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CULTURAL RESOURCES RESEARCH DESIGN: FERC PROJECT 184 HYDROELECTRIC CONSTRUCTION CAMPS EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES CENTER Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, California
June 2007
Cover photo. Camp C in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
CULTURAL RESOURCES RESEARCH DESIGN: FERC PROJECT 184 HYDROELECTRIC CONSTRUCTION CAMPS EL DORADO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 0906-001 Prepared by Mark Walker, M.Phil Heidi Koenig, M.A., RPA and Elaine Maryse Solari, M.A. Anthropological Studies Center Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, California phone: (707) 664‐2381 fax: (707) 664‐4155
www.sonoma.edu/projects/asc e‐mail: [email protected] Prepared for Trish Fernandez, M.A., RPA Environmental Review Specialist—Cultural Resources El Dorado Irrigation District Placerville, California June 2007
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY This research design has been prepared for the El Dorado Irrigation District (EID), El Dorado County, California, as part of their compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) for the management and treatment of historic properties. Compliance is necessary for EID’s license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for operating the El Dorado Hydroelectric Project in El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine counties, California. FERC is the lead federal agency for the project and, in this case, has authorized EID to carry out its day‐to‐day Section 106 responsibilities. The research design is for 11 construction camps associated with the 1922–1924 rehabilitation of the El Dorado Canal and construction of the El Dorado Powerhouse to determine their status as historic properties as defined by NHPA to evaluate their eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Field visits to the sites by archaeologists from the Anthropological Studies Center and EID has determined that two (2) of the sites (05‐03‐56‐830 and 05‐03‐56‐834) are so disturbed that they no longer possess research potential and evaluation is thus unnecessary. The nine (9) remaining sites will be evaluated for NRHP eligibility.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Management Summary.............................................................................................................................. i Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1 Project Description..................................................................................................................................... 2 Previous work and Site Summaries .................................................................................................. 2 2007 Field Visit ............................................................................................................................ 16 Archival Research ....................................................................................................................... 16 Historic Context ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Hydroelectric Development in California...................................................................................... 17 History Of Project 184 ....................................................................................................................... 20 The El Dorado Canal .................................................................................................................. 20 The Western States Gas & Electric Company ......................................................................... 21 Construction of the El Dorado Powerhouse System.............................................................. 22 Operation of the El Dorado Hydroelectric System, 1924–Present ....................................... 23 California Work Camps in the 1920s .............................................................................................. 25 Investigations of Rural Labor.................................................................................................... 25 Work Camp Reform.................................................................................................................... 28 The Western States Construction Camps....................................................................................... 30 Research Design ....................................................................................................................................... 43 NRHP Criteria for Evaluation ......................................................................................................... 43 Research Orientation......................................................................................................................... 44 Property Types................................................................................................................................... 45 Intrasite Property Types............................................................................................................. 46 Previous Research.............................................................................................................................. 49 Research Domains ............................................................................................................................. 51 Camp Function and Design....................................................................................................... 52 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 52 Corporate Policy and Labor ...................................................................................................... 53 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 54 Camp Conditions ........................................................................................................................ 54 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 54 Labor Stratification ..................................................................................................................... 54 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 56 Immigration and Ethnicity ........................................................................................................ 56 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 57 Gender and Family ..................................................................................................................... 57 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 59 Daily Life ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 59 Labor Organization and Legislation ........................................................................................ 60 EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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Data Requirements............................................................................................................... 60 Implementation.................................................................................................................................. 60 Assessing Integrity...................................................................................................................... 61 Association ............................................................................................................................ 62 Design .................................................................................................................................... 62 Materials ................................................................................................................................ 62 Assessing Archaeological Research Potential ............................................................................... 63 Evaluation Approach ................................................................................................................. 64 Mapping ....................................................................................................................................... 64 Metal Detection ........................................................................................................................... 64 Probing ......................................................................................................................................... 65 Surface Clearing .......................................................................................................................... 65 Excavation Units ......................................................................................................................... 65 In‐field Analyses ......................................................................................................................... 66 Reporting...................................................................................................................................... 66 References Cited....................................................................................................................................... 67
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TABLES 1. Project 184 Construction Camps .................................................................................................... 16 2. Work Camp Sanitation (after Parker 1915)................................................................................... 28 3. Project 184 Construction Camps: Buildings and Structures from Camp Plans ...................... 41 4. Anticipated Property Types, and Frequency by Camp (from 1922 Plans) .............................. 46 FIGURES 1a. Location Map—Camps A, R, K, and B............................................................................................ 6 1b. Location Map—Camps M and N..................................................................................................... 7 1c. Location Map—Camps P and T ....................................................................................................... 8 1d. Location Map—Camps S and G....................................................................................................... 9 1e. Location Map—Camp C ................................................................................................................. 10 2. 1922 Plan of Construction Camp C................................................................................................ 11 3. 1922 Plan of Construction Camps G and P .................................................................................. 12 4. 1922 Plan of Construction Camps M and S .................................................................................. 13 5. 1922 Plan of Construction Camps A, N, R, and T ....................................................................... 14 6. 1922 Plan of Construction Camps B and K................................................................................... 15 7. Panorama of Camp B....................................................................................................................... 33 8. Camp A showing tent flats ............................................................................................................. 34 9. Camp A showing tents with stovepipes ....................................................................................... 35 10. Tents at Camp T ............................................................................................................................... 36 11. Cookhouse at Camp A .................................................................................................................... 37 12. Kitchen at Camp G........................................................................................................................... 38 13. Interior of Icehouse at Camp G ...................................................................................................... 39 14. Mess hall at Camp G........................................................................................................................ 40
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INTRODUCTION The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a license to the El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) for operation of the El Dorado Hydroelectric Project (Project 184). As part of FERC’s compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), a Programmatic Agreement (PA) and associated draft Historic Properties Management Plan (HPMP) was prepared. The Project 184 area of potential effects (APE) includes private lands and lands administered by the Eldorado National Forest in Amador, Alpine, and El Dorado counties. Project 184 includes: •
storage facilities at Silver Lake, Caples Lake, Echo Lakes, Aloha Lake and Forebay Reservoir;
•
diversion and intake facilities near Kyburz, California;
•
a water conveyance system that includes the El Dorado Canal, siphons, tunnels, and pipelines; and
•
the El Dorado Power Plant near Pollock Pines on the South Fork of the American River.
Completion of the draft HPMP was required before historic properties were identified within the Project 184 APE. Historic properties are defined as cultural resources that have been determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Thus, a plan for the treatment of such properties assumes that they have been formally evaluated and found eligible under the criteria outlined in 36 CFR 60.4. Cultural resources that are determined ineligible are released from further consideration under Section 106 of the NHPA. A complete field survey of the APE was conducted and cultural resources have been identified, but their status as historic properties has not been determined. The next step in implementing the HPMP, then, is evaluating cultural resources identified within the APE to determine if they qualify as historic properties. This research design is intended to provide a framework for evaluation of 11 construction camps within the Project 184 APE to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the NRHP, and thus their status as historic properties.
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION The APE includes 11 construction camp sites in El Dorado County, California, along the South Fork of the American River from Kyburz to the El Dorado Powerhouse near Pollock Pines (Figures 1a–1e). Elevations of the sites range from 2,000 to 4,200 ft. above mean sea level (amsl). Vegetation consists primarily of coniferous forest. The camps are associated with the 1922–1924 rehabilitation of the El Dorado Canal system by the Western States Gas & Electric Company (Western States).
PREVIOUS WORK AND SITE SUMMARIES The sites were recorded and/or updated in 2002 by archaeologists from Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., and are discussed in the Project 184 HPMP (Hildebrandt and Waechter 2003).
They are summarized in the HPMP as follows (Hildebrandt and Waechter 2003:72–79): FS #05‐03‐56‐833 [Figures 1e and 2]. Also known as Western States Camp C, this site is located just west of the El Dorado Canal intake on the north bank of the South Fork of the American River. The 1922 historic plan map, on file at EID, depicts 28 tent houses (wood floor and frame structures with canvas roof and sides), as well as wood‐frame kitchen, mess hall, wood shed, bath house, foreman’s house, and toilet. Remains of Camp C today encompass an area of about 5,600 m², and are limited to dirt pads where the mess hall and bath house were located. The pad at the bath house has two large pits full of modern trash. No historic trash was seen. The site as been subjected to much past and recent ground disturbance. It lies within the portion of the APE spanning the north and south banks of the South Fork, in the vicinity of the diversion dam [2003:72]. FS #05‐03‐56‐832 [Figures 1d and 3]. Also known as Western States Camp G, this site is located at the base of a slope on the east side of Alder Creek, near its confluence with the South Fork of the American River. The 1922 historic plan map depicts 36 tent houses and several wood‐frame buildings. The latter include the foreman’s house, a bath house with a boiler, a blacksmith shop, two mess halls and a kitchen, a meat house, a store room, a gas house, and three toilets. Only a few structure pads remain of Camp G, which encompasses an area of 9,500 square meters. No other features or historic artifacts were observed. Modern cabins, a parking lot, and dirt roads, including a project access road, are on the site [the 2007 field check by ASC and EID archaeologists indicated that the site has been so disturbed by later development that evaluation would serve no purpose; 2003:72]. FS #05‐03‐56‐711 [Figures 1d and 4]. Also known as Western States Camp S, this site is located adjacent to and immediately north of the El Dorado Canal,
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in a stretch north of the Mill Creek to Bull Creek tunnel. An access road bisects the site. The 1922 historic plan map depicts 22 tent houses and several wood‐frame buildings, the latter including a bath house, mess hall and kitchen, meat house, an unspecified outbuilding, and two toilets, all covering an area of about 5,100 m². In 1993, Rood et al. recorded the portion of the site on US Forest Service property, noting that much of the site extends north on to private land. Still, Rood et al. reports this incomplete site area as much more extensive than indicated on the 1922 map, covering 47,600 square meters. Finds noted on federal property include two tent flats, two building pads, a warming shed, a trail, a spiked tree, and much historic occupation refuse. Modern trash and construction debris cover much of the National Forest portion of the site, but Rood et al. estimate that about 50% of that area is relatively intact [2003:73]. FS #05‐03‐56‐825 [Figures 1c and 5]. Also known as Western States Camp T, this site is located along Plum Creek immediately west of U.S. Forest Service road 10N08YA. The 1922 historic plan map shows five tent houses, a mess tent, a wood‐frame meat house, and a toilet, all told circumscribing an area 790 m². The 1922 plan map also notes that Camp T was abandoned October 14, 1922. No historic features or artifacts are present, only large amounts of modern trash. The site is frequently used as an informal campsite [2003:75]. FS #05‐03‐56‐830 [Figures 1c and 3]. Also known as Western States Camp P, this site is located immediately upslope from the El Dorado Canal 1.5 mi east of the Esmeralda Tunnel, at the terminus of access road 10N40M. The 1922 historic plan map depicts a dug out structure, 28 tent houses, and a wood‐ frame bath house, store house, and four toilets. A 1925 plan map shows a storage shed was added after 1922. Today, Camp P comprises 4,010 m², including a privy pit, bath house, depressions, a dugout structure, and two small dumps with historic habitation debris. The site has been disturbed by recent logging [2003:76]. FS #05‐03‐56‐834 [Figures 1b and 5]. Also known as Western States Camp N, this site is located on a flat ridgetop 0.1 mile north of the crossing of the El Dorado Canal by U.S. Forest Service road 10N40.1, and 1.5 miles east of Pacific House. The 1922 historic plan map delineates 27 tent structures, as well as a wood‐frame bath house, store house, meat house, mess hall, kitchen, office, and wood shed, in an area of 4,010 square meters. Dave Buel of EID states that Camp N was used during two construction phases, during 1910– 1920 when building the canal [N.B. this date is probably not correct and the statement in fact refers to the 1922‐24 rehabilitation of the canal], and during the 1920s by Swedes excavating the Esmeralda Tunnel. Remains of Camp N are limited to two pits where the bath house stood, each now filled with historic refuse. Some of this refuse has been removed by relic hunters. U.S. Forest Service road 10N40N bisects the site [2003:76–77]. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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FS #05‐03‐56‐823 [Figures 1b and 4]. Also known as Western States Camp M, this site is located on a north slope on the downslope side of the El Dorado Canal, due south of Fresh Pond. The 1923 historic plan map shows 26 tent houses, including kitchen and mess tents, as well as a wood‐frame wood shed, store house, and two toilets, all circumscribing an area of 3,210 square meters. Remains of Camp M observed in the field include a few possible tent flats, a gallon paint can, and two 2‐x‐12‐in. boards. The site has been heavily disturbed by recent logging [2003:77]. FS #05‐03‐56‐829 [Figures 1a and 6]. Also known as Western States Camp B, this site is located on a gentle slope just northeast of Forebay Road’s crossing of the El Dorado Canal penstock. The 1922 historic plan map shows a substantial camp with 60 tent houses. Wood‐frame structures depicted on the map include a large bath house, two smaller wash houses, tool house, engineers’ office, kitchen/mess hall, wood shed, and five toilets, all told circumscribing an area of 13,200 square meters. A 1926 plan map, however, shows only a temporary cottage, store room, garage, and wood shed. Today the site comprises two structural pads, one at the location of the former Office/Commissary or temporary cottage, the other an old car platform. An old road is also present. No historic artifacts are present [the 2007 field check by ASC archaeologists showed that site had been graded since the last recording; only the bath house floor remains extant; 2003:78]. FS #05‐03‐56‐811 [Figures 1a and 6]. Also known as Western States Camp K, this site is located at the north end of Moon Lane, one mile northwest of Pollock Pines, near the northern edge of a broad ridgetop overlooking the steep canyon of the South Fork of the American River. An access road bisects the site and the northern margin of the site lies within the canal portion of the APE. The 1922 historic plan map shows another large camp, delimiting a site area of 11,260 square meters. Features depicted on the 1922 map include 56 tent houses, as well as a wood‐frame bath house, office, two mess halls, meat house, tool house, blacksmith shop, store house, pump house, two tanks, and three toilets. The site was originally recorded by Rood (2002), who noted several scatters of historic cans but only one feature (the bath house pit noted below). Features recorded during the 2007 field check include five piles of steel shoes used to shim the old wooden penstock, a rectangular structure flat, two rectangular tent flats, one definite and one possible privy pit, a rock alignment and structure pad of the Timekeeper’s Office, a pit where the old bath house stood, and a standing structure used as the toolhouse [2003:78]. FS #05‐03‐56‐828 [Figures 1a and 5]. Also known as Western States Camp A, this site is located on a flat on a narrow ridge adjacent to the steep, narrow access road leading to the El Dorado Powerhouse. The 1922 historic plan map shows a large camp, including 47 tent houses, one of them used as the camp office. Wood‐frame structures include a blacksmith shop, mess hall and EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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kitchen, bath house, wash house, store house, and toilet. A small tramway is also shown on the map. The site area shown on the historic map is 10,950 square meters. Features recorded in the 2007 field check include numerous tent flats, and a rock foundation for the mess hall and kitchen. No formal dump was found. The few artifacts seen include a gas lantern, a wheelbarrow hub, medicine bottles, and a few cans. The site is nearly undisturbed [2003:79]. FS #05‐03‐56‐838 [Figures 1a and 5]. Also known as Western States Camp R, this site is located just downstream from the El Dorado Powerhouse. The site is bisected by an access road to the powerhouse. Camp R is shown on the 1922 historic plan on both sides of the South Fork of the American River, though most of the features were on the south bank. The south bank was the site of nine frame buildings, including two bunk houses, two offices, a bath house, store house, mess hall and kitchen, cement shed, and hoist house. North of the river, seven tent houses were used, as well as wood‐frame buildings used as a blacksmith shop, toilet, and an unspecified shed. The site area was about 5,660 square meters. Today, Camp R appears to have been almost totally destroyed. Concrete foundation walls noted at the location cannot be definitively associated with the camp, and no historic artifacts were noted [the 2007 field check by ASC and EID archaeologists confirmed that there is nothing remaining that can be definitively associated with Camp R. An evaluation of this site would serve no purpose; 2003:79].
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0
TN 0
1/2 mile 1/2
1 km
SCALE 1:24000
FS# 05-03-56-838 Camp R
FS# 05-03-56-811 Camp K
FS# 05-03-56-828 Camp A
FS# 05-03-56-829 Camp B
Sou th
Am
Fork
Figure 1a. Location Map - Camps A, R, K, and B
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a eri c n
Riv er
0
TN 0
1/2 mile 1/2 SCALE 1:24000
FS# 05-03-56-834 Camp N
FS# 05-03-56-823 Camp M
a eri c n m A
Sou th Fork
Figure 1b. Location Map - Camps M and N 7
Riv er
1 km
0
TN 0
1/2 mile 1/2 SCALE 1:24000
FS# 05-03-56-830 Camp P
FS# 05-03-56-825 Camp T
a eri c n m A
Sou th Fork
Figure 1c. Location Map - Camps P and T 8
Riv er
1 km
0
TN
1/2 mile 1/2
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SCALE 1:24000
FS# 05-03-56-711 Camp S
FS# 05-03-56-832 Camp G
a eri c n m A
Sou th Fork
Figure 1d. Location Map - Camps S and G 9
Riv er
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0
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FS# 05-03-56-833 Camp C
a eri c n m A
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Figure 1e. Location Map - Camp C 10
Riv er
1 km
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Figure 2. 1922 Map of Construction Camp C (FS# 05-03-56-833)
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Figure 3. 1922 Map of Construction Camps G (FS# 05-03-56-832) and P (FS# 05-03-56-830)
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Figure 4. 1922 Map of Construction Camps M (FS# 05-03-56-823) and S (FS# 05-03-56-711)
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Figure 5. 1922 Map of Construction Camps A (FS# 05-03-56-828), N (FS# 05-03-56-834), R (FS# 05-03-56-838), and T (FS# 05-03-56-825)
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Figure 6. 1922 Map of Construction Camps B (FS# 05-03-56-829) and K (FS# 05-03-56-811)
2007 Field Visit In January 2007, ten of the camps were visited by personnel from the Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) and EID to assess their current condition in relation to the latest site record. It was not possible to visit Camp T due to icy conditions. Table 1 lists the camps, their site records and pertinent observations from the 2007 visit. Table 1. Project 184 Construction Camps USFS designation
Camp Name
Record and Update on file
Current condition
05‐03‐56‐711
Construction Camp S
Rood 1993
Poor visibility
05‐03‐56‐811
Construction Camp K
Darcangelo 2002; Rood 2002; Wee 2002; Waechter 2003
Good
05‐03‐56‐823
Construction Camp M
Darcangelo 2002
Disturbed
05‐03‐56‐825
Construction Camp T
Darcangelo 2002
Unknown
05‐03‐56‐828
Construction Camp A
Darcangelo 2002
Good
05‐03‐56‐830
Construction Camp P
Darcangelo 2002
Good
05‐03‐56‐832
Construction Camp G
Darcangelo 2002
Extensively disturbed
05‐03‐56‐834
Construction Camp N
Darcangelo 2002
Disturbed
05‐03‐56‐838
Construction Camp R
Darcangelo 2002
No evidence of site
05‐03‐56‐829
Construction Camp B
Darcangelo 2002; Waechter 2003
Extensively disturbed
05‐03‐56‐833
Construction Camp C
Darcangelo 2002
Good
Due to their extensive disturbance, there is no purpose of evaluating Camps G and R. Although Camp B is extensively disturbed, it does possess a surviving feature in the form of the wood and concrete floor for the bath house. As this is the only such feature from any of the camps, the feature should be evaluated. Archival Research Research included a review of documents on file at the PG&E Archives in Brisbane for information on the construction camps built and used in 1922 during the renovation/rebuilding of the El Dorado Canal. Although over 100 archive boxes were pulled and inspected, very little information pertaining specifically to these camps was found. Occasional mentions of particular camps were encountered in construction ledgers and accounting records, providing a limited amount of detail on camp construction and removal. The documents contained no information on the workers who lived in the camps. Appendix A provides specific details on the search parameters, a brief description of the materials found to be potentially useful, and a list of the boxes that were searched and determined not to be pertinent. The research effort also included a review of historical photos on file at EID; in addition, EID provided historic plans of the construction camps.
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HISTORIC CONTEXT The El Dorado Hydroelectric Project along the South Fork of the American River, now owned and operated by the El Dorado Irrigation District, was built by Western States Gas & Electric Company (Western States), a subsidiary of H. M. Byllesby Engineering and Management Corporation, between 1922 and 1924. This new hydroelectric power system consisted of several high‐mountain reservoirs, an intake dam on the South Fork of the American River, and a 22‐mile‐long canal terminating at a forebay reservoir at Pollock Pines; from that point a wood‐stave pipe conduit and steel penstock led to a powerhouse below Pollock Pines on the South Fork of the American River. This system was in turn part of an older water system established in the 1870s during the era of hydraulic mining for the purpose of providing water to mining and irrigation concerns in the City of Placerville. Thus, the resources related to this water development cover a vast area from high in the mountains above 8,000 ft. in elevation on various tributaries to the South Fork and spread across three counties, down to a powerhouse on the South Fork at an elevation of only 1,889 feet. The El Dorado Hydroelectric Power Development, brought on line in 1924, is one example of dozens of similar high‐head hydroelectric plants in the Sierra Nevada that were built during the 1920s, a period of rapid growth in the electrical industry in California.
HYDROELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT IN CALIFORNIA adapted from Wee 2003 and Shoup 1990 For much of the 19th century gold mining was the primary impetus behind the development of methods to tap high‐head waterpower. As early as the 1850s, gold miners working placer deposits in the Sierra Nevada had devised complex water‐delivery systems of wooden and iron pipes, ditches, dams, and flumes. Hydraulic mining, which used high pressure waterpower to sluice gold‐bearing deposits from hillsides, required even more extensive water delivery and storage systems. Hydraulic mining as a major corporate enterprise was virtually halted in California January 1884 with the decision of Judge Sawyer in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, et al. Finding that the hydraulic mining industry was causing widespread damage by depositing its tailings into the rivers of the state, the judge ordered a halt to hydraulic mining and issued an injunction perpetually enjoining the miners from discharging their waste into the rivers (Kelley 1959:188–216). In addition to its devastating environmental impact, hydraulic mining left an important legacy to the economic development of California in the elaborate systems of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, and ditches that were subsequently utilized for irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, and municipal water systems (JRP and Caltrans 2000: 31–53). The combined length of all ditches that had been constructed in California for mining purposes by the end of the hydraulic mining era was staggering. One mining expert estimated that by 1882 there were more than 6,000 miles of main ditches, another 1,000 miles of secondary lines, and an unknown EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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larger quantity of small distributing ditches in California’s mining region. Probably no more than 24 of these ditches can be classified as large mining canals, i.e., those carrying at least 50 ft.³/second (2,000 miner’s inches) of water (De Groot 1882:161). The large ditches alone totaled about 1,750 miles in length and represented an investment of more than $11,500,000. These principal ditches diverted water from the major streams that drain the west slope of the north central Sierra Nevada—the Feather, Yuba, Bear, American, Mokelumne, Cosumnes, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne rivers. Furthermore, the technological developments of hydraulic mining influenced the hydroelectric industry. For example, the hydraulic monitor was adapted by the hydroelectric industry as a way of turning tangential waterwheels, and the ability to control the rate of water flow through a nozzle was later used in hydroelectric plants. The development of the hydroelectric industry in California was an evolutionary process that dates as far back as 1879, the year in which the Excelsior Water and Mining Company in Yuba County became the first mining company to use electricity. The company used a water‐ driven Brush dynamo to supply power to three arc lights, thus doubling its production capacity because the mine could be worked throughout the night. Another milestone also occurred in 1879, as the San Francisco‐based California Electric Light Company began operation, distributing generated electricity to local subscribers from a central station. During the 1880s, the use of electricity in California became widespread, and local electric companies began to spring up in cities throughout the state. By the 1880s, Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles all used electric motors to power streetcars or lighting for buildings and streets. Most of these motors were driven by steam converted from water through the burning of coal or wood, both costly commodities in California at the time (Myers 1983:11). While energy created from burning fuels was quite costly, hydroelectric energy— electricity created from the flow of water—was comparatively inexpensive and abundant. The Sierra Nevada provided an annual snow pack that melted throughout the spring and early summer, which in turn created numerous creeks, streams, and rivers that dropped rapidly from the mountains to the lower elevations. In terms of generating hydroelectric power, California was geographically distinct from the East where plants utilized high volumes of water flow with low heads and benefited from year‐round flow. California’s plants, in contrast, utilized high‐head and low volumes of flow usually along a watershed in the Sierra Nevada or Transverse Range. Large storage reservoirs were also required, not only to store water in the dry summer and fall seasons, but to provide carry‐over storage to ensure supplies during a prolonged period of drought (JRP and Caltrans 2000:54–55). The decades from the 1890s to 1910 were a period of experimentation in hydroelectric plant design (JRP and Caltrans 2000:54–55). The Pomona Plant of the San Antonio Light & Power Company, brought online in 1892, was the first hydroelectric facility in California to use “step‐up” AC transformers, in which the generator potential of 1,000 volts was increased to 10,000 volts for transmission. The voltage was then “stepped down” at the receiving stations. The concept of boosting voltage for transmission was a major innovation that soon became standard practice throughout the industry. The hydroelectric system of which the plant was a part was, however, far more elementary. It utilized water diverted from the San Antonio Creek through a 2,370‐ft. pipe, emerging from a tunnel 400 ft. above the floor of the canyon. A EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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penstock delivered the water to a small concrete powerhouse, which generated the energy and transmitted it to San Bernardino, a distance of 28 miles (Fowler 1923; JRP and Caltrans 2000:56– 57; Myers 1983:24–31; Williams 1997:175–176). The first high‐head hydroelectric plant in California was developed by the Nevada County Electric Company between 1892 and 1896. Water was diverted from the South Yuba River through an 18,400‐ft. wooden flume and then dropped 206 ft. through a pressure pipe to the powerhouse on the lower river. The same company built a second plant on Rock Creek in 1897 that utilized a head of 785 feet. In 1893, the Redlands Electric Light & Power Company Mill Creek Plant Number 1 became the first three‐phase alternating current plant in California, a technology that increased efficiency and reliability of power transmission (Fowler 1923:1–2). Two years later, the Folsom Powerhouse on the American River was completed; its three‐phase plant, with four 750‐kilowatt generators and 11,000‐volt transmission system, represented a significant advance over Mill Creek and was the first hydroelectric powerhouse in northern California. In the wake of Mill Creek and Folsom, enthusiasm for hydroelectric development blossomed, prompting the San Francisco Call to report, “The air of the whole Pacific Coast has all at once become filled with talk about setting up water wheels in lonely mountain places and making them give light and cheaply turn other wheels in towns miles away” (San Francisco Call, 1 June 1895 in Williams 1997:177). The first decades of the twentieth century were a period of rapid growth in the hydroelectric industry. Between 1900 and 1910 the population of California increased by 60 percent, with a consequent increased demand for electric power (Coleman 1952:257). Dozens of hydroelectric companies formed throughout California, many building new powerhouses and long‐distance transmission lines to service new and growing markets. By 1900 there were already 25 hydroelectric plants in service throughout the state, with many more to follow in the upcoming decades. The American River Electric Company’s Rock Creek Plant, later to become part of the Western States Gas & Electric System, was completed in 1903. Also in that year the Valley Counties Power Company opened its De Sabla plant on the Feather River; this plant had the highest static head of its time (1,528 ft.) and set several long‐distance transmission records. Another important plant built during this period was Great Western Power Company’s (GWPC) Big Bend plant on the Feather River in 1908, with a total generating capacity of 40,000 kilovolt amperes (kva). By 1916, the plant had been expanded to a total capacity of 65,000 kva, the largest of its time in California (Fowler 1923:275, 364; JRP 1986:96, 102; Myers 1983:44–47; Williams 1997:178–182). The extensive build‐up of hydroelectric plants in California that began around the turn of the last century continued into the early 1920s, with several large developments breaking the previously held output records. During 1923 and 1924, no fewer than 40 power plants were built or under construction in the western United States and Canadian British Columbia. Of these, half were located in California. The generating capacity of these plants ranged from less than 1,000 kilowatts to upwards of 80,000 kva and had static heads ranging from less than 100 ft. to nearly 2,500 ft. (Journal of Electricity 1924:97–98). In 1928, the two largest developments in terms of output were the Big Creek No. 3 plant (1923), run by Southern California Edison, with
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an 84,000‐kva capacity, and Pit No. 3 (1925), run by PG&E, which had an 81,000‐kva capacity (Bonner 1928:20, 118).
HISTORY OF PROJECT 184 adapted from Wee 2003 and Shoup 1990 The El Dorado Canal The El Dorado Canal, built between 1873 and 1876, was constructed during a period when hydraulic‐mining holdings in the state were being consolidated by large corporations. The reservoir and ditch system of the Canal was based upon appropriative water filings made by John Kirk and Francis A. Bishop in the 1850s and their efforts to build a canal to bring water to the hydraulic mines in Placerville. By 1873 the two men had spent more than $20,000 on the canal system, which consisted of a diversion dam at Cedar Rock on the South Fork of the American River, small dams at the outlet of Silver and Echo lakes, and a short segment of the ditch excavation on the lower end of the canal line. The El Dorado Water and Deep Gravel Mining Company (the Mining Company) acquired the water and ditch rights of Kirk and Bishop in 1873. Kirk left the project, but Bishop remained with the new company, serving on its board of directors and as supervising engineer on the canal construction project. Financed with $150,000 by a prominent group of San Francisco capitalists who had experience in California and Nevada mining and strong financial ties to the Bank of California, the El Dorado Company began by consolidating about 750 acres of mining ground above Placerville into their ownership, together with some 112 miles of distribution ditches and small canals to combine with the ditch and water rights of Kirk and Bishop on the upper South Fork of the American River. The Mining Company expanded its potential storage rights in the fall of 1873 by making claims on numerous high‐Sierra lakes and streams with potential reservoir sites. The following year the company began construction work on its major trunk line canal down the south side of the South Fork of the American River Canyon. Expectations of delivering water the following season were shattered by the realities of the difficult environmental barriers facing the project. At the end of the first year, Bishop assessed the major problem facing the construction crews: hidden boulders. Bare granite domes characteristic of the region drained by the American, Mokelumne, and Tuolumne rivers are numerous in the eastern part of the American River basin. Weathered outcrops of massive gray rock rise above steep and unstable mountain slopes containing an extensive litter of loose rock. From below Riverton to Pollock Pines, the canyon walls become less precipitous but are still quite rugged, and decomposed volcanic and sedimentary rock dominate the landscape. These topographic and geologic conditions brought both engineering problems and opportunities for Bishop. His practical solutions are what give the El Dorado Canal its extensive and unique dry‐ laid granite engineering features. During the winter of 1873–1874 Bishop readied himself for the following construction season by obtaining contract wage labor, skilled masons and blasters, and lumber contractors. He carefully mapped out a schedule of work and ascended into the Sierra in the winter to
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experiment with the use of black powder and nitro‐glycerine compounds to determine how to best induce lines of rupture that would dislodge rock in blocks suitable for construction purposes. Because of the high cost of lumber for trestles, the difficult rocky condition of the ground, and the topography of the canyon along the upper canal, neither ditching nor trestle building were economical alternatives. Bishop decided to rest flumes on a solid bed of dry‐laid granite block and rubble bench walls wherever possible. This approach economized the foundation work, because bracing and timbers for trestle substructures had to be massive timbers and custom‐cut for each use. With uniform wall foundations in place and at grade, all of the required flume lumber could be mass‐produced to pre‐set dimensions at a mill located upstream on the canal and floated down the conduit to awaiting carpenters. Constructing the canal involved an enormous work force that peaked at more than 1,200 men. Crews were housed at camps along the route of the canal in accommodations that were primarily tents and at least one boardinghouse. There were 10 to 12 camps including a large camp of Chinese laborers at Fresh Pond, a camp at the diversion dam, and camps designated as 2, 5, 7, and 10 at various locations along the route. The majority of the laborers were Chinese immigrants; up to 1,000 by mid‐July 1874 (Shoup 1990:8). In order to maintain the canal after completion, ditch tenders would walk along the boards and banks for miles checking the flume and earthen berm ditch for breaks, damage, and other problems. The ditch tenders were housed at the four numbered camps. Each camp had a frame dwelling and various outbuildings including sheds and blacksmith shops. The ditch tenders lived an isolated existence most often only the ditch tender and his family would live at the camp. They were required to order supplies to last from November through May. Many kept a small amount of livestock and hunted for the majority of their meat. A telephone system operated between the camps along the ditch line, although winter storms often brought down the poles and cut off service. The men worked in extraordinary conditions for extended hours and reportedly had only four days off a year (Shoup 1990:21). When the 26‐mile‐long main canal was completed in 1876, the Mining Company had spent $650,000, or an average of $25,000 per mile. Mile for mile, it was the most expensive canal built in California during the hydraulic mining era. Although the canal was productive, the owners had speculatively high expectations and records indicate that the income from this service fell short of what was needed to reimburse the original investment. Between 1876 and 1916, when it was acquired by Western States, ownership changed several times. In the later years the canal did not even produce enough to meet immediate expenses (Shoup 1990:16). The Western States Gas & Electric Company At least as early as 1907 there was interest in converting the canal to hydroelectric generation. These plans reached fruition in 1916 with the incorporation of the canal in to the Western States system. The canal was reconstructed in 1922, and the El Dorado Powerhouse, which would generate power from the water of the canal, was built in 1923–1924. Western States, a subsidiary of the Byllesby Engineering and Management Corporation of Chicago, was created in 1910 through the consolidation of several existing California power companies: the Stockton Gas & Electric Company, the American River Electric Corporation, the EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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Richmond Lighting Corporation, the Humboldt Gas & Electric Company, the Arcata Lighting Company, the Ferndale Electric Lighting Company, and the Fortuna Lighting Company. From these holdings, Western States established the Eureka, Richmond, and Stockton districts, each providing gas or electricity to customers in and around those communities. The Stockton district consisted of properties formerly held by American River Electric, including the 8,100‐ horsepower Rock Creek hydroelectric plant near Placerville (built in 1903), transmission lines to Stockton, a steam plant in Stockton, and local distribution systems in Placerville and Stockton. The purchase also included the El Dorado Canal, together with its three storage facilities at Echo Lakes, Medley Lakes (Lake Aloha), and Silver Lake (Fowler 1923:390–391; Tenney 1923:49). It soon became clear to the Western States executives that the Rock Creek and Stockton plants were not sufficient to satisfy the growing needs of its market in the Central Valley. By 1923, Western States was purchasing $400,000 of energy annually from outside sources, and as early as 1916, the company had begun plans to expand and add to the American River hydroelectric system. Early work included an enlarged dam at the Medley Lake and two new dams at Twin Lakes reservoir (now Caples Lake), as well as repairs to the canal that fed the Rock Creek Plant. By 1922 these upgrades to the existing system had been completed and Western States had turned its energies toward the construction of a new powerhouse. In 1921, the El Dorado Power Company, a subsidiary of Western States, filed an application with the California Railroad Commission to build the El Dorado Powerhouse and improve the old El Dorado Canal; the permit was granted in February 1922, and work on the canal began shortly thereafter. The entire project, including the restoration of the El Dorado Canal, was estimated to cost $5 million (PAR 1995:5–7; Tenney 1923:49). Construction of the El Dorado Powerhouse System Major rehabilitation work on the old canal commenced in 1922. The canal conduit was widened and re‐lined and the flumes replaced and enlarged along its entire 22‐mile length, from its Cedar Rock diversion dam on the American River near Kyburz to the new forebay at Pollock Pines. At the time of its completion in 1923, it was for all intents and purposes a new canal. Its theoretical capacity was more than doubled from about 70 to more than 150 ft.³/second, and most of the original engineering features were replaced. Two new redwood‐ stave pipe siphons were constructed above ground level across the mouths of Alder Creek and Plum Creek canyons. Flumes and ditches were enlarged with the canal being lined through long stretches with steel‐reinforced gunite shells floated into place by boat from temporary manufacturing plants located along the canal. Dry‐laid and mortared rock lining and wood panels were also used to enhance the efficiency and durability of canal segments. The old rectangular box flumes were reconstructed and reconfigured with flared sides to increase their carrying capacity. Western States also built a new rock‐filled, timber‐crib intake dam in the summer of 1923. The only original features between the diversion dam and the forebay to remain intact were the extensive rock bench foundation walls that supported the many flumes on the ditch system and two tunnels, the latter of which were both eventually enlarged and re‐ lined.
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In addition to work on the old canal, upgrades to the water‐storage system in the upper South Fork watershed were also undertaken. Three of the four reservoirs in the system required either new construction or expansion. At Twin Lakes (Caples Lake) on a tributary of the Silver Fork, construction of a new earthen storage dam and an auxiliary spillway was initiated in 1917 and completed in 1923, creating a reservoir with a storage capacity of 21,581 acre‐feet. After extensive planning, the old rock‐filled and timber‐crib dam built in 1876 at Silver Lake was enlarged and substantially reconstructed in the late 1920s to increase storage capacity from about 5,000 acre‐feet to 11,800 acre‐feet. Finally, at the Medley Lakes site, the old reservoir containing only 350 acre‐feet was enlarged between 1917 and 1923 by construction of a new main dam and eleven auxiliary dams raising the reservoir, now called Lake Aloha, to a storage capacity of about 5,350 acre‐feet (Tenney 1923 in State of California DWR 1979:50–51). New construction was also required at the lower end of the project. The El Dorado Canal emptied into a forebay that was built to a capacity of 400 acre‐ft. of water. From the forebay intake and valve house, water was released into a two and one‐half mile‐long pipeline, consisting of 66‐in. and 84‐in. wood‐stave pipe. At the end of the pipeline the water flows were controlled at a tall surge chamber and valve house at the head of the penstock. The welded steel penstock was about 4,000 ft. long with a 52‐in. diameter at the top and a 30‐in. diameter at the bottom. The penstock split at a Y‐junction near the powerhouse and provided the motive power to run the generators at the powerhouse (PAR 1995:7). One problem of construction was supplying materials to parts of the ditch that were not near any main roadway. This was mainly solved with the use of 6‐1/2‐ft.‐diameter round steel tubs that were used to float loads of cement, sand, tools, supplies, and other items down the canal. A hoist and derrick system was used to put in and take out the tubs from the water (Engineering News‐Record, 23 February 1923 in Shoup 1990:30). The powerhouse was built at an elevation of 1,889 ft. amsl, and, with the forebay at 3,797 ft. amsl, it had a static head of 1,910 feet. Two General Electric 10,000‐kw generators were installed, with plans to add up to six more units in the future. Other equipment included two Allis‐Chalmers single overhung impulse wheels, two General Electric exciters, and two Allis‐ Chalmers governors. These were considered state‐of‐the‐art at the time and found in many contemporary hydroelectric plants in California (Electrical West, 15 May 1932:370–376 cited in PAR 1995:7). Early plans of the powerhouse show a “proposed expansion” on the east side that would approximately double the original floor space and accommodate two new generators. To accommodate this expansion, the east wall of the powerhouse was built of wood‐frame, as opposed to the other walls, which were constructed of reinforced concrete. The expansion was, however, never undertaken. Operation of the El Dorado Hydroelectric System, 1924–Present As part of the 1922–1924 construction project, five new permanent ditch camps (Camps 1– 5) were built to house ditch tenders and other personnel who were needed to maintain and repair the El Dorado Canal to permit year‐round operation of the hydroelectric plant. At the head of the system were the lake tender’s cabins at Caples Lake and Silver Lake. Ditch Camp 5, located a short distance above the town of Pollock Pines and on the state highway, became the
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headquarters camp for the project. A few storage sheds were also constructed at strategic points along the canal where maintenance and emergency repair tools were stored. These sheds also served as refuge shelters where protection could be secured from the elements during severe weather. Some of these structures built in the 1920s still remain on the canal system today. Ditch tenders generally lived at the camps with their families. The term camps is a misnomer since each location included permanent standing structures and infrastructure, utilities, and even some modest landscaping. Life along the ditch was isolated despite telephone communication. Ditch tenders walked their “beat” daily checking water flows, clearing debris, and checking for damage or wear to the canal and flumes. Further information about the lives of ditch tenders is available in Baxter, Allen, and Fernandez (2006). Western States continued to own and operate the powerhouse until the company’s merger with PG&E in 1928. PG&E acquired 95 percent of the Western States stock and assumed ownership of the latter company’s properties and holdings; the California State Railroad Commission approved the merger in April of that year. Under PG&E ownership, the El Dorado Canal has been modified through routine or cyclical maintenance and repair work that introduced new materials not found on the 1922–1924 hydroelectric system. Major construction projects have also been undertaken. Among the most notable would be construction of Esmeralda Tunnel (1930–1931) and Slide Tunnel (1983–1984), replacement of the wood‐stave Alder Creek and Plum Creek siphons with a steel pipe conduit (1945–1947), and replacement of the old wood‐stave forebay‐powerhouse conduit with a steel pipe (Shoup 1990:34–40). The two PG&E tunnel projects, as well as the more recent Mill to Bull Creek tunnel, have resulted in the abandonment of long sections of the canal and flume. During the era of PG&E ownership, the El Dorado Powerhouse experienced some modifications to its original equipment and structure, most often as a result of major flooding events. The first of these events, a penstock rupture on the hillside above the powerhouse, occurred in 1943. Water and eroded soil flowed through the windows on the south side of the plant, depositing approximately six ft. of debris on the floor surrounding the turbines and generators. PG&E reacted by infilling the south window bays with concrete and constructing a concrete stream diversion wall on the west (downstream) side of the powerhouse. In 1955 the South Fork of the American River rose above the level of the floor of the powerhouse, causing damage to equipment inside. To prevent further high‐water flooding in the future, PG&E built a second concrete wall, this one on the east (upstream) side of the plant. These preventative modifications proved effective against major floods in December 1964 and February 1986. The 1964 flood was the highest on record to that date, but the floodwalls held and there was no reported damage to the powerhouse or its equipment. The flood protection measures performed well in 1986, again resulting in no damage. Perhaps the most devastating flooding event occurred in 1993, because it resulted in the closure of the powerhouse. Mechanical failure was to blame: the Unit 2 Turbine Nozzle Body failed because of a governor malfunction coupled with an undetected flaw in the original casting of the nozzle body. The resulting flood deposited four feet of water in the powerhouse and caused severe damage to electrical and mechanical equipment. EID had purchased the El Dorado Hydroelectric Project, including the powerhouse, in 1995 and completed repairs to the EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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nozzle bodies, hydraulic pressure systems, governors, and controls in 1995–1996. EID also replaced the penstock relief valves with jet deflectors at this time, thus improving control of penstock pressure rise. The most recent flooding occurred in 1997. Unusually high amounts of rainfall in late December 1996 culminated in a 100‐year flood event on the morning of January 2, 1997. The water level overflowed the flood protection wall on the upstream side and flooded the powerhouse with nine feet of water and debris. The damage to the plant included the loss of control equipment and damage to the governors and generators, as well as loss of part of a window on the east wall and a suspended foot bridge over the river. The generators and control equipment have since been replaced or repaired and protective measures to modify the concrete shell of the building to prevent further flooding are under construction. During the short time that EID has owned the project, damages resulting from fire and unstable mountain slopes have given rise to concerns about the viability of retaining certain segments of the canal. EID has placed some canal segments into pipe and the recent Mill to Bull Creek tunnel bypasses a particularly troublesome section of canal located in an area subject to massive recurring landslides. EID also built a new intake dam at Cedar Rock near Kyburz in 2001.
CALIFORNIA WORK CAMPS IN THE 1920S The 1920s were, other than a brief but very sharp recession after WWI, a period of economic expansion, at least until 1929, and for many workers a time of steady work, rising real wages, and the beginnings of the modern consumer society. It was also a time of relative industrial peace compared to the previous decade. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had been suppressed, by both legal and extralegal means, and was no longer considered a serious threat and there was a decline in union membership. The Progressive ideal of a harmony of interests between labor and capital was still an important idea during the 1920s, although hardly a universal one. California rural industry started drawing once again on a transnational migrant workforce, recruiting workers from the Philippines and Mexico. Several trends should be considered for the study of the 1922 construction camps. The economy was moving into a period of expansion after the post‐WWI slump. The labor market was relatively tight, in part due to the expanding economy, but also because of the passage of the restrictive 1917 Immigration Act. A third factor was the impact of earlier Progressive‐era investigations and reforms, particularly those of the California Commission of Immigration and Housing (CCIH). Investigations of Rural Labor During the previous decade, a nationwide eruption outburst of strikes, the growing influence of the International Workers of the World (IWW, or ʺWobbliesʺ), and the indiscriminate use of violence by corporations and government forces resulted in public, state and scholarly attention to the ʺlabor question.ʺ The end result was a general shift on the part of
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many industries from outright confrontation to cooptation, improving work conditions sufficiently to make independent organization unattractive for their workers. The violence of the 1910s, in particular the Wheatland Riot of 1913, marked a turning point in the history of California rural labor. The Wheatland Strike led to an investigation of seasonal work in California by the Commission on Industrial Relations, and the establishment of the California Commission of Immigration and Housing (CCIH). The records and recommendations of these investigators comprise an invaluable resource for understanding California rural labor in the early 20th century. There exists no comparable record until the 1930s when the internal migration of American tenant farmers from the southwest sparked another series of investigations. The presence of the IWW had also been an impetus behind the spate of investigations of rural working class life at the turn of the century. Rural labor was generally unskilled and transient, and, as such, of little interest to the craft unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Thus the IWW was for many years the only union that actively organized rural laborers (Higbie 2003:8). Their belief in ʺOne Big Union,ʺ a single union for all workers, and their rhetoric of revolution and sabotage was seen by many Americans, including other unions, as a significant threat to the social order. The State‐level CCIH and Federal‐level Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR), as well as other Progressive‐era reforms, grew out of the public awareness that the struggle between labor and capital now posed an important social problem. Numerous investigations sought to define the precise nature of the problem. In the case of transient laborers, the bread and butter of IWW organizing, the subject was so mysterious to the middle‐class professionals who comprised the reforming committees that some extraordinary measures were taken, particularly a series of ʺparticipant observationsʺ in which investigators went undercover as hobo workers in order to try to get some idea of the realities of this class of workersʹ day‐to‐day life. This work produced a wealth of detail on work camp life in the early 20th century from a variety of industries. Before Wheatland the prevailing attitude towards work camp housing might at best be described as laissez faire, especially among agriculturalists. A leading 1903 textbook, Farm Management, advised that good housing was a waste of capital as harvest workers were ʺunappreciative of attempts to provide livable surroundingsʺ and were ʺbest cared for with some cheap shelter where they can flopʺ (quoted in Street 2004:503). Conditions in other industries were probably marginally better—a workforce cannot just ʺflopʺ wherever it can when constructing canals in the Sierras. There were some notable early experiments in paternalism, especially among citrus growers, who required a more skilled workforce (Mitchell 1996:97–98). Nonetheless housing could be grim. In testimony before the CIR in 1916, one George Speed described conditions on dam construction camps on the Sacramento River, ʺWell, I have been in camps where there has been four to 500 men packed together in a camp in tiers, four tiers high, with only an alleyway of about 2 ft. between them, and then boards put on the rafters for the men to sleep on thereʺ (Walsh and Manly 1916:4937). A CCIH investigator, F.C. Mills, worked undercover at a logging camp in 1914 and noted that the workers lived four to a tent or cabin, and that there were no toilets, ʺthe hill‐sides nearby EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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being used.ʺ The water was piped from a distance, a method that Mills referred to as unclean (Woirol 1992:55–56). Diet was another element of work camp life that received attention. Street (2004) writes that most hobo farmworkers had a very regimented diet, due to an influential study of the economics of providing board for farm workers by Richard L. Adams (Street 2004:553). Because the largest of all expenditures was typically for meat, workers were usually given meat in a stew rather than whole cuts. This allowed employers to use the bones and other unsavory parts that could be easily disguised in gravy and sopped up with bread. Workers also ate meat substitutes like eggs, milk, dried fruit; and packinghouse byproducts like hog jowls, oxtails, pigsʹ feet, sausages, ʺ the lesser cuts ʺ and lamb tongue (Street 2004:553). At the other extreme lumber workers appear to have had rather good diets, regardless of how poor camp conditions were otherwise (Cornford 1987:24; Franzen 1992; Higbie 2003:39). Diet could also vary by ethnicity and individual arrangements on the part of the workers. Carleton Parker (1915) summarized the finding of the CCIH investigations on work camps. The Commission investigated 876 labor camps in California, which contained 60,813 workers, and included lumber camps, construction camps, hop camps, berry camps and highway construction camps. Of the 876, 297 (34 percent) were ʺgood;ʺ 316 (36 percent) were ʺfair;ʺ and 263 (30 percent) were ʺbad.ʺ By ʹbadʺ Parker meant there were no toilet or bathing facilities (with some of the camps having nearly 100 women and children present), the camps ʺviolated the state law with regard to the sleeping accommodations—the cubic air law that there should be 500 cubic ft. of air for every sleeper.ʺ The kitchens and dining rooms were unscreened, and in many, the bunkhouses there had no flooring (Walsh and Manly 1916:4935). ʺFairʺ camps had some accommodation, but were still below the standards established by the State Board of Health. Using the state of the toilets as a measure of sanitation at the camps, Parker listed the percent of unsanitary by industry (Table 2). Parker noted the relatively good sanitation of the railway and highway camps as being due to their operation by large corporations (Parker 1915:119) that presumably had the capital to invest in work camps. The report noted that of the 876 camps as a whole, 13 percent had no toilets, 41 percent had filthy toilets, 20.4 percent were fairly sanitary, and 23.4 percent were sanitary and fly‐ screened. Forty percent of the camps had no bathing facilities, and 39 percent had tubs or showers. Twenty‐five percent of the camps had no garbage disposal, with the kitchen refuse being allowed to accumulate indefinitely. Five hundred twenty seven camps had horses, and of these, 47 percent allowed manure to accumulate around the kitchen and mess tent (Parker 1915:119–120). Parker also observed that a ʺgood deal of the unrest which has convulsed Californiaʹs agricultural workers this year was due to the carelessness and indifferent housing of migratory casual laborersʺ (Walsh and Manly 1916:4935).
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Table 2. Work Camp Sanitation (after Parker 1915) Camp Type
ʺFilthyʺ Toilets
Fruit Camps
68%
Grape Camps
69%
Hop Camps
52%
Ranch Camps
61%
Mining Camps
37%
Lumber Camps
42%
Highway Camps
38%
Railway Camps
24%
Oil Camps
27%
An explicit part of the CCIH program was reforming the camps so that they conformed to an ʺAmerican standard of living.ʺ This was intended to assimilate some nationalities while driving out others. For example in 1926 the CCIH convinced the Guasti operation to construct a complete new camp for its Mexican farm worker families. The CCIH investigator noted that: It is worth the trip to Guasti to see just how all some of the Mexican families can be elevated ... the kitchens of this new camp are piped for gas. The Guasti Co. sells gas to the occupants for so much a month same as installment houses. I assure you that it was a pleasure for me to look into these Mexican kitchens and see the Mexican women instead of being smoked out with an old Dutch oven, standing by gas stoves like noble Anglo‐Saxons [Mitchell 1996:105]. The material improvements described here, such as piped gas, went beyond being simple amenities to make their workersʹ lives easier, but were bound up with racial ideologies and strategies for assimilating immigrant workers into a middle class idea of the American way of life. Work Camp Reform Early Progressive legislation was on one hand an effort to forestall the looming threat of class conflict in the early 20th century through the implementation of selected reforms, and was an acknowledgment that a policy of open repression was not necessarily the best response to labor agitation (Adams 1966; Gitelman 1988). These reforms were also intended as a form of social engineering. Donald Mitchell (1996) discussed this aspect of Progressive Era reforms in reference to California farmworker camps and the California Commission of Immigration and Housing (CCIH). As with much social research, the findings of these investigations were framed within the researchersʹ class backgrounds and expectations, and a mix of prevailing ideological representations of the working classes. Within social Darwinist models transient workers were EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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the losers in social competition, compelled to the margins of society by their own inadequacies. Racial models dwelt on the biological characteristics of the different ethnic groups that comprised rural laborers. Some progressive researchers saw the attitudes and worldview of transient workers as rationalizing laziness (Higbie 2003:3). Carleton Parker, the first director of the CCIH, was strongly influenced by the then‐modern field of psychology, arguing that the mindsets of migratory workers were psychological abnormalities caused by environmental conditions, that their ʺstates of conventional willfulness such as a laziness, inefficiency, destructiveness in strikes, etc., as ordinary mental disease of a functional kind, a sort of industrial psychosisʺ (Higbie 2003:88). The psychological strains experienced by migrant workers, their absence from the stabilizing influence of women and family, their rootlessness, and the degrading conditions in which they lived and worked, combined with their frustration at being unable to enjoy the ʺhigh‐end social and economic life of the American middle classʺ (Higbie 2003:87) led to their propensity to engage in irrational behavior such as working slowly or striking. For Parker, social upheavals such as Wheatland were not reactions to power, exploitation, and economics, but psychological disturbances brought about by environmental conditions (Mitchell 1996:52). Carleton Parker and many of the CCIH reformers interpreted labor violence on the part of seasonal workers as the result of pathologies brought on by unhealthy environments. Reforming these brutalizing environments would eliminate the source of the pathologies and thus eliminate strikes and other forms of labor agitation (Mitchell 1996:51). Historians and archaeologists have noted in many studies of 19th and 20th century immigration that notions of ʺAmericanismʺ included strong ideas about standards of living, public display, and had a definite material component. This could be expressed through architecture, diet, table settings, furnishings, and childrenʹs toys (Cohen 1986; Jameson 1998; Praetzellis and Praetzellis 2001) For middle class Americans in the late‐19th and early‐20th centuries, the material world served an explicit pedagogical purpose, inculcating appropriate forms of behavior and the use of modern amenities and objects. There was also a more general idea of environmental determinism, the environment in this case being an artificial one. Unpleasant environments bred unpleasant people, and vice versa. Many domestic reformers thus saw working class agitation as the result of pathologies brought about by the domestic environments in which working class people lived. Class tensions could be resolved by reforming working class home life, eliminating the source of the pathologies that led to strikes and criminal behavior. The Progressive Era reforms of the CCIH should be seen in the light of these prevailing middle class ideologies towards class tensions. The Director of the CCIH, Carleton Parker, was committed to the idea that violent eruptions such as Wheatland could be avoided by a series of environmental ʺtweaksʺ that would provide a domestic environment for workers that would make workers less pathologically inclined to strike, engage in violence, or other socially deviant behavior. Based on Parkerʹs analysis the CCIH produced a set of standardized work camp plans (CCIH:1919), in essence commencing a program of environmental fixes to the places that produced psychological disturbances. The plans were developed by one J.J. Rosenthal, a sanitary engineer, with the input of a board of prominent public health authorities. The plans EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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incorporated innovative approaches to sanitary engineering pioneering, for example, up‐to‐date sanitary toilets. The work camp program became the most important part of the CCIH activities, and in 1915 the CCIH recommendations became the Labor Camp Act of 1915. The guidelines produced by the CCIH, Advisory Pamphlet on Sanitation and Housing, form an important baseline for the archaeological study of work camps, providing a sense of socially acceptable norms for work camps, such as the number of people per tent, proper sanitation, construction, and other facilities. The degree to which employers conformed to or deviated from the guidelines is also an important topic for research (Maniery 2002). Although by the 1920s the political power of the CCIH was in decline, it had succeeded in getting some work camp legislation passed into law (the 1915 Labor Camp Act) and it maintained inspections and published guidelines for work camp construction. The CCIH work camp program started declining in importance after ca. 1919, when postwar conditions, a resurgent nativism, and a lull in labor activism lead to a gradual dismantling and bureaucratization of CCIHʹs functions (Mitchell 1996:52). Responsibility for the enforcement of the Labor Camp Act was thereafter transferred to the California Department of Industrial Relations in 1927.
THE WESTERN STATES CONSTRUCTION CAMPS To complete this massive construction project, Western States employed some 2,000 men, the majority of whom were housed in temporary construction camps along the 40 miles from the powerhouse at the lower end of the system to Caples Lake (formerly Twin Lakes) at the upper end. Most of the camps were identified by letters. While the Headquarters Camp, located near 14 Mile House (current Pollock Pines), had wood‐frame office buildings and several cottages, the typical construction camp consisted of varying numbers of tents put up on wooden frames with wood floors. Each camp employed a foreman, engineer, timekeeper, and a cook (Shoup 1990:29). The camps that concern us here are the eleven camps between the powerhouse and Kyburz; Camps A, B, C, G, K, M, N, P, R, S, and T. The numbers of buildings and structures for each of these camps, as reconstructed from the 1922 plans, is shown in Table 3. The numbers in Table 3 give some idea of the different workforces amassed for the different operations along the canal construction zone. Camps A, B, K, and R cluster down at western end of the canal, around the forebay reservoir, the pipe conduit, the penstock, and the powerhouse. These large construction projects are reflected in the size of the camps. Setting aside Camp R, which was a more permanent arrangement with frame bunkhouses as opposed to tents, these Camps A, B and K had 43, 62, and 51 tents respectively. Camp B also had a temporary cottage. The camps along the canal east of the forebay had, with one exception, from 25 to 30 tents. The exception was Camp T, which had only five tents, and may have served a specialized function. The camps had a standardized array of support structures—a kitchen, mess hall, bath house, store house, and meat house. Water was provided from tanks, as was oil and gas. Work‐ related buildings, such as blacksmith shops, tool houses, and offices occurred primarily in the camps at the western and eastern ends of the canal, with the camps in the central stretch EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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(Camps M, N, P, and T) having only wood sheds, and a semi‐subterranean structure (the “dugout” on the plan, Figure 3) at Camp P. Every camp had formal toilet facilities. It should be noted that a cursory inspection of the camps by archaeologists from the ASC and EID revealed variation from the plans at least two of the camps. At Camp P the variation was minor consisting of some additional structures not indicated on the plan. At Camp A, the difference was significant. The camp was far larger with more substantial structures than the 1922 plan indicated. The tents at the camps were typically on raised wooden platforms, regardless of whether the tents were on sloping ground or not (Figure 7), and had wooden sides. Where the slope was severe, as at Camp A, flats and terraces were constructed with retaining walls (Figure 8). The tents in many of the camps do not seem to have been heated, probably because it was summer when the photographs were taken. An exception was Camp A (Figure 9), where the photo shows stove pipes protruding from the rear flaps of the tents. Either the photo was taken later in spring or fall, or Camp A was considerably cooler due to its location in the canyon. Bedding within the tents appears to have consisted of steel cots (Figure 10). The cookhouses were relatively substantial frame buildings with well‐equipped kitchens (Figures 11 and 12). Unsurprisingly the associated refrigerated meat houses also had a substantial construction, which would be necessary for insulation (Figure 13). The main information we have on the Western States workforce comes from the reminiscences of Walter McLean, a field engineer on the project (McLean 1993). He recalls that the workers were hired like agricultural labor, through hiring halls in Stockton and Sacramento. His statement is worth quoting at length. McLean: …Most of these fellows came in through hiring halls. In those days Sacramento and Stockton had what they call labor hiring halls. If you wanted men for your construction camp you would call up Marray and Ready in Sacramento and say “I want three of four carpenters, I want so many laborers, and I want so many workers,” or something like that. And they would round them up and take them by bus to the job. Lage:
It’s reminiscent of agricultural day labor now.
McLean: Pretty much the same as agricultural labor. In other words, these people were actually labor contractors, you might call them. If you wanted laborers or cement workers or somebody like that, why you’d call Murray and Ready. Tere were also three or four other agencies. You’d call them up and say, “ Send me up x number of laborers for tomorrow, “ or the next day or something like that, see? In those days I think they used to pay a dollar a head. In other words, for every man they sent up for the job, the contractor would then pay a dollar for that particular fellow. Lage:
Pay to the labor contractor?
McLean: Yes, to the hiring group—to Murray and Ready. Then they would deduct that dollar from the worker’s first paycheck [McLean 1993:58]. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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The early 1920s came after tightened immigration restrictions from Asian countries and were a period of increasing immigration from southern and eastern Europe. Other archaeologists have noted that work forces on hydroelectric projects tend to be European and American (Maniery 2007, pers. comm.), and this may be the case for the Western States workforce. The site record for Camp N notes that the occupants were Swedish immigrants (Darcangelo and Collins 2002h). At this time Mexican immigrants were an important part of mining and road and railroad construction projects. Western States was drawing on this labor pool is unknown. McLean’s discussion of the hiring process does suggest, however, that Western States was drawing on the same pool as agricultural labor. Likewise little is known of labor relations on the project. One Floyd Poole, interviewed in 1987 by Laurence Shoup, relayed one incident that sheds light on labor relations during that place and time. Western States hired thousands of men in order to meet the established deadlines. Having little time to screen the men, the company was fearful of unions and strikes. Many of the working men were undoubtedly favorable to a union. The conservative tenor of the 1920s forced unions to oftentimes exist underground, but in place to emerge if the needs arose. Western States used spies to respond to this perceived threat. The company would have an agent dress as a workman and hire on to the project. The agent was really in place to discover the existence of a union and identify its leaders. Once, when one of these spies arrived at a construction camp, the workmen asked to see his “red card,” the membership card of the Industrial Workers of the World or the “Wobblies.” The spy was told that nobody worked at that camp unless they had a red card. The spy reported this to the company supervisors who immediately fired about 100 men or the entire camp except one (Shoup 1990:29). On the other hand McLean (1993:59) recalls that the carpenters and riggers were unionized, while the laborers and concrete workers were not.
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Figure 7. Panorama of Camp B (FS# 05‐03‐56‐829). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 8. Camp A (FS# 05‐03‐56‐828), showing tent flats. Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 9. Camp A (FS# 05‐03‐56‐828), showing tents with stovepipes. Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 10. Tents at Camp T (FS# 05‐03‐56‐825). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 11. Cookhouse at Camp A (FS# 05‐03‐56‐828). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 12. Kitchen at Camp G (FS# 05‐03‐56‐832). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 13. Interior of Icehouse at Camp G (FS# 05‐03‐56‐832). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Figure 14. Mess hall at Camp G (FS# 05‐03‐56‐832). Photo taken in 1922. Courtesy of El Dorado Irrigation District.
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Table 3. Project 184 Construction Camps: Buildings and Structures from Camp Plans
Tent
41
05‐03‐56‐ 828
05‐03‐56‐ 829
05‐03‐56‐ 833
05‐03‐56‐ 832
05‐03‐56‐ 811
05‐03‐56‐ 823
05‐03‐56‐ 834
05‐03‐56‐ 830
05‐03‐56‐ 838
05‐03‐56‐ 711
05‐03‐56‐ 825
Camp A Camp B Camp C Camp G Camp K Camp M Camp N Camp P Camp R Camp S Camp T (Figure 5) (Figure 6) (Figure 2) (Figure 3) (Figure 6) (Figure 4) (Figure 5) (Figure 3) (Figure 5) (Figure 5) (Figure 5)
43
61
23
25
50
23
26
22
4
25
4
Engineerʹs Tent
1
1
1
1
1
Cookʹs Tent
1
1
Timekeeperʹs Tent
1
1
1
1
Foremanʹs Tent
1
1
Sub‐foremanʹs Tent
1
Bunkhouse
2
Temp. Cottage
1
Kitchen
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Bath House
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Mess Hall
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Store House
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Meathouse/Refrig.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Wash Stand
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
Wash House
1
2
Office
1
1
1
1
2
Wood Shed
2
1
1
1
Commissary
1
Vegetable House
1
Pantry
1
Table 3. Project 184 Construction Camps: Buildings and Structures from Camp Plans, continued
42
05‐03‐56‐ 828
05‐03‐56‐ 829
05‐03‐56‐ 833
05‐03‐56‐ 832
05‐03‐56‐ 811
05‐03‐56‐ 823
05‐03‐56‐ 834
05‐03‐56‐ 830
05‐03‐56‐ 838
05‐03‐56‐ 711
05‐03‐56‐ 825
Camp A Camp B Camp C Camp G Camp K Camp M Camp N Camp P Camp R Camp S Camp T (Figure 5) (Figure 6) (Figure 2) (Figure 3) (Figure 6) (Figure 4) (Figure 5) (Figure 3) (Figure 5) (Figure 5) (Figure 5)
Gas and Oil Stand
1
1
1
1
1
Tank
2
2
1
1
1
Water Tank
1
Tool House
1
1
1
1
1
Blacksmith Shop
1
1
1
1
Engineerʹs Office
1
1
Car Platform
1
Garage
1
Dugout
1
Cement Shed
1
Warehouse
1
Toilet
1
5
1
2
2
2
2
3
1
2
1
Frame Building
1
1
1
1
Illegible
2
RESEARCH DESIGN In the context of a Federal undertaking, the legal significance of cultural resources is critical because it determines whether the properties ʺshould be considered for protection from destruction or impairmentʺ (36 CFR 60.2). Impacts to historic properties listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) must be considered in accordance with the regulations of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) set forth in 36 CFR 800. Cultural remains determined to be not significant usually do not require further management consideration. The process by which one determines the NRHP eligibility of a property is set out in Archaeology and Historic Preservation: Secretary of the Interiorʹs Standards and Guidelines (48 CFR 44716–44742).
NRHP CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION The significance of a historic resource is measured against the NRHP Criteria for Evaluation. The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and, a. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or b. That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or c. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or d. That have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history [36 CFR 60.4]. While examples of all categories of properties—districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects—may be judged in relation to any or all of the criteria, the significance of archaeological properties is usually assessed by applying Criterion D. This criterion stresses the importance of the information contained in an archaeological site rather than its intrinsic value as a surviving example of a type or its historical association with an important person or event. To assess whether a property is likely to contain important information, the researcher must prepare an archaeological research design. This document identifies the important questions that could be addressed by the kind of data that the property is likely to contain and that cannot be addressed using data from other sources alone. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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RESEARCH ORIENTATION At first glance work camps are not the most appealing topics. The camps themselves are often designed, reflecting only the cost efficiencies and paternalistic concerns of corporate engineering departments. With little presence in the historical record and a nondescript material culture, the inhabitants of work camps can appear as an undifferentiated conglomerate mass, without culture or ethnicity. We take the perspective that the cultures of classes—working class, capitalist, and middle class—are, like classes themselves, relational. They exist only in their relations with other classes or class segments. Working class culture does not exist outside its relations with other classes. Work camps are likewise the products of the relations between classes, between workers and their employers, albeit relations that are not on equal terms. A central notion here is the concept of power, and an awareness of the different kinds of power that exist and the conflicts between these kinds of power (Giddens 1979; Wolf 1990; Brumfiel 1992), essentially boiling down in the case of work camps to the dialectic between ʺpower overʺ and ʺpower to;ʺ the power over othersʹ lives and the power to control oneʹs own life (Miller and Tilley 1984; Paynter and McGuire 1991). The power of work camp operators is formal, institutional, and easily documented. The power of the workers in the camp is informal, heterogeneous, and rarely documented, unless it should erupt into large labor actions. Employersʹ interests are the most obvious element in work camp design. But even these interests are the outcome of class relations, as employers designed the camps in response to episodes of labor strife or in response to legislation, which is also often also the result of labor strife. And their employees react to, adapt to, and alter those designs. While work camps can inform on a number of general issues within historical archaeological research, such as consumerism, commodity flows, or local adaptations, they also have a specific and unique contribution to make to our understanding of Western history and archaeology. When considered within the framework of California labor history, work camps are one of the only material resources associated with California rural labor. Through their labor on road and railroad construction, irrigation and hydroelectric projects, and in agriculture, logging, and mining, it was largely immigrant or transient labor who built the landscape of the modern West. Yet it is a workforce for which it is singularly difficult to form an accurate historical picture. The jobs they worked, and lived, on were seasonal and temporary. The workers themselves were of little interest to the broader society unless they became perceived as a problem, either through strikes, as the object of one of the periodic eruptions of nativism among white Americans, or when the labor pool that most rural workers cycled in and out of, the indigent and unemployed, became large enough to be perceived as a social problem. For example the state and national reaction to 1914 Wheatland Riot, Kelleyʹs Army, and the expansion of the IWW, and a host of other labor struggles provided us with an important series of documents and testimonies as investigators sought to diagnose the reason for these social upheavals. Likewise the massive internal migration of southwestern tenant farmers, as well as another upsurge of labor struggle during the 1930s also sparked a series of investigations. But otherwise, as long as they were there when needed, and gone when not, rural labor was an object of little interest and thus little documented. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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This lack of documentation is a particular problem in the 1920s. The 1920s appear as a kind of lull in the history of American labor, a quiet spot between the industrial violence and repression of the 1910s and the Great Depression of the 1930s. This period is ensconced in popular memory as the ʺJazz Ageʺ—evoking images of flappers, Art Deco, and national prosperity. As it was no longer perceived as an overriding social problem, the life of labor during this period did not generate the rich documentary investigative record that it did in earlier and later decades. The historical difficulty in characterizing rural labor is exacerbated by the nature of rural labor itself. The sources historians use for demographic information, such as the U.S. census, are of limited use in reconstructing the make‐up of the rural labor force. Rural workers are often transient, moving from place to place, job to job, and industry to industry, often within the space of a few days and often on a national or international scale. There has been little detailed study of transient workers simply because tracking their lives and their movements is enormously difficult (Peck 2000:2). What we are left with in the documentary record is, at best, snapshots of these workers at specific points and places in their lives, working within specific industries, but with little way of connecting these points to form coherent narratives of these workersʹ lives or even awareness that these points might need to be connected. ʺThe conclusions we draw about laborers depend very much on where we find them in the historical record. But the course of a working life— even in the course of a few days—a laborer might be a lumberjack, a railroad worker, a farm laborer, a beggar, or a minerʺ (Higbie 2003:100). This work was seasonal and temporary. Other than a few privileged ones, most workers moved on when the job was over. They lived in a ceaseless cycle between mines, logging camps, and fields, or any other number of industries such as fruit packing, canning, or construction, hoping to accumulate enough to hold them over during the jobless winter months in cities and towns if they did not leave the state altogether. This combination of poverty, social marginalization, and mobility, often on a national and international scale, does not make for easy study or understanding. Both the documentary trail and the material trail are very scanty. As the foregoing discussion suggests, it is important to note that work camps represent only one moment in rural workersʹ lives, but often the only moment where we have material remains that can be closely associated with those lives. Isolated camps along railroads and roads become ʺcan scattersʺ or ʺcan dumps.ʺ Winter quarters in cities and towns are, at best, the archaeological remains of cheap hotels, flophouses and boardinghouses, sites that yield highly mixed assemblages without definitive associations. Work camps are the most identifiable material resource we have associated with California rural labor.
PROPERTY TYPES The National Register of Historic Places defines a property type as ʺa grouping of properties defined by common physical or associative attributes.ʺ The definition is flexible, and properly so, since what constitutes a ʺproperty typeʺ will vary by the circumstances of the
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project, the research questions, and management considerations. There are at least three scales of analysis within which property types can be defined—intrasite, site, and intersite. •
The intrasite level of analysis operates at the level of the individual features and deposits or meaningful groups of features and deposits that comprise the work camp site. These features may individually have research potential or may only have potential in relation to other features when considered in the context of the work camp as a whole.
•
The site level of analysis considers the work camp site as a single entity. Here the research potential may derive from the intrasite analysis of the features and deposits, informing on topics such as spatial organization and activity areas.
•
The intersite level of analysis considers groups of work camps. Here the purpose may be analyzing change through time, considering variation with or across different industries, or sampling from a set of standardized work camps.
Intrasite Property Types All three levels of analysis are important for the Project 184 construction camps. But while the Site and Intersite property types are self evident (ʺthe construction camp siteʺ and ʺmultiple construction camp sitesʺ), property types at the intrasite level require further definition as they are the building blocks upon which other levels of analysis will rest. Review of the historical plans for the construction of the camps, site records, and a field visit provided us with a list of anticipated relevant property types for the extant Project 184 construction camp sites (Table 4). Certain features such as roads and the El Dorado Canal or the canalʹs old flume pass through or border some of the work camp sites, but are separate sites. Table 4. Anticipated Property Types, and Frequency by Camp (from 1922 Plans)
Residential Tent
05‐03‐ 56‐828
05‐03‐ 56‐829
05‐03‐ 56‐828
05‐03‐ 56‐833
05‐03‐ 56‐823
05‐03‐ 56‐834
05‐03‐ 56‐830
05‐03‐ 56‐711
05‐03‐ 56‐825
Camp A Camp B Camp C Camp K CampM Camp N Camp P Camp S Camp T
43
23
50
23
26
22
25
4
Engineerʹs Tent
1
1
1
Cookʹs Tent
1
Timekeeperʹs Tent
1
1
1
Foremanʹs Tent
1
Support
Mess Hall
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
Kitchen
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Meathouse/Refrig
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Pantry Bath House
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Table 4. Anticipated Property Types, and Frequency by Camp (continued)
Support (cont.)
05‐03‐ 56‐828
05‐03‐ 56‐829
05‐03‐ 56‐828
05‐03‐ 56‐833
05‐03‐ 56‐823
05‐03‐ 56‐834
05‐03‐ 56‐830
05‐03‐ 56‐711
05‐03‐ 56‐825
Camp A Camp B Camp C Camp K CampM Camp N Camp P Camp S Camp T
Wash Stand
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
Wash House
1
Wood Shed
1
1
1
Store House
1
2
1
1
1
1
Office
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Tank
2
1
1
Water Tank
1
Road*
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Path
1
≥5
Tool House
1
1
1
Blacksmith Shop
1
1
1
1
Canal/Flume*
1
1
1
Refuse Disposal
Toilet
1
1
2
2
2
3
2
1
Dump
≥1
≥1
≥1
≥1
≥1
≥1
≥1
Infrastructure Gas and Oil Stand
Terrace Work
Dugout Small Tramway
*Separate linear resources that cross or border the construction camp site.
Residential features consist of those buildings in which people slept, and probably spent much of their non‐work time (Figures 7, 8, and 9). These will comprise the bulk of the properties at the intrasite level. Depending on the nature of the camp, and the company or agency running the camp, a work camp residence can range from a blanket on the ground to a large formal bunkhouse or individual family home. Differences in architecture or size can inform on issues such as stratification and segregation within the camp, as well as the quality of life. The presence or absence of architectural amenities such as stoves, flooring, screens, or glass windows are also important indictors of living conditions. The presence of food preparation and serving and consumption artifacts such as enamelware, ceramics, cans, cutlery, in the residential properties might, for example, indicate individualized food preparation and
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consumption. Early 20th‐century investigators sometimes observed that foreign‐born workers preferred to prepare their own meals to eating in the mess hall. Recreation and health‐related artifacts can provide information on area of sociability and health treatment in the camp. Support features are those properties within the camp that served to house an administrative or support function. Key functions here were board for the workers, as evidenced by a cookhouse or kitchen (Figures 11 and 12), mess hall (Figure 14); and food storage facilities (Figure 13); and hygiene, as evidenced by a shower or bathhouse. Food, its storage, preparation, and content, was a central concern of work camp life. For example, diet was probably one of the few redeeming features of life in logging camps throughout the U.S., by most accounts being plentiful and even healthful (Cornford 1987; Brashler 1991; Franzen 1992; Higbie 2003). Other workers, such as many agricultural workers, were not necessarily so fortunate. In the crowded conditions and often unhygienic conditions of work camps, facilities for washing and bathing were less a luxury than a necessity. Provisions for bathing, however, were highly variable. The CCIH recommended heated water, at least one shower per 15 people, and separate facilities for men and women (CCIH 1919), but in its investigations found facilities could be little more than a public pump or an irrigation ditch. On the other hand, some camps for Japanese workers incorporated bathhouses to accommodate Japanese traditions. Infrastructural features are the systems of features that are largely used for transport and transmission, be it of people, water, electricity, gas, or sewage. The presence of infrastructure and its condition yields information on amenities such as electricity or running water, but is also an important indicator of hygiene. Poor drainage of living areas, unpaved roads and walkways, and open drains would have been factors in the quality of life in the camp. Water sources and the filtration of drinking water are conditions that would have affected health. Refuse disposal features are the features archaeologists like the most. These may take the form of hollow refuse‐filled features such as trashpits and privies, or may be surface dumps, such as material broadcast down the nearest slope. These are of course the source of the artifacts and faunal remains that are the staples of archaeological research. But the features themselves are important. The placement of these features in relation to the residential properties and water sources is a significant factor in assessing health and sanitation practices at a camp. In relation to outhouses, the CCIH recommended one per 15 persons, and that the deposits within be regularly covered with crude oil, lime, or ashes. The development of cheap portable sanitary toilets was something of which the CCIH was particularly proud (Mitchell 1996:52). Unlike more permanent settlements, refuse disposal at work camps was generally communal. The artifacts usually cannot be associated with individual households, but represent the refuse of the entire camp. This is counterbalanced by the short time span of most camps and, relative to most urban settings, a fairly homogeneous composition. The association for a 1922 work camp dump is significantly more focused than the association for a municipal dump. The refuse can still yield significant meaningful information. Beyond the refuse itself, the nature of the disposal is important for insights into hygiene and sanitation practices at the camp. For example, burned refuse in a segregated dumping area
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suggests a greater concern with sanitation than would a scatter of faunal material immediately outside the cookhouse back door. Work features mark the boundary between the camp and the industry for which the camp existed. These features include facilities for animals, the maintenance of equipment, and storage areas for tools and materials. In some cases, such as packing houses, and blacksmith and machine shops, the feature is the actual place of work itself. These features can convey information about the nature of the work and specific technological adaptation. They can in some cases yield information about the control of work and attitudes towards work.
PREVIOUS RESEARCH Work camps are always part of a larger industrial landscape and thus research tends to fall within industry‐based categories—logging camps, mining camps, railroad camps, and so forth. The edited volume Communities Defined by Work: Life in Western Work Camps (Van Bueren 2002a) considers the phenomenon of work camps as a research topic in itself, establishing commonalities and distinctions between work camps in different industries and geographic areas, including oilfield camps, strike camps, , and aqueduct‐ and dam‐construction camps. Baxter (2002) analyzes how oilfield workers at Squaw Flat in Ventura County created a separation in work and domestic space that was not designed into the work camp. Van Bueren (2002b) discusses ethnic and class differences at the Alabama Gates Aqueduct construction camp, finding that, although there was segregation of housing, there was little in the material culture to suggest substantial class or ethnic differences. Maniery (2002) looks at health and sanitation at the 1920s Butt Valley Dam construction camp, particularly in relation to corporate compliance with the 1915 Labor Camp Act. This article is of particular value as it contains the key points of the 1920 version of the CCIH guideline as an appendix. Work camps associated with the construction of dams and hydroelectric facilities are probably the most extensively studied work camps in the West. An investigation of more than 50 dam‐construction camps in central Arizona is still by far the largest study of its kind (Rogge et al. 1994, 1995). That research focused on the work camps associated with the construction of seven dams built between the 1890s and 1940s. Rogge et al. noted after the turn of the century, most camps shifted away from almost exclusively male societies to communities with more women and children. With this shift there was an increase in community social institutions. Although managers sought to control alcohol use there was evidence of alcohol consumption and home brewing. The arrangement of the camps also became increasingly formal, with more substantial structures at later camps. The spatial layout of the camps was found to reflect social hierarchies. Prior to the 1920s the large unskilled component of the Arizona dam‐construction workforce was highly transient. Due to the tight labor market, management had a difficult time maintaining a full crew. The high numbers of Apaches and other ethnic groups in the workforce may have been due, at least in part, to that labor shortage (Bassett 1994). Rogge et al. (1994:295– 296) suggest that social differentiation within work camps may offer a fruitful avenue for research. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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Several dam‐construction camps have also been investigated in California, including two located along the upper Santa Ana River in western San Bernardino County (Foster et al. 1988) and the Relief Dam construction camp in Tuolumne County (Shoup 1989; Van Bueren 1989). Numerous camps built during the 1920s for hydroelectric development projects, stretching from the Stanislaus River to the Pit River in northern California (Maniery 1999; Baker 2001, 2002; Maniery and Compas 2002), have also been studied. The Santa Ana River construction camps investigated by Foster et al. comprise CA‐SBR‐5500H, occupied around 1905, and the Warm Springs construction camp (CA‐SBR‐5503H), first occupied in 1903 and later reused in 1926. The former camp had an unstructured organization and contained industrial features, structure pads, refuse‐disposal pits, and evidence of corporate food preparation for large numbers of workers. Foster et al. also surmised that proscriptions against alcohol use may have been responsible for the low numbers of alcoholic beverage containers at CA‐SBR‐5500H. Foster et al. (1988) found little evidence of the 1903 Warm Springs Camp and no investigations were undertaken in the area reoccupied by the highly structured 1926 camp. Both CA‐SBR‐5500H and ‐5503H, however, were evaluated as eligible for the National Register based on their potential to address topics concerning technology, spatial patterning, economics, sociocultural context, chronology, and subsistence practices. The Relief Dam construction camp in northeastern Tuolumne County was determined eligible for the National Register without excavation in 1989 (Shoup 1989). The hoistworks, cableway anchors, steam donkeys, and other equipment used to build this remote dam in the high Sierra Nevada were abandoned in place. A large flat adjacent to the dam contains numerous structure pads and an extensive refuse dump dominated by commercial‐size tin canisters, indicative of corporate food preparation at a mess hall (Van Bueren 1989). Workers lived in seven bunkhouses, while managers and a doctor lived in separate wood‐framed houses with their own associated refuse deposits. Status differences are clearly reflected in the remains found in those different parts of the camp. Excavation of the Butt Valley Dam Construction Camp 5, a National Register‐eligible site (CA‐PLU‐1245H) occupied from 1922 to 1924, resulted in an extensive data base capable of addressing topics similar to those studied by Foster et al. (1988). This was a large camp, with a machine shop, roundhouse, rows of cabins (each with a wood stove), a cookhouse, and hospital. A substation provided lighting, and a bathhouse with sump area, and wood‐lined privies large enough to accommodate four seats were at the fringes of the residential areas. Water lines transported water from large tanks to camp facilities, and wastewater from the cookhouse was removed by pipe and discharged into earthen pits with wood lids (Maniery 1999:200–209). In contrast to findings by Rogge et al. (1994) and Foster et al. (1988), at the earlier dam construction camps, Maniery (1999) found that conditions at Butt Valley were somewhat improved. Workers at Butt Valley ate moderate‐ to high‐priced meat cuts, such as roasts, ham, and leg of lamb, instead of stews. A hospital was on‐site and was identified archaeologically. There was little in the way of alcohol containers. Five other 1920s camps at Lake Almanor suggest that hydroelectric camps maintained a rigid social organization and division between workers and supervisors (Maniery and Compas EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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2002). At Camp Almanor the foremenʹs housing had running water and a sewer system, whereas laborers lived in cabins with communal latrines and outside spigots. The layout at Camp Almanor was terraced, with the administration and foreman housing located at the highest level of the camp. The terrace below the administration area contained seasonal work bunkhouses and cabins. Three camps from the 1908‐to‐1913 construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct have been investigated. These are the Narka Camp (CA‐INY‐6359H) (Tordoff and Marvin 2003), the Dove Springs Camp (Faull and Hangan 2004), and the Alabama Gates Camp (CA‐INY‐3760/H) (Costello and Marvin 1992; Tordoff 1995a, 1995b). Of these the Alabama Gates Camp site was determined eligible for the National Register, on the basis of surface evidence alone. was occupied for less than a year starting in 1912. Remains at that camp consisted in part of well‐ defined rows of tent pad outlines, associated artifact scatters, and equally well‐defined wooden house locations. Data‐recovery excavations yielded information on several topics, including camp layout, daily life, camp occupants, labor‐management relations, and the spread of technological innovations in the early 20th century (Van Bueren et al. 1999).
RESEARCH DOMAINS This section lays out eight inter‐related general themes, within which there are specific questions. The themes are: •
Camp Function and Design
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Corporate Policy and Labor
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Camp Conditions
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Labor Stratification
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Immigration and Ethnicity
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Gender and Family
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Daily Life
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Labor Organization and Legislation
The first three themes are intended to illuminate how and why the work camps were organized in certain ways and why certain settings were chosen. Proximity to work, environmental constraints, and comfort were among the factors contributing to choices of particular locations for camps. Their formal organization reflected management attitudes, sanitation considerations, laws, social factors, and environmental constraints. To address this issue, details are needed regarding the design, locations, and functions of all features within the camp. The remaining five themes focus on the life of labor in the camps, the relations with the employers, and the broader issues of labor and social history. Work camps are the result of what today is a relatively unfamiliar situation for most people—employers constructing and EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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operating living spaces for their employees, as well as providing food and other services for them. This enmeshes employees and employers in tensions that stand outside the idealized contractual relation of waged labor—individuals in the market place, exchanging a set amount of labor for a set amount of money. The isolation and mobility of rural industry entailed that employers also provide housing, food, and other services for their employees. Employers had to invest valuable capital in physical plants for which there was no possibility of financial return, and employees found themselves still subject to workplace relationships outside the workplace. The differing ways in which this non‐work relationship was interpreted, struggled over, and negotiated by workers and employing institutions is a central issue in the study of work camps. Camp Function and Design Camp Function and Design elicits basic information about the individual camps under study; what kinds of camps they were, why the individual camps were laid out, and why they had or did not have particular features. Some of these questions are resource‐specific and descriptive and, in of and of themselves, probably trivial, but once answered provide data for more interpretive questions. Some basic questions that archaeologists ask within this domain include ones along the lines of: “What property types are present within the site? How was the camp laid out?” Many of these basic descriptive questions have been answered, to a greater or lesser extent, through reference to the 1922 camp plans. It should be noted however that plans are not necessarily reality, and that in at least one case (Camp A) the archaeological site was far more extensive than the 1922 plans indicated. •
How many residences were there? How many people lived at the camp?
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What support facilities were there at the camp?
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What was the infrastructure of the camp? Was there drainage? Was there supplied water and gas? Was there electricity and for what purposes?
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What kinds of work areas are present and where are they located in relation to the residential and other areas of the camp? Were work areas and habitations segregated or interspersed and how did that impact the livability of the camp?
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Was a blacksmith shop present and, if so, how was it organized and what types of repairs and fabrication were attempted? What kinds of adaptations and innovations are indicated, if any?
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What were the environmental and structural constraints and opportunities that affected the location and design of the camp and its structures?
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What adaptations to specific environmental/work conditions are evident in the layout? Data Requirements
Documentary: camp plans, construction and maintenance ledgers, building blueprints, historical photos.
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Archaeological: sufficient focus to delimit building locations, functions and, if necessary, dimensions. Corporate Policy and Labor Corporate Policy and Labor addresses how the corporationʹs policies and attitudes towards their employees influenced the design of the camp and the facilities within it. These policies might arise from factors as diverse as genuine concern for their employees, prevalent racial or class ideologies, competition for scarce labor, or simply compliance with current legislation. An important aspect of this theme is interaction of the often ideal world of corporate planning (as reflected in blueprints, plans and regulations) and on‐the ground realities and compromises. A second aspect relates to management ideologies and attitudes towards their employees. Shoup (1990) relates an anecdote concerning the measures Western States took to prevent union organization of the construction workers. The El Dorado Canal project commenced in the immediate aftermath of the ʺRed Scareʺ and the Palmer raids of 1919–1920, a period in which radical groups, particularly the International Workers of the World (the IWW or ʺWobbliesʺ) were suppressed. Although the power of the IWW was broken, it still remained a threat, or at least was perceived to remain a threat, and many corporations carefully monitored their employees. Management ideologies during the 1920s were also the product of Progressive‐era ideas and legislation, as well as a somewhat less violently confrontational approach to labor problems. There was a general, albeit not universal, acknowledgment that potential labor problems could be defused and unions co‐opted by reforming workersʹ living and working conditions. A final factor was the relatively tight labor market of the 1920s. Holding on to a labor force required an attention to amenities and conditions that was not necessary when workers had fewer options for employment. •
Do the material remains conform to the 1922 plans, the 1915 Labor Camp Act, and CCIH guidelines? If there are differences, what are they and why did they occur?
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Does the camp reflect the labor market‐‐is there an effort to attract and hold labor through improvements, diet, and amenities?
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How does the camp layout and design reflect management approaches to labor? E.g., paternalistic, laissez faire, or racial ideologies?
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The construction effort took place during Prohibition. Did the corporation or institution impose a moral or disciplinary regimen on their workers (e.g., surveillance, Taylorism, or control of drinking)? Conversely, did the corporation tolerate certain activities that were illegal, such as drinking, or socially questionable, such as prostitution? If so, how is this reflected in the material culture?
•
Does the camp reflect efforts to control or oversee the workers and their families during unpaid time?
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•
Did management approaches vary depending on the workers in question, e.g., benevolent paternalism towards Euroamerican skilled workers and ʺbenign neglectʺ of unskilled or migrant workers? Data Requirements
Documentary: camp plans, Western States regulations for camp layout and employee conduct, California state regulations and guidelines. Archaeological: camp layout; refuse deposits; tent pads/tent clusters with associated refuse deposits; artifacts related to medicine and indulgences; residential, support, and infrastructure features. Camp Conditions Camp Conditions follows on from the corporate policy theme, but focuses on the lived experience of the camp, incorporating not only corporate design, but also alterations and adaptations by the inhabitants. These adaptations may consist of improvements, ignoring corporate policy, or simply ʺvoting with oneʹs feetʺ and quitting. •
Is there evidence that the inhabitants altered or adapted housing to suit their own needs or desires (e.g, informal features and efforts to personalize residential spaces)?
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Was there a communal dining structure and central food storage and preparation facilities or did workers prepare their own food, or both?
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What kinds of health and sanitation practices were employed at the camp? What sanitary facilities were there (e.g., showers, privies, septic tanks, cesspools)? Were sanitation facilities and housing adequate or overcrowded for the number of workers?
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How was refuse disposed of at the camp? Was refuse burned, buried, or just dumped or scattered? Was there a central dump?
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What was the spatial relationship of housing and refuse?
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Are there differences in conditions between larger and smaller camps? Data Requirements
Documentary: camp plans, camp ledgers, blueprints,
Archaeological: residential tent pads; support buildings such as mess halls and kitchens; refuse disposal features; diet‐related artifacts. Labor Stratification Labor stratification addresses the complex questions of multiple divisions among the workers, divisions that might be racial, ethnic, class or skill‐based or, more rarely in the case of work camps, gender‐based. A key point to be aware of in looking at the people who lived in work camps is they do not comprise a monolithic group. Labor is stratified. Particularly in the 19th century, most EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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industrial work consists of a large proportion of low‐paid unskilled laborers. Above this is the higher paid and more privileged group of skilled workers. A third group consists of managers, supervisors, administrative personnel, and skilled professionals, such as engineers and surveyors. Even within a single industry the workforce is often divided into multiple technical specializations. Some of these jobs are skilled, requiring workers with experience and training, while others are regarded as unskilled, simply requiring ʺa strong back.ʺ Other jobs such as engineers and surveyors are professional, requiring formal education. The divisions between skilled and unskilled workers in the 19th and 20th centuries are well documented in labor history. Skilled workers were able to gain a certain amount of control over the labor process and their wages through their monopoly of skill, often organizing into exclusive and powerful craft‐based unions. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was an association intended to defend the interests of craft unions, and had little interest in organizing workers it saw as unskilled. The reluctance of the mainstream labor movement to organize rural labor is a recurrent theme in labor history. On the other side of the equation, the bulk of the rural work force were classed as unskilled—ʺlaborer,ʺ ʺcasual worker,ʺ or some similar term in the census and other official documentation (Parker 1915). They performed physical labor that required little formal training, although performing it efficiently or even surviving the work, as in the case of blasting railroad grade, could in fact take considerable skill. The reluctance of the AFL to organize unskilled workers meant that more radical organizations, such as the International Workers of the World (IWW) and the communist Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU), played important roles in the history of rural labor in California. A second and inter‐related form of labor stratification was rooted in social attitudes towards biology and culture: race and ethnicity. Stratification by skill and stratification by race and ethnicity cannot easily be separated. Workers from certain nationalities found themselves channeled into specific industries, specific jobs, and often very different living conditions. In part this was due to the organization of labor, the labor market itself, but it was also due to racial assumptions about the capabilities and the desirability of different ethnic groups. Even when Europeans or Americans of European descent predominated in the unskilled rural labor force, their presence in this workforce was cast in quasi‐racial and biological terms (Stein 1973; Higbie 2003; Street 2004), particularly when social Darwinist theories of social stratification were dominant. In testimony before the CIR an investigator of camps in Montana noted the distinction between those living on a ʺWhite manʹs basisʺ wherein the workers received board from a commissary company, and the way in which foreign workers lived. At one railroad camp in Montana the 25 U.S. citizen workers purchased their board from the commissary company, while the 46 foreign workers (43 Bulgarians and three Russians) shared the cost of staples such as potatoes, bread, and coffee, and bought more expensive items like eggs and meat individually. At another camp in South Dakota, the inhabitants (seven Greeks and seven Romanians) all lived in six old boxcars and bought all their food communally, each chipping in 30 cents per day and buying their food in town. Another investigator, summarizing in 1915 the findings of his investigation for the CIR, noted that ʺThe term white man (also white hobo) ... EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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applies to Native or old‐time immigrant laborers, who are boarded by the employers in the camps, or who individually prepare their own meals.ʺ In contrast, ʺʹForeignersʹ or members of a ʹForeign gangʹ means chiefly newly arrived immigrants organized into their own boarding gang on a cooperative basis, having their own cook who prepares the meals according to their national customs and tastesʺ (Higbie 2003:106). •
Is stratification by skill, class, or ethnicity reflected in housing and camp layout? Does the layout reflect stratification through spatial segregation? Do the camps’ conditions reflect this and, if so, how? Are different groups of workers housed and fed differently?
•
Were there distinctions in living conditions for workers with different positions? Were some jobs, such as cook, afforded a higher status within the camp that is reflected in the material record?
•
Were there transient or seasonal workers? Were the workers skilled, unskilled, or professionals? What were their class backgrounds? Were they segregated or were conditions stratified by skill? Does the material culture of the camps reflect different expectations? If so, how? Data Requirements
Documentary: plans showing residences of certain occupations (cook, engineer, foreman, etc.), corporate or other records indicating ethnicity or nationality, corporate records indicating jobs and pay scales. Archaeological: camp layout, residential features and deposits, support and infrastructure features, refuse disposal features and deposits. Immigration and Ethnicity Immigration and Ethnicity highlights the important role of work camps in understanding immigrant labor in California. This theme concentrates on immigrants as part of rural labor, but each immigrant group also has a range of research issues specific to its historical experience that may be relevant to the study of work camps. The early 1920s were a time of rising immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, a trend that was pinched off by the 1924 Immigration Act. Mexican workers were by this time firmly established as a significant part of rural labor. Although declining, Japanese immigrants were also an important labor force. Most probably, identification of different ethnic groups in the Project 184 construction camps will be dependent on the documentary record. Without this information there will be little opportunity to address this research domain. Work camps are one of the most important archaeological resources we have relating to the immigrant history of California. In contrast to the industrial centers of the northeast, where immigrants funneled into steel working, the needle trades, and other urban trades, the driving economic engine behind immigration in California was unskilled manual labor in rural industries. The demographic make up of California is a result of the need for large temporary
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labor forces in isolated settings. The most significant industries in drawing immigrant labor were agriculture and railroad construction. Obviously not all rural labor was migrant labor and not all immigrants were alike. Scandinavian loggers and Chinese railroad workers followed different patterns of migration and migrated for different reasons. Some sought to make enough in the U.S. to return home and buy their own land, and others followed what we tend to see as the more ʺclassicʺ pattern of seeking a new home in the U.S.; yet others came simply because the U.S. was where work was available. •
What were the ethnic, racial, or cultural backgrounds of the workers? Were any of them migrants and, if so, from where? If there were migrants, what was the type of migration (chain, circular, etc.), is this reflected in the material culture, and does that reflection coincide with assumption about migratory workers (e.g., single men traveling light, families with household possessions)?
•
Is there evidence of ethnic stratification in jobs and living conditions? Were particular racial or nativist ideologies dominant in this period reflected in the camp conditions? Data Requirements
Documentary: corporate or other records indicating ethnicity or nationality, pay scale, and occupation, newspaper articles. Archaeological: residences and deposits that can be associated with ethnically or nationally distinct groups. Gender and Family Gender and Family addresses the presence of families in the camps, domestic labor, domesticity, and the construction of gender (male as well as female). There is little in the historical photos or the camp plans to suggest that families or women were present full‐time in the Project 184 work camps, but possibility of female employees or family members should not be ruled out. The only definite mention of women in the camps we have found is a mention of regular visits by prostitutes to at least one the camps (Camp B) on pay days (McLean 1993:57). Gendered labor in work camps was not necessarily waged labor. More often, if women and families were present in the camp, female gender was represented by unwaged labor. In family situations the domestic economy was generally in the hands of wives. Archaeological remains of food, drink, and other amenities are often the reflection of careful, and sometime desperate, decisions balancing household budgets and necessities. Ideas of gender and domesticity also played into work camp design and construction. For example the Americanization programs of the CCIH centered on certain notions of domesticity. As exemplified by the CCIH observer at the Guasti agricultural camp (i.e., the Mexican women standing by their gas stoves “like noble Anglo‐Saxons”) considerations of gender are often intertwined with notions of ethnicity and acculturation.
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Gender is an important consideration in another way. Gender is not only the construction of femaleness, but also maleness. The fact that work camps consisted of large numbers of single men was a source of anxiety to the CCIH and most probably to most managers, particularly given prevalent notions of working class masculinity. Constructions of masculinity were, and are, an important factor in working menʹs identity. Even today, lumberjacks are popular paragons of exaggerated masculinity. What constituted appropriate manly behavior was also subject to conflicting interpretations and change through time. In the later‐19th and into the 20th century, middle class and Victorian notions of masculinity were bound up in ideas of individuality, nativist ideas of Anglo‐Saxon virility, and the virtues of physical labor. Working class men, particularly white working class men, were often seen as typifying these virtues (Dabakis 1999). Many of the descriptions of certain kinds of camp by reformers reflect these attitudes. There is little doubt that the management tolerance of prostitution was also based on specific ideas of masculine behaviors and needs. Working‐class notions of gender and masculinity varied by ethnicity, subculture, and other divisions within the working class. Skilled and unionized workers often drew on middle‐ class ideas of gender in making their claims to social respectability and wages (Jameson 1998). The Victorian ideal of the family being supported by a single male head‐of‐household was a crucial element in working menʹs arguments for a ʺfamily wageʺ, a wage with which they could support their families in a respectable American manner. White working‐class men also incorporated ideologies of Anglo‐Saxon virility and working‐class respectability in nativist campaigns against immigrant labor. Ideals of masculinity also played a role in recreation and sociability in work camps, and conflicts over these activities. The role of alcohol in the social life of working‐class men is well documented as source of concern for middle‐class reformers, particularly during the Prohibition. The conflict and negotiation between working‐class drinking and middle‐class notions of respectability has been documented by archaeologists in a number of settings (Beaudry 1989; Beaudry, et al. 1991; Praetzellis and Praetzellis 1993; Shackel 1996; Reckner and Brighton 1999). •
Were families present in the camp? Were children present? Were they part of the waged work force?
•
Were there women workers in the camp? Was labor in the camp gendered? What jobs did men and women perform (e.g. women in the packing sheds)? Were there efforts to separate facilities by sex?
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Does the presence of families correspond to other variables such as job or class? Was having a family in camp a prerequisite of a certain class position (manager, professional, etc.)?
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How did the material world of the camp participate in the creation and maintenance of gender roles (e.g., notions of working class sociability and masculinity)? Were dominant notions of appropriate gender behavior reflected in camp layout and architecture? Were they ignored and, if so, why?
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Data Requirements Documentary: documents indicating the presence or absence of women and families in the camps; guidelines and regulations pertaining to camp discipline and moral regimen. Archaeological: camp layout; residential features; support features, refuse deposits containing domestic artifacts. Daily Life Daily Life focuses on questions of household life, particularly diet and health, as these were central to work camp conditions. More generalized historical archaeology research topics, such as those relating to consumerism and commodity flows, can also be addressed under this theme. •
What types of food were eaten by camp residents and what does that reveal about the balance struck between quality, volume, and cost? How was food obtained and supplied by the institution?
•
How and where was food prepared?
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Was meat butchered at the camp and, if so, what can be inferred about dietary uses of animals within the camp?
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Did workers supplement their diet with purchases and/or local procurement (i.e., hunting, fishing, and gathering)? What is the context of this augmentation (e.g., berries are available nearby and they are collected and preserved; or the camp operator is not providing adequate food and workers go to greater efforts to augment their supply)?
•
What was the relationship between the camp and local markets? What about more distant markets, and ultimately, what was the “reach” of the work camp and distant markets? Is there archaeological evidence of interaction with local Native American communities?
•
Is there evidence of a non‐regulated economy within the camps or between the camps and nearby communities? This would include local merchandise, as well as unsanctioned or illegal recreational activities including drug use, alcohol production and consumption, and prostitution. An oral history taken from a field engineer on the El Dorado rehabilitation notes, for example, visits by cars of prostitutes to the forebay camp (Camp B) on paydays (McLean 1993:57).
•
What kinds of health problems are indicated at the camp? To what extent did the residents of the camp treat their own medical needs? Data Requirements
Documentary: company records on camp supply and medical treatment, newspaper records, reminiscences of camp life. Archaeological: mess hall features, kitchen features, refuse deposits, diet‐related artifacts, medical artifacts, artifacts with makerʹs marks. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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Labor Organization and Legislation Labor history as an academic field was initially the study of the history of unions. In the last decades of the 20th century with the growth of social history, labor history branched out beyond its initial institutional focus to encompass unorganized workers, women, issues of gender and family, working class culture, and immigration history. One of the major areas of historical interest to which archaeology can make a significant contribution is understanding the impact of labor organization and legislation on lived conditions, as well as understanding how lived conditions contributed to labor organization and militancy, or the lack thereof. This theme places work camps in the broader framework of California rural labor history. Shoup (1990) indicates that Western States took definite precautions to forestall organization of the work camps by the IWW. While the specific case he came across was the use of company spies, there may have been other precautions, including the design of the camps for ease of surveillance or improving camp conditions to make unionization unattractive. •
What was the impact of legislation and state involvement on camp conditions?
•
Is there evidence that workers resisted efforts to regiment their time or private life by, for example, concealing sociability or gatherings? Is there evidence of sabotage in work places, for example, broken tools and equipment?
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How did labor and management respond to labor disputes and did this influence work camps? Data Requirements
Documentary: CCIH work camp guidelines; guidelines and regulations pertaining to camp discipline; Archaeological: camp layout, work features, refuse deposits with indulgences or tools, concealed features or deposits, informal alterations to residences.
IMPLEMENTATION Integrity is an essential prerequisite for NRHP‐eligibility. For most archaeological properties, integrity is a matter of the property’s research potential. This dictum, however, begs the question of the property’s physical condition. Most of the research questions in the project research design require, in addition to portable artifacts, an adequate archaeological context in the form of archaeological strata, interfaces, and features. To possess research potential, archaeological phenomena must have adequate physical integrity in the form of what James Deetz (1977) has called archaeological “focus.” By focus, Deetz refers to the level of clarity with which the archaeological remains can be seen to represent a particular phenomenon. Remains that represent a number of activities or other characteristics that cannot be separated out from one another are said to lack focus. Where focus is lacking as the result of disturbance, a property also lacks integrity. The following criteria will be used to assess integrity:
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•
Does the property have focus? That is, is it possible to interpret the behaviors that are represented by it?
•
Does the property have integrity of location and setting with respect to the arrangement of remains? That is, does the property retain a significant portion of its original contents and condition, and is it in its original location?
Properties that retain integrity will be evaluated in relation to the NRHP criteria for eligibility. For historic‐period archaeological sites, this involves assessing the property’s historical associations and information potential under Criterion D. Assessing Integrity NR Bulletin 15 defines integrity as the “ability of a property to convey its significance.” A site must have integrity to be eligible for listing on the NRHP. Although many archaeologists take the concept on its face value to mean a site’s physical condition, this is only part of the story. For a site that is being evaluated under Criterion D integrity is actually a measure of the property’s ability to yield important information—that is, whether the site has the necessary qualities to meet the data requirements of a particular research question. Even a disturbed site will meet this test if intact stratigraphy is not necessary to meet data requirements such as the presence of certain diagnostic artifacts. The NRHP Criteria for Evaluation recognizes seven aspects of integrity: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Location
The place where the property was constructed.
Design
The combination of elements that create the form, place, space, structure, and style of a property.
Setting
The physical environment of a property.
Materials
The physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property.
Workmanship
The physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given time period in history.
Feeling
A property’s expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time.
Association
The direct link between an important historic event or person and a property.
NR Bulletins 15 and 36 as well as the book by Hardesty and Little (2000) provide detailed, practical guidance on how each of these aspects of integrity should be applied. In general, archaeological properties should retain integrity of location, design, materials, and association to be important under Criterion D. There is usually no need to address setting and feeling as these characteristics rarely affect a site’s information value. Every evaluation of NRHP eligibility must discuss the aspects of integrity that are relevant to the important qualities of the site being assessed.
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Association Often many work camp features and artifact deposits cannot be associated with particular individuals or households. For example, centralized dumping locations mean that refuse deposits have a community‐wide association and cannot be associated with individual households within the community, although there certainly may be light artifact scatters that can. This is counterbalanced by the fact that work camps have a tight chronology and can be associated with particular historical events and groups of people, if not specific individuals. A community‐wide association for a work camp dump is far tighter than for a municipal one. Often, identifying a historical association for the work camp as a whole is not a problem. They can be recorded in corporate archives, or the proximity of a camp site with an extractive or construction enterprise may also provide the association. However the integrity of association can be affected by subsequent occupations. The rarity of deep hollow features with discrete and sealed artifact deposits means that work camp artifact deposits are easily contaminated by later occupations. Integrity of association entails that the work camp be relatively ʺpristine,ʺ without much in the way of later occupation, or, if there is such occupation, that the deposits have enough spatial separation to be distinguishable. Design Since work camp integrity tends to be horizontal and spatial rather than vertical and stratigraphic, integrity of design is an important part of determining the integrity of a work camp site. The shallowness of work camp features and deposits means that they are fragile and often easily destroyed or displaced through factors such as off‐road vehicular traffic or erosion, with flats disappearing and formerly discrete artifact deposits being merged into a large and indistinct smear. Integrity of design entails that the camp retain significant portions of its layout and internal structure. Materials As with integrity of design, the shallow nature of work camp deposits is an important factor in the integrity of materials. Surface or shallow refuse deposits are visible and very attractive to looters. With work camp refuse deposits, stratigraphic integrity is often not a primary concern as the deposits were usually created rapidly and had little stratigraphy to begin with. Looting will usually mean that certain classes of artifacts, such as whole bottles, will be under‐represented. Faunal remains will probably also be under‐represented due to the activity of wildlife. Lack of integrity of materials may also result from clean up and demolition after the camp had served its purpose, especially if heavy equipment was involved. The work camp may also lack integrity of materials right from the beginning, either due to energetic refuse disposal efforts in which garbage was removed a sufficient distance from the camp that association is uncertain, or due to the occupants never depositing enough for the material to have research potential.
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ASSESSING ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH POTENTIAL It is seldom necessary, or appropriate, to collect and record all possible data. Investigation strategies should consider the following factors: 1) specific data needs; 2) time and funds available to secure the data; and 3) relative cost efficiency of various strategies. The approach suggested here involves employing a set of general principles that would aid in determining which archaeological remains will be excavated and analyzed and which will not. The principles are not criteria, in that they should not be applied directly as a “test.” Rather, they are intended to guide the thoughtful consideration of a difficult issue. They will not substitute for the best judgment of a team of experienced professionals, but they may help to direct it. In this scheme, archaeological research potential is defined as the ability of a deposit to contribute to the questions identified in the research design. The principles are as follows: 1. Association. All else being equal, the research potential of an archaeological deposit that has reliable cultural, historical, or chronological associations will be higher than one whose associations are less certain. 2. Integrity. All else being equal, an archaeological phenomenon that retains good integrity will have more research potential than one whose integrity has been compromised. 3. Materials. All else being equal, the research potential of a cache of archaeological materials from a domestic context will increase with the number of items and the variety of types present. 4. Stratigraphy. All else being equal, remains from a feature or site with vertically or horizontally discrete stratification meeting the criteria herein retain importance. However, remains from an archaeological feature with a complex stratigraphic sequence representative of different events over time can have the added advantage of providing an independent chronological check on artifact diagnosis, and the interpretation of the sequence of environmental or sociocultural events. Stratigraphic integrity may not be as important in the case of redeposited prehistoric material. 5. Relative Rarity. All else being equal, remains from a group that is poorly represented in the sample universe will be more important, because of their rarity, than remains that relate to a well‐represented entity. The initial letters from the above principles of Association, Integrity, Materials, Stratigraphy and Rarity provide a simple mnemonic for use in the field and laboratory: “AIMS‐ R.” That is, archaeologists in the field can make an initial assessment of the property type encountered on the basis of what the assessment “aims are,” as represented in the mnemonic. Of course, all remains that will be encountered in the course of project activities will have the characteristics of some degree of relative association, integrity, materials, and rarity, and all will be found in some form of archaeological context. Should it become necessary, the process of evaluation would consist of comparing individual properties on the basis of these characteristics. But this evaluation cannot be done in a mechanistic fashion. A feature or site with poor physical integrity might still have research potential if its relative rarity is high.
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Evaluation Approach The evaluation of the eight camps that may possess sufficient integrity to have research potential will have two phases: archival research and fieldwork. The archival research will focus on: (a) site association, refining our knowledge of the workers in the camps; and (b) corporate policy, identifying the decisions that went into overall camp design, employee regulations, and how the camps were supplied and maintained. This should include further work in the PG&E archives, the archives of local newspapers, contacts with local historians, and, if feasible, oral history interviews. The field approach should emphasize mapping, identifying and delineating features and deposits, and sampling artifact deposits sufficiently to assess their integrity and information potential. Although they could be quite dense settlements, work camps present a distinct set of problems from town sites, and can require distinct approaches. In contrast to most urban sites, work camp sites tend to be either on the surface or very shallow and, on cursory inspection, indistinct, without the defined property boundaries, substantial architectural features, and deep stratified hollow features, like privies and wells, that town sites are likely to contain. While the nature of work camps means that the sites tend to consist mainly of surface or very shallow deposits, there are hollow features, such as sumps, that served as repositories for camp refuse, that will require deeper excavation. Most features, however, can probably be assessed through surface recording and sampling, or shallow excavation. The HPMP recommends a program of mapping, metal detection, probing, surface clearing, and excavation units. The following discussion is adapted from the HPMP (Hildebrandt and Waechter 2003:109–11). These methods are subject to change, depending on actual site/ground conditions; work will be conducted at the discretion of the Field Director. In general, evaluation work at historic archaeological sites will include a combination of detailed mapping and feature drawing, surface clearing, feature‐oriented excavation, and controlled scanning with a metal detector and fiberglass probe to determine the presence, condition, and composition of subsurface deposits. Excavations will be by stratigraphic levels and broad surface clearing of features; data will be documented using US standard nomenclature. Mapping Excavation units, newly identified features, surface‐clearing areas, and metal‐detection areas will be added to existing base maps generated during the inventory phase. To ensure rapid mapping and ready integration with GIS, mapping ideally should be accomplished with a combination of a total station and a survey‐grade GPS unit, along with compasses and tapes. Metal Detection Metal detection is useful for a variety of reasons: (1) to confirm the location of site boundaries; (2) to determine the extent of features or artifact concentrations; and (3) to detect concentrations of nails or other metal between features or across the site that could indicate the remains of structures. At the discretion of the field director or principal investigator, detection should be conducted by an experienced staff person using a top‐of‐the‐line metal detector.
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Probing Numerous depressions have been recorded at many of the sites. In some cases, these depressions correspond to privy locations plotted on historic maps of the camps and the bath house sumps. A probe should be used to ascertain if these depressions are hollow fill features, and to determine their approximate depths. The probe will also be used to estimate depth of some refuse deposits. Probing will be done in conjunction with metal detection. Once hollow features are identified through probing, excavation units (see below) will be used to quarter or cross‐section the features to identify their composition and structure. Surface Clearing Surface clearing will include systematic clearing of duff within designated units to expose all rock, artifacts, and features. Clearing will be completed primarily using rakes, due to the nature of the duff. Other hand tools, such as trowels, hoes, shovels, and hedge clippers may be used. Generally, clearing will consist of pulling duff away from a feature, leaving any artifacts in place. At sites with foundation remains, however, a grid may be laid out surrounding the structural features. Surface clearing may occur around a selected number of features representing a variety of types and locations. Stone alignments or foundations will be cleared to document size, structure, composition, and associated features or artifact areas. Surface clearing may also apply to artifact concentration areas identified on the original site record or by metal detecting. Feature clearing will be used to accurately determine the size, structure, and composition of the features and to reveal any ash deposits, surface depressions, or other anomalies. Once a feature area is cleared, a scaled drawing will be made and photographs taken to document the exposed extent of the feature and associated material. Concentrations of artifacts will be noted and should be sampled. Feature‐associated artifacts exposed during the clearing activities will be catalogued in the field by material, type, and function, and left in place. Excavation Units Two types of excavation units may be used during the field evaluation phase. Surface Transect Units (STUs) consist of small units excavated to varying depths. The STUs will be dug to test surface concentrations of artifacts, metal‐detector “hot spots,” feature‐associated deposits, and site boundaries. Generally STUs are planned to determine presence or absence of artifactual materials and depth of deposit. Artifacts from STUs will be catalogued by strata, material, type, and function, and left in place. Excavation units may range from 3 to 5 ft.² and will be used to expose and define concentrations of artifacts, depressions, or other features. In dense concentrations of refuse, one unit will be placed in the center of the concentration, and artifacts within that unit will be excavated and recorded, providing a representative sample of material contained in that deposit. Unit size will be determined by the size of the deposit. Excavation units may also be used to expose and better define structural foundations or features, or areas containing high numbers of metal‐detector readings but with little surface evidence of artifacts.
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All units will be dug using picks, shovels, and trowels. Material from the units will be passed through 1/4‐in.‐mesh screen. Level records will be completed for all units, recording cultural and non‐cultural materials, methods, and observations regarding soil texture and depth of cultural deposits. Munsell color charts will be used to standardize soil information gathered in the field. Digital or black‐and‐white photographs will be taken to document the excavation process. In-field Analyses Artifacts will be catalogued in the field to avoid collection of repetitive or fragmentary artifacts and non‐museum‐quality specimens (cans, glass and ceramic fragments, nails), to avoid curation expenses. No collection of any excavated historic‐eras artifacts is anticipated. All work will be designed to conduct the minimum amount of work necessary to determine the structure and stratigraphic integrity of a feature, artifact deposit, or site, the approximate date of deposition, functional representation, quantity of artifacts, and contextual association. Artifacts will be separated by material for cataloguing and analysis. The laboratory procedures should be designed to address relevant research questions. Generally, analytical procedures will consist of sorting, cataloguing, identifying, and interpreting the artifacts recovered during excavations, as well as processing and synthesizing the historical data collected from the archival research phase. Historical artifacts will be sorted by material type, artifact class, and provenience. Materials of limited interpretive value (e.g., small glass shards, tin can fragments) will be counted and catalogued by lot. Diagnostic specimens will be measured, described, individually catalogued and photographed (if necessary) to facilitate further analysis. Like‐items, such as tin cans of the same diameter and size, will be grouped and catalogued as one lot. The artifacts, stratigraphic data, and other information on horizontal and vertical site structure obtained during the archaeological investigations will be collectively analyzed. The goals of this analysis are to address issues such as chronology, site structure, and applicability to the stated research domains and goals. Reporting The technical report documenting archival research, fieldwork, and analyses of historic‐era remains will include the following: a historical context of the project area; a research design; methods and results, including site histories and descriptions by contextual theme; a summary of the analyses; and a National Register evaluation of each site in accordance with 36 CFR 800.4. Appendices will include pertinent feature drawings, plans or profiles, and catalogue sheets.
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Praetzellis, A., and M. Praetzellis 1993 Life and Work at the Cole and Nelson Sawmill, Sierra County, California: Archaeological Data Recovery for the Granite Chief Land Exchange. Anthropological Studies Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California. Prepared for Tahoe National Forest, Nevada City, California. 2001 Mangling Symbols of Gentility in the Wild West: Case Studies in Interpretive Archaeology. American Anthropologist 103(3):645–654. Reckner, P.E., and S.A. Brighton 1999 ‘Free From All Vicious Habits’: Archaeological Perspectives on Class Conflict and the Rhetoric of Temperance. In Confronting Class, pp. 63–86, edited by LouAnn Wurst and Robert K. Fitts. Society for Historical Archaeology Special Publication Series. Rogge, A.E., M. Keane, and D.L. McWaters 1994 The Historical Archaeology of Dam Construction Camps in Central Arizona, Volume 1: Synthesis. Prepared for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix, Arizona. Rogge, A.E., D.L. McWatters, M. Keane, and R.P. Emanuel 1995 Raising Arizona’s Dams: Daily Life, Danger, and Discrimination in the Dam Construction Camps of Central Arizona, 1890s‐1940s. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Rood, J. 2002 Primary record for FS 05‐03‐56‐811. On file, El Dorado Irrigation District, Placerville, California. Rood, J., W. Bloomer, J. Northrup, and R. Palmer 1993 Archaeological Site Record for FS 05‐03‐56‐711. On file, On file, El Dorado Irrigation District, Placerville, California. Shoup, L. 1982 Theoretical Models for Project Area History. In Final Report of the New Melones Archeological Project, California. Volume VII: Review and Synthesis of Research at Historical Sites, pp. 7–12, edited by Roberta S. Greenwood and Laurence H. Shoup. Infotec Research Incorporated. Coyote Press, Salinas, California. 1989 Cultural Resources Overview and National Register of Historic Places Significance Evaluation of Relief Dam and Vicinity, Stanislaus National Forest, Volume 1. Prepared for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco. 1990 Historical Overview and Significance Evaluation of the El Dorado Canal, El Dorado County, California, Volume 1. Prepared for Pacific Gas & Electric Company, San Francisco. Stein, W. 1973 California and the Dust Bowl Migration. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, Connecticut. Street, R.S. 2004 Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769–1913. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.
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Tenney, G.C. 1923 ‘Changing Miner’s Inches to Kilowatt Hours,’ State of California Department of Water Resources. In Dams Within Jurisdiction of the State of California, Bulletin 17‐79 (December 1979):50–51. Tordoff, J.D. 1995a Memorandum to Hans Kreutzberg, California Office of Historic Preservation concerning the Alabama Gates Aqueduct Construction Camp, dated 24 August 1995. 1995b Supplemental Historical Study Report, CA‐INY‐3760/H, the Alabama Gates Aqueduct Construction Camp. Submitted to California Department of Transportation, District 9, Bishop. Tordoff, J. D., and J. Marvin 2003 Historic Resource Evaluation Report Little Lake Rehabilitation Project. Report prepared for the California Department of Transportation, District 6, Fresno. Van Bueren, T.M. (editor) 2002a Communities Defined by Work: Life in Western Work Camps. Society for Historical Archaeology, California, Pennsylvania. Van Bueren, T.M. 1989 Cultural Resources Overview and National Register of Historic Places Significance Evaluation of Relief Dam and Vicinity, Stanislaus National Forest, Volume 2: Confidential Site Records and Maps. Prepared for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco. 2002b Struggling with Class Relations at a Los Angeles Aqueduct Construction Camp. In Communities Defined by Work: Life in Western Work Camps, pp. 28–43, edited by Thad M. Van Bueren. Society for Historical Archaeology, California, Pennsylvania. Van Bueren, T.M., J. Marvin, S. Psota, and M. Stoyka 1998 Building the Los Angeles Aqueduct: Archaeological Data Recovery at the Alabama Gates Construction Camp. Environmental Analysis Branch, Headquarters, California Department of Transportation, Sacramento. Prepared for California Department of Transportation, District 06, Environmental Analysis Branch Chief, Fresno. Walsh, F.P., and B.M. Manly 1916 Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony: Submitted to Congress by the Commission on Industrial Relations. Vol. V. U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, Washington, D.C. Wee, S. 2003 Historic Context. In Proposed Relicensing of the El Dorado Hydroelectric Project (FERC Project 184). Historic Properties Management Plan, by William R. Hildebrandt and Sharon A. Waechter. Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., Davis, California. Prepared for El Dorado Irrigation District, Placerville, California. Wee, S., and A. Walters 2002 Primary record for FS 05‐03‐56‐811/812. On file, El Dorado Irrigation District, Placerville, California. EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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Williams, J.C 1997 Energy and the Making of Modern California. University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio. Woirol, G.R. 1992 In the Floating Army: F.C. Mills on Itinerant Life in California, 1914. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois. Wolf, E. 1990 Distinguished Lecture: Facing Power—Old Insights, New Questions. American Anthropologist 92:586–595.
EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICT CONSTRUCTION CAMPS RESEARCH DESIGN
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APPENDIX A The PG&E Archives
RESEARCH METHODS AND RESULTS In 1966 PG&E established its Records Center to centrally store the company’s records. Until then, records were stored where they were generated. When the call went out to the outlying areas to obtain the old records, employees boxed the records and sent them to central storage. These early records are stored in the manner that they were originally sent in; thus, similar records were not organized and archived together. Nor was an index as to what the records contained typically provided. Circa 1971 a standard practice for record transmittal was established; however, the manner in which the records were described varied widely. Some descriptions were vague and generic; other descriptions were more detailed and useful. There are approximately 160,000 boxes in PG&Eʹs four archive facilities. Research was done in the Record Center in Brisbane, California. Records stored in the other facilities were ordered and delivered to the Brisbane facilities. The computer database for these records is only as good as the information that was provided and entered into it, often by temporary help. According to William Baxter Supervisor of Records at the Records Center, it can be hit or miss whether you find useful information at the archives. Some people have come in and been delighted with all the materials they have found. On the other hand, once a group of ten people came in and searched for days and they found little that they needed (William Baxter, personal communication 5 March 2007, 23 March 2007). The Archives database was searched as follows: Camp Names: Camp A, Camp B, Camp C, Camp G, Camp K, Camp M, Camp N, Camp P, Camp R, Camp S, and Camp T. Place Names (closest area to individual camps): Alder Creek, El Dorado Canal, El Dorado Ditch, El Dorado Power House, El Dorado Power Plant, Fresh Pond, Kyburz, Ogilby Canyon, Pollock Pines, Riverton, Silver Fork, South Fork American River AND El Dorado, and White Hall. Word Searches: 1922 Installation Blueprints Boarding House Construction Camp Ditch Camp El Dorado (this broad search produce 777 pages of results; because of time and efficiency constraints did not read word for word, but did a variety of searches within it and did a scan through it) El Dorado Development FERC 184
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Word Searches (continued): Project 184 Western States Gas and Electric Work Camp Combined Searches: Camp w/25 words of: regulations; rules; guidelines; policy; employees; El Dorado; 1922; temporary; construction; ditch; canal; Western States 1920 w/25 words of: workers; employees, laborers 1921 w/25 words of: workers; employees, laborers 1922 w/25 words of: workers; employees, laborers The descriptions of the records for these searches were then evaluated for potential usefulness. It was frequently difficult to determine how useful they would be without looking manually through the archive box. As a result over 100 boxes were inspected. Nothing relevant was found in the files pulled for the various camps. It was discovered that more than one camp would have the same letter name. Also an abbreviation after the word Camp provided false leads. Searching by location name was also not useful. This search would produce a box of hundreds of General Maintenance files from various years for the entire area. It was quickly realized that looking through these records was not an efficient use of time and hence not continued. Generally the most useful records were the construction and accounting records of the Western States Gas and Electric Company and the FERC 184 files. The potentially useful records are briefly described below. The archive boxes that were inspected but found not to be relevant are also listed so that they will not need to be rechecked in the future. POTENTIALLY USEFUL RESOURCES Box W00486 Includes Western States Gas and Electric Co. Construction Accounts – El Dorado Project, April 1922‐February 1925. Broken down into six accounts: 2‐G Grounds and Improvements; 3‐G Generating Station; 4‐G Hydraulic Equipment; 5‐G Electrical Equipment; 6‐G Auxiliary Equipment; 30‐G‐1 Expense Not Covered by Estimate; 38‐G General Transportation; 39‐G Insurance; 40‐G Local Engineering and Superintendence; 41‐G Watchmen, Waterboys, Nippers; 42‐G Field Office; 43‐G Traveling Expenses. Information on the construction camps is buried in the records; for example in 2‐G‐1 Power Plants and Improvements‐Power House Road, May 1922, “Hauling by Placerville Transfer, $17.50, Groceries to C “then from C” to A‐ 7 hrs; “Hauling‐3 spans at Camp B, 14 da. @ 3.00 per span‐by G.L. Blakely”. Records contain details of various supplies and costs, which were presumably for the construction camps but were not necessarily broken down by individual camp. Under Misc. Accounts various employees and amount paid at El Dorado Hydroelectric Plant are listed. Note that for many listings; e.g., pipe line clearing labor is listed without individual name or location. This ledger also has pages on operators’ cottages in 1923. This ledger would definitely be worth looking at in greater detail.
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Box 096153 Historical Cost Report Electric Utility. Western States Gas and Electric Company (Stockton Division) December 31, 1921. Byllesby Engineering and Management Corp. Information on El Dorado Project, pages 290‐297 “Construction in Progress to June 30, 1922.” Gives estimates for construction camps, for their salvage, for moving them, etc. Box 087112 Contains Minutes of PG&E Employees Welfare Committee, 1920–1929. Great detailed information down to individual level of whose who filed complaints, request for pension; request for religious services at Pit Camp; workers’ rights; applications for loans; pension system, etc. For example, abstract of pension application for Frank L. Harris, lake tender, operating department San Joaquin Division gives brief details of his employment for the past 23 years up through 1929. Mentions some of the camps (none of the construction camps specified) where he worked. Potential exists that other employees mentioned in these records would list whether they worked at a specific construction camp. Box 004132 Contains “Index to Mist Cost Reports, Work Orders, Construction Contracts, Constr. Authorized, Monthly Progress Reports, Improvements Req., etc. Western States G & E; Coast Valley G & E. Refers to July 8, 1922 for El Dorado Hydro Development on American river (3) Cont. No. 654. Box did not contain Cont [Contract?, Container?] No. 654. If these records could be located in the archives, they could potentially contain very useful information. Box 008877 Includes FERC Project No. 184 Unit Cost Report For Revised Statement of Actual Legitimate Original Cost Of Project as of 2/1/24 and Historical Valuation Computation of Depreciation Annuity FPC 12/31/24 To 12/31/27. Contains detailed information on Ditch Camps 1–5 that were used by ditch tenders and maintenance workers for the new El Dorado Canal. Lists the buildings and their dimensions. Also lists equipment that was housed in some of the buildings in the mid 1920s as well as storage sheds scattered along the ditch. A typescript by W.B. Rittenhouse provides details and history on the El Dorado Project. These records would definitely be worth looking at in greater detail. Even if nothing specific to the construction camps is found, they provide great information for other camps in the area within a several year period. Box 008876 Includes El Dorado Power Co Cost 12/31/24 Summary Valuation Survey of El Dorado Canal for Western States, dated December 1920 by Jerome Barieau; Unit Cost Report of Revised Statement of Actual Legitimate Original Cost of Project #184 as of 2/1/24 to 12/31/27; Work papers For Unit Cost Report For Revised Statement of Actual Legitimate Cost of Projects as of
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2/1/24; Fixed Capital Accounts; and other accounting records. At first glance, information is relevant to the canal itself rather than details on work camps. Box 005197 Includes the Annual Reports of the Western States Gas and Electric Company of [various divisions including Stockton] to the Railroad Commission of California for the years 1920–1926. Lists number of employees for El Dorado Development, but does not break down to Camp level. Provides overall all wages per year for the project, but not down to individual level. Note that in the Stockton Report it states: “All statistical data available on covering this ‘water system’ has been submitted to the commission in the case of El Dorado Water Users Association versus Western States Gas and Electric Company.ʺ Box 028019 Western States Gas and Electric Co. Minutes of the Board of Directors, Volume 5, 1922– 1925. Includes expenditures for March 1, 1922 through November 30, 1923 and broad categories. Does not break down into local level. Might find some detail on El Dorado project but doubtful down to work camp level. Includes by laws, dividends, stockholders, articles of incorporation; does not appear to contain policy or regulations as for work camps or employees etc. Box W00827 Includes Western States Gas and Electric Co. Fixed Capital 1923 Accounts. Contains construction ledger for El Dorado Division, April 1922‐January 1926. Under commissary supplies has end of month date, e.g. April 30, 1922. Lists vouchers with costs but generally leaves the description category blank, except occasionally “stores.” Similarly, freight & transportation or supplies usually description [location] left blank except when for Twin Lakes. Work broken down by type “stripping”, “cleaning”, ‘excavation”, etc. Puts labor cost total by month; not broken down more than that for each category. Some expense broken out in field offices; e.g., E. Bennett, rental of horses. . Box 015278 Appraisal of Western States Gas & Electric for 1931, adjusted to 1927/28. Does not provide information on 1922 construction work camps but provides detailed descriptions of buildings for other projects such as the operator’s residence No. 2398 at Finnon Reservoir (American River Project) and value of buildings at Twin Lake and Silver Lake. Box W02025 Contains basically a library of articles new and old on PG&E and its activities. Includes PG&E Place Names, compiled by Virginia Borland in 1957; various histories of PG&E and its corporate predecessors; a PG&E organization history; a typescript “Hydro‐Electric
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Development, 1895–1925, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Subsidiaries; and photocopies of numerous magazine and other articles beginning in 1915. At first glance, nothing on construction camps but potentially useful for historic context. Box 069727 Western States Gas & Electric Records, 1916–1932. Files for 1921–1922 have nothing on construction camps. Box contains a variety of copies of the publication “PG&E Progress” including some in the mid 1920s. One contained a section called “On the Job with the ‘Old Timers.’” If interviews or information on “Old Timers” was a regular feature, it could be a potentially useful source to browse. Box W01859 Contains a wide collection of early manuals and catalogs. Not relevant for construction camps per se, put useful for identification of artifacts found in the field, particularly those pertaining to early electrical supplies such as porcelain insulators. Also contains a small pamphlet “Rules and Regulations for employee, PG&E, 1912 [some general rules, but mainly operations instructions] and a Manual of Working Conditions for Employees on Daily and Weekly Rates, effective October 1, 1937. Photographs Didn’t look at photographs because previously had been done. During computer searches found numerous references to photographs of the El Dorado Project in the early 1920s including Boxes W00226; W00742; W00743 W00744; W00745; and W02176.
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BOXES CHECKED THAT DID NOT CONTAIN USEFUL INFORMATION Archive Boxes that were searched for information on the 1922 Construction Camps in El Dorado that did not contain useful information are set forth below. Some of the boxes contained unorganized materials or hundreds of files with no index indicating which file the information would be. In those instances it was determined that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and thus it would not be productive to search those files. The abbreviation GM stands for “General Maintenance File.” BOX
BOX
BOX
W00468 W00468 W00469 W00474 W00826 W00833 W01064 W01093 W01191 W01204 W02017 W04142 W04683 002153 003598 004130 004131 004133 004436 004683 004684 004684 005197 005711 009890 011625 012544 014159 015340 015350
015351 015352 022132 023348 026010 026010 028020 029225 034039 034328 035061 035470 032721, GM 11554 048361 032835, GM 15553 050263 032963, GM 19849 051729, GM 45 5990 063332 067486 067487 069683 069726 034276, GM 57332 034342, GM 59406 053075, GM 174526 058474, GM 180443 058476, GM 180475 058749, GM 181506 085897, GM 176075
085974, GM 176642 085983, GM 176755 086035, GM 176979 086201, GM 178425 086206, GM 178523 086208, GM 178556 086347, GM 179389 0266894 0269165, GM 59406 086203, GM 178469; 178471 051747, GM 456528 051810, GM 457734 051968, GM 460091 052040, GM 461549 052103, GM 462716 052146, GM 463240 052149, GM 463318 052322, GM 465748 052404, GM 467133 052411, GM 467287 052462, GM 467966 052525, GM 468939 052681, GM 470990 052710, GM 471706 052818, GM 473108 052835, GM 473513 052233, GM 464769; 464773 052875, GM 473949; 473950 052945, GM 475149; 475384; 475393
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