Fairbanks, Alaska: An Archaeological Perspective.
Edited and Compiled by Peter Bowers and Brian Gannon (1998) Alaska Department
of Transportation and Public Facilities, Fairbanks (Report on CD-ROM).
Historic Development of the Chena
River Waterfront
Fairbanks, Alaska: An Archaeological
Perspective
"Click on the CD above to view the report"
As a public educational service, we have included
parts of the Barnette CD final report on the NLUR web site. Because
the CD file size is so large, it is not practical to include the entire
document, and we have had to reduce the resolution of photographs. We have
included the introductory sections: "About", "Help", "Database Overview",
and "Report Table of Contents". Included also is the text of the Prologue
by noted Alaskan Historian Dr. Terrence Cole, as well as the introductory
sections to several of the book's chapters. A full list of Project Participants
and Acknowledgements is given in Appendix A11. Finally, we have posted
just a few example photographs and illustrations out of the hundreds contained
on the CD. We hope you enjoy this introduction to the Barnette Archaeology
Project; if you're interested in ordering the CD, please contact us.
To obtain further information or to request
a copy of the CD, contact:
Peter M. Bowers
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
P.O. Box 83990
Fairbanks, Alaska 99708
Phone: (907) 474-9684
If you are interested in any of our technical
reports or publications, send an email request to
Northern
Land Use Research, Inc., nlur@alaska.net
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