March 2004 - Society for California Archaeology

Founded 1966 Volume 38, Number 1 

March 2004 

See you at the Annual Meeting, 17-20 March, Riverside!

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Society for California Archaeology Newsletter 

Volume 38, Number 1, March 2004 

A quarterly newsletter of articles and information essential 

to California archaeology. Contributions are welcome. 

Lead articles should be 1,500-2,000 words. Longer articles 

may appear in installments. Send submissions as hard 

copy or on diskette to: SCA Newsletter, Department of 

Anthropology, CSU Chico, Chico CA 95929-0400 or as 

email or attachments to: 

 

The SCA Executive Board encourages publication of a 

wide range of opinions on issues pertinent to California 

archaeology. Opinions, commentary, and editorials 

appearing in the Newslette represent the views of the 

authors, and not necessarily those of the Board or Editor. 

Lead article authors should be aware that their articles 

may appear on the SCA web site, unless they request 

otherwise. 

Editorial Staff 

Managing Editor . . . . . . . Greg White (530) 898-4360 

Editorial Assistance . Melinda Pacheco (530) 898-5733 

Contributing Editors 

Avocational News . . . . . Jerry Dudley/Myra Herrmann 

Curation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cindy Stankowski 

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Gorden 

Federal Agency News . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russ Kaldenberg 

Historical Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . open 

Information Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lynn Compas 

Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stacy Schneyder Case 

New Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Denise Thomas 

OHP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael McGuirt 

Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Bryne 

CASSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris and Beth Padon 

State Agency News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . open 

Newsletter Deadlines 

For Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deadline 

March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 20 

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September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 20 

December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 20 

Calendar Submissions 

position open: . . . . . . . . . . . temporarily send submissions 

to gwhite@csuchico.edu 

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Ads that run three or more consecutive issues receive a 

15% discount. 

Regular Features 

From the President 

Elena Nilsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 

SCA Business and Activities 

Native American Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

Legislative Liaison Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

Site Stewardship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

News and Announcements 

Table Bluff Rancheria THPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

New ACHP Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

11 th Annual SIL Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

75 th Annual SWAA Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Field Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Annual Meeting Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 

Out of the Pits 

Comment on Indian Pass, 

Imperial County, California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Articles 

Angel Island Immigration Station 

Trish Fernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

Indians’ Hidden Paintings Open Window to 

San Francisco’s Sacred Past 

Carl Nolte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 

Preliminary Condition Assessment 

Building 50, Presidio of San Francisco, California 

Anthony Crosby, Sannie Kenton Osborn, Vance Bente’, Leo Barker, 

Megan Wilkinson, Eric Blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 

Culture Contact at El Presidio De San Francisco: 

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project 

Barbara Voss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 

The San Francisco West Approach Project: 

Unearthing San Francisco’s Accidental 19 th Century Time Capsules 

Jack McIlroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

A Brief History of Russell City, California 

Megan Wilkinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

SCA Newsletter 38(1)

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I’m looking forward to seeing all of 

you March 17-21 st at the SCA 38 th 

Annual Meeting in Riverside. The 

Annual Meeting is the Society’s 

principal event and a time for all 

members to reacquaint themselves 

with friends, share their research, learn 

of new projects and studies, and honor 

those who have made a lasting 

contribution to our profession. Mike 

Lerch, Program and Local 

Arrangement Chairperson, has 

diligently crafted an impressive 

program of some 15 organized 

symposia and more than 120 papers, 

informative workshops, and a host of 

social events for all to enjoy. 

Highlights of the Annual Meeting 

include Thursday’s plenary session on 

DNA Contributions to Archaeology 

and the all-day Saturday session 

commemorating the 20th anniversary 

of major contributions to California 

archaeology by Michael Moratto and 

Joseph and Kerry Chartkoff. The 

Saturday session will be open to the 

public and will conclude with a 

reception where SCA members and 

the public may visit with the original 

authors and current speakers. Thursday 

evening, the Silent Auction will be 

held in nearby Redlands at the offices 

and courtyard of Statistical Research, 

located in a restored 1890 brick 

warehouse in the Santa Fe Depot 

National Register District. The Friday 

night Awards Banquet will feature 

keynote speaker Dr. John Rick, who 

will present a program on his research 

at Chavín de Huántar, Peru. Don’t 

miss out on all the great papers, 

events, and socializing with your 

friends. 

The long-awaited Volume 14 of the 

Proceedings has been delivered to the 

printer, and we anticipate its 

distribution at the Annual Meeting, 

along with Volume 17, the 

compendium of last year’s Annual 

Meeting Papers. Just two more reasons 

why you should make sure you come 

to Riverside. 

The Committee for Advanced 

Annual Meeting Planning (CAAMP), 

spearheaded by Tom Origer, has been 

hard at work securing hotels for future 

meetings. Through their efforts, the 

2005 Annual Meeting will be held at 

the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento and 

the 2006 Annual Meeting at the 

Marriott in Ventura. Potential sites are 

being considered for the 2007 and 

2008 Annual Meetings, and given the 

high energy of the CAAMP members, 

I’m sure it won’t be long until you see 

final venues being reported. 

By now, many of you have visited 

the SCA’s new website and have found 

its content and layout much improved 

over its predecessor. The first phase of 

the retooling effort focused on 

uploading and updating basic 

elements, such as information 

regarding the SCA, membership, 

meetings and events, and job 

resources. Subsequent phases will 

include pages on the Society’s awards, 

careers in archaeology, interviews with 

past key note speakers, volunteer 

opportunities, field schools, links to 

other historic preservation and 

archaeology home pages, government 

affairs/laws and regulations, and 

Native American issues. The new 

website is has been realized through 

the collective efforts of Greg White, 

SCA Business Office Manager, Past 

President Dana McGowan, and 

Southern Vice-President Terry Jones, 

all of whom worked diligently to 

ensure its on-line arrival in January. 

The SCA Executive Board held its 

quarterly Board Meeting in January, 

where the 2004 Budget was a primary 

topic of 

(continued page 15) 

From the President 

SCA Executive Board 2002-2003 2003-2004 

President: Elena Dana Nilsson, McGowan, URS Jones&Stokes Corporation, Associates, 1550 

2600 Humboldt V Street, Road, Sacramento, Suite #2, Chico, CA 95818; CA 95928; 

W: (916) (530) 739-3095; 893-9675. email: dmcgowan@jsanet.com 

elena_nilsson@urscorp.com 

Immediate Past President: Sannie Dana McGowan, K. Osborn, Presidio 

Trust Jones&Stokes Building, Associates, 230 Gorgas 2600 Avenue, V Street, P.O. Sacramento, Box 29052, CA San 

Francisco, 95818; W: CA (916) 94129-0052; 739-3095; W: (415) 561-5090. 

email: sosborn@presidiotrust.gov 

dmcgowan@jsanet.com 

President-Elect: Elena Amy Gilreath, Nilsson, Far URS Western Corporation, 1550 

Humboldt Anthropological Road, Research Suite #2, Chico, Group, CA Inc., 95928; 2727 Del Rio 

W: Place, (530) Suite 893-9675. A, Davis, email: CA 95616; elena_nilsson@urscorp.com 

W: (530) 756-3941. email: amyj@farwestern.com 

Southern Vice-President: Thomas L. Wheeler, Caltrans 

SLO, Southern 50 Higuera Vice-President: Street, San Terry Luis Jones, Obispo, Social CA 93401; Sciences 

W Department, (805) 549-3777; CalPoly, H (805) San Luis 547-0763; Obispo, 1 Grand Avenue, 

Fax: San Luis (805) Obispo, 549-3233; CA 93407; email: 2thomas@cwo.com 

W (805) 756-2523; email: tljones@calpoly.edu 

Northern Vice-President: Richard Fitzgerald, Caltrans, 

District Northern 04, Vice-President: 111 Grand Ave., Richard Oakland Fitzgerald, , CA; 94623-0660 Caltrans, 

(W) District 51004, 622-1747; 111 Grand (H) Ave., 925 Oakland 335-2454; , CA; email: 94623-0660 

richard_fitzgerald@dot.ca.gov 

(W) 510 622-1747; (H) 925 335-2454; email: 

richard_fitzgerald@dot.ca.gov 

Secretary: Vicki Beard, Tom Origer And Associates, 

P.O. Secretary: Box 1531, Vicki Rohnert Beard, Tom Park, Origer CA; 94927; And Associates, 

(W) P.O. Box (707)792-2797; 1531, Rohnert email: Park, vbeard@origer.com 

CA; 94927; 

(W) (707)792-2797; email: vbeard@origer.com 

Treasurer: Trish Fernandez, c/o SCA Business Office, 

Department Treasurer: Stacy of Anthropology, Schneyder Case, California Jones&Stokes State University, 

Chico, Associates, Chico, 2600 CA V Street, 95929-0401 Sacramento, ; CA 95818; W: 

SCAOffice@csuchico.edu, (916) 739-3000; email: SCase@jsanet.com 

ATTN: SCA Treasurer. 

SCA Business Office: Greg White, Department of 

Anthropology, CSU Chico, Chico, CA 95929-001; 

(530) 898-4360; email: gwhite@csuchico.edu 

Visit our web site: 

www.scanet.org 

SCA Business Office 

Department of Anthropology 

California State University, Chico 

Chico, CA 95929-0401 

Ph (530) 898-5733 

Fx (530) 898-4220 

M/Th 8:00-5:00 

W 12:00-5:00 

SCAOffice@csuchico.edu 


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SCA Committees 2002-2003 

Archaeology Month Representative 

Mark Hylkema (415) 330-6328; mhylk@parks.ca.gov 

Annual Meeting Planning and Agenda, 2004 

Mike Lerch (909) 335-1896; mlerch@sricrm.com 

Avocational Society Representative 

Myra Herrmann (619) 446-5372; mherrmann@sandiego.gov 

Jerry Dudley (831) 663-2036; jtdudley@aol.com 

Bennyhoff Memorial Award 

Richard Hughes (415) 851-1410; rehughes@silcon.com 

Curation Representative 

Cindy Stankowski (619) 239-1868; cski@cts.com 

Education Committee 

Mary Gorden (209) 597-2373; magorden@email.msn.com 

Anne Duffield-Stoll (909) 621-7521; annestoll@sricrm.com 

Information Center Liaison 

Lynn Compas (916) 739-8356; 

guntherbarbed@hotmail.com 

Legislative Liaison 

Stephen Bryne (415) 458-5803; sbryne@garciaandassociates.com 

Membership 

Stacy Schneyder Case (916) 737-3000; scase@jsanet.com 

Native American Programs 

Janet Eidsness (530) 629-3153; jpeidsness@yahoo.com 

OHP Liaison 

Michael McGuirt (916) 653-8920; mmcguirt@ohp.parks.ca.gov 

Proceedings 

Donna Day (530) 478-6214; day@jps.net 

Professional Standards and Guidelines 

Lynn Gamble (760) 371-1320; lgamble@mail.sdsu.edu 

Publicity 

Breck Parkman; BParkman@compuserve.com 

SCA Webmaster 

Kristina Roper (559) 561-6011; kroper@ix.netcom.com 

Site Stewardship Committee 

Chris Padon; cpadon@discoveryworks.com 

Beth Padon; bpadon@discoveryworks.com 

Tom King Award 

Russ Kaldenberg (916) 978-4635; Russell_Kaldenberg@ca.blm.gov 


Melinda Pacheco 

ph (530) 898-5733; fax (530) 898-4220 

SCAoffice@csuchico.edu 

Committee Reports 

Native American 

Programs Committee 

Janet P. Eidsness 

On October 11, 2003 at the 18 th 

Annual California Indian Conference 

(CIC) hosted by Cabrillo College in 

Watsonville, SCA Native American 

Programs Committee (NAPC) 

presented a symposium entitled 

“California Tribal Programs in 

Heritage Resources Management.” 

Following opening comments on 

Amah Mustun Tribal Band history by 

Ed Ketchum, this session featured 

talks by THPOs Thomas Gates (Yurok 

Tribe) and Marnie Atkins (Table Bluff 

Reservation-Wiyot Tribe), Wiyot 

Tribal Chairperson Cheryl A. Seidner, 

attorney for the Quechan Tribe 

Courtney Ann Coyle, and Larry Myers, 

Executive Secretary of the Native 

American Heritage Commission. 

About 50 updated Sourcebooks (4 th 

Edition) were distributed, and 

donation monies were put back into 

the Committee’s coffers to make 

additional copies. At a fine BBQ 

dinner hosted by the Amah Mutsun 

Tribal Band, President-Elect Amy 

Gilreath announced that Larry Myers 

was named the 2003 recipient of the 

SCA California Indian Heritage 

Preservation Award. In addition, the 

NAPC provided support to Chumash 

undergraduate student Maria Cordero, 

who delivered a paper on “Juridical 

Subordination of California Indians 

From Statehood (1850) to Civil Rights 

Movement (1960).” We are 

encouraging her to publish her paper, 

which she will soon present to 

legislators as Maria was selected as 

one of two students to represent UC- 

Santa Barbara at the March 8-9, 2004 

UC Day in Sacramento. As a sign that 

‘what goes around comes around’ and 

‘we must be doing something right,’ 

after reconciling their books the CIC 

organizing committee donated $250 to 

support NAPC activities! Congrats to 

Rob Edwards and CIC 18 organizers, as 

this event appeared to have the most 

Native American attendees and 

presenters—a good sign! 

We are busy planning CRM 

workshops in partnership with the 

Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (to be held 

March 6-7) and the 12 bands of the Pit 

River Tribe (to be held in mid-April). 

These are exciting days! 

On Thursday, March 18, 2004 

(4:30-5:30 p.m.—but check Program!), 

please join us in Riverside for the 

open meeting of the Native American 

Programs Committee at the SCA 

Annual Meeting. We are always 

looking for new members to network 

with, and new ideas on how we may 

best partner with Indian communities 

to meet our common goals! Look for 

our table in the Book Room, where 

we’ll have copies of the Sourcebook 

available. 

Legislative Liaison Report 

Stephen Bryne 

108th U.S. Congress 2003-2004 

California’s hopes for a big jobs 

boost from a new federal highway and 

transit spending program were fading 

fast amid signs that Congress and the 

White House were worried about its 

cost. The House voted 421-0 to 

extend the current six-year, $217 

billion bill for four more months. If 

the Senate goes along, it would be the 

second extension for the old program, 

which was due to expire on Sept. 30. 

The Senate is bogged down in debate 

over the proposed $318 billion bill, 

which President Bush says he won’t 

support in an election year in which he 

has vowed to hold the line on 

domestic spending. His 

administration has proposed a $256 

billion. The House Transportation 

Committee wants a $375 billion bill. 

Congress’ failure to make quick 

progress on the legislation is a major 

disappointment to members who 

hoped it would create a boost in new 

jobs during an election year. The 


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Senate bill faces a filibuster from 

members who fear the proposal would 

increase the budget deficit, which is 

already projected to top half a trillion 

dollars. Senate Majority Leader Bill 

Frist, R-Tenn., has suggested trimming 

the bill to $290 billion, but supporters 

of the bill don’t like that idea. “It is 

disappointing that some around here 

want to stop this bill,” said Sen. 

Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., according to a 

transcript of her remarks scheduled for 

Feb. 12 on the Senate floor. “I will be 

fighting for it because it is extremely 

important for our country and my state 

of California.” Boxer, who is 

campaigning for re-election, leaves no 

doubt that she views the program as a 

jobs generator, as well as a way to fix 

crumbling roads and bridges and 

relieve traffic congestion. The Senate 

proposal would create an estimated 

87,000 construction jobs in California 

and 800,000 nationally. California’s 

share of the proposed spending would 

be $21.4 billion over the next six 

years, up $6.1 billion from the current 

program. Meanwhile, in the House, a 

$375 billion transportation bill is being 

debated. 

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger 

proposing cuts in state transportation 

spending to help deal with California’s 

budget deficit, officials have been 

hoping for an increased infusion of 

federal funds to keep projects on track. 

But under the House extension, the 

funding will remain at current levels. 

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, 

a member of the House Transportation 

Committee, says the state has $2 

billion in projects ready to go, just 

waiting for federal funds that it can’t 

get until the new bill passes. 

In the agencies, final regulations 

from the Advisory Council on Historic 

Preservation dealing with certain 

portions of Section 106 are due in 

January. The Advisory Council is 

currently in the process of amending 

its Section 106 rules. In addition, the 

Federal Communications Commission 

(FCC) is considering a nationwide 

programmatic agreement that would 

govern the Section 106 process for 

communication facilities. The recent 

comment period for the revised 

Advisory Council regulations has 

ended. President Nixon, in the 

interest of streamlining the Section 

106 process and to fulfill the intent of 

Congress, ordered that eligible sites 

should be given the same protection as 

listed sites, thus eliminating the added 

work and time required to get them 

listed. 

Representatives Pombo (Chair of 

the House Resources Committee) and 

Radanovich from California, also in the 

interest of streamlining, have 

submitted comments that support the 

idea that eligible sites should no 

longer be given the same 

consideration as sites actually listed on 

the National Register. How this will 

streamline the process is unclear, 

unless there is no attempt made to 

place eligible sites on the register at 

all. Representative Pombo, in a letter 

to John Nau, Chairman of the Advisory 

Council, states, “In 1966, there were 

12,000 properties on the National 

Register. Today, the Register lists over 

77,000 properties with another 9,458 

more on the list of properties 

determined eligible by the Keeper of 

the National Register…. In contrast, 

the number of properties that “meet 

the National Register criteria” is 

unknowable, but is probably in the 

many tens of millions, and none have 

been vetted for significance or the 

eligibility criteria of listed properties.” 

California Legislature: 

2003-2004 Session 

Historical Preservation: California 

Cultural and Historical Endowment 

(A.B. 393) 

Author: Cindy Montañez (D-39 th ) 

Summary: This bill establishes the 

California Urban Historical 

Preservation Revolving Loan Fund 

under the administration of the 

California Cultural and Historical 

Endowment, to the extent that funding 

is available. Although the endowment 

has broad authority to enact a similar 

program, the goal of this measure is to 

ensure that funds are available for 

historic preservation, on an ongoing 

basis, through a revolving loan fund. 

Specifically, this bill would create a 

fund from which loans will be provided 

to encourage the development of a 

systematic and coordinated 

assemblage of buildings, sites, 

artifacts, museums, cultural landscapes, 

illustrations, written materials, and 

displays and interpretive centers to 

preserve and tell the stories of 

California as a unified society and of 

the many groups of people that 

together comprise historic and modern 

California. In September, 2002 

In September 2002, Governor Davis 

signed “The California Cultural and 

Historical Endowment Act” (act) 

which established the California 


under the administration of the 

California State Library (AB 716, 

Firebaugh, Chapter 1126, Statutes of 

2002). The act authorizes the 

endowment to make grants and loans 

to public agencies and nonprofit 

organizations to protect and preserve 

California’s cultural and historic 

resources. Although the endowment 

was created in 2002 it was not funded 

until August 2003 when $128 million 

in Proposition 40 bond funds were 

allocated to the endowment in the 

Budget Act of 2003. 

Status: Referred to Committee on 

Appropriations on January 16, 2004. 

California for Preservation Action, 

California Preservation Foundation, 

National Trust for Historic 

Preservation, Los Angeles 

Conservancy, Pasadena Heritage, San 

Francisco Architectural Heritage, Save 

Our Heritage Organization (San 

Diego), Napa County Landmarks, and 

the California Mainstreet Alliance 

have registered their support of this 

bill. 

California Racial Mascots Act: Athletic 

Team Names and Mascots (A.B. 858) 

Author: Jackie Goldberg (D-45 th ) 

Summary: This bill establishes the 

California Racial Mascots Act that 


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would prohibit public schools from 

using certain specified terms as a 

school or athletic team name, mascot, 

or nickname. Specifically, this bill 

prohibits all public schools are from 

using any of the following school or 

athletic team names, mascots, or 

nicknames: a) Redskins; b) Indians; c) 

Braves; d) Chiefs; e) Apaches; f) 

Comanches; g) Papooses; h) Warriors, if 

accompanied by Native American 

imagery, including, but not limited to, 

a mascot; i) Sentinels, if accompanied 

by Native American imagery, 

including, but not limited to, a mascot; 

and, j) any other Native American 

tribal name. 

Previous legislation, AB 2115 

(Goldberg) of 2002, required that all 

public schools, community colleges, 

the California State University (CSU), 

and the University of California (UC) 

[if agreed upon by UC] be prohibited 

from using specified American Indian 

names for school or athletic team, 

names, mascots, or nicknames. The 

bill failed passage on the Assembly 

Floor. 

According to the author, “public 

schools in California are obligated to 

provide equal educational opportunity 

to all students, regardless of race, 

ethnicity, or national origin. They are 

also required to promote diversity and 

respect for different cultures. 

However, the use of team names that 

single out an ethnic group, such as 

“Redskins” or “Indians,” as well as 

names referring specifically to 

American Indian tribes, such as 

“Apaches” or “Comanches,” is 

inconsistent with those requirements. 

This measure is necessary to ensure 

that schools do not send a mixed 

message about the acceptability of 

racial stereotypes.” 

Some contend that the decision to 

change a school name, nickname, or 

mascot should be made at the local 

level. While Los Angeles Unified 

School District and many schools and 

colleges across the country have 

voluntarily changed their 

discriminatory names, nicknames or 

mascots; some individuals maintain 

that a school mascot is a source of 

pride and symbolizes a strong tradition 

not only for the school, but the 

community and families as well and 

thus have chosen not to change their 

mascot. The author contends that the 

decision to change a school mascot is 

often preceded by a lengthy, costly 

and divisive local debate, during 

which Native American children and 

parents are frequently the targets of 

blame and harassment. Direction from 

the state will enable schools to act in 

the best interest of students without 

undue pressure from alumni. 

As of the last census, 330,000 Native 

Americans were living in California, 

more than any other state. 

Status: On Jan. 21, 2004, this bill was 

removed from the inactive file and to a 

third reading, the stage at which bills 

are eligible for floor debate and final 

vote. 

Coastal Zone: Archaeological and 

Paleontological Resources (A.B. 974) 

Author: Joe Nation (D-6 th ) 

Summary: Existing law requires 

reasonable mitigation of impacts to 

sites that contain archaeological or 

paleontological resources identified 

by the State Historic Preservation 

Officer (SHPO). Existing law 

establishes the Native American 

Heritage Commission (NAHC) to 

preserve and protect areas of 

significance to Native Americans, such 

as burial and other sacred sites. The 

California Environmental Quality Act 

(CEQA) requires an environmental 

impact report (EIR) when state action 

impacts areas of cultural significance 

to the state’s history. This bill: 

1. Requires that sites containing 

significant Native American 

cultural resources be protected 

from impacts in the same manner 

as sites containing archaeological 

or paleontological resources. 

2. Requires that the SHPO consult 

with appropriate local Native 

Americans and the NAHC when 

identifying sites significant to 

Native Americans. 

3. Requires “all feasible” measures to 

be taken to avoid adverse impact, 

and reasonable mitigation where 

that impact cannot be avoided. 

4. Requires sites identified as sacred 

sites by appropriate local Native 

Americans and the NAHC to be 

protected against significant 

disruption. 

5. Requires local coastal plans to 

contain protection for sites of 

significance to Native Americans. 

6. Defines “appropriate local Native 

Americans” as federally 

recognized tribe, Rancheria, or 

Mission Band of Indians, or a tribe 

or band identified by the NAHC. 

According to the author’s office, the 

purpose of this bill is to include Native 

Americans in land-use decisions that 

affect their heritage, and to recognize 

that many sites that are of the greatest 

significance to Native Americans do 

not include discrete artifacts that can 

be subjected to scientific analysis. 

Some of the most important sites are 

those where cultural and religious 

activities occurred, but these sites are 

not clearly included within the 

resources that are protected under 

current law. The NAHC is currently 

charged with protection of culturally 

significant sites, which it defines as, 

“These are areas which have been, 

and often continue to be, of economic 

and/or religious significance to 

peoples today. They include Native 

American sacred areas where religious 

ceremonies are practiced or which are 

central to their origins as a people.” 

Status: Placed on inactive file on 

motion of Senator Chesbro. 

California Cultural and Historical 

Endowment (A.B. 1149) 

Author: Marco Firebaugh (D-50 th ) 

Summary: This bill would allocate 

funding from the California Clean 


7 

Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood 

Parks, and Coastal Protection Fund 

(Proposition 40, enacted March 2002) 

to the California State Library (CSL) 

for purposes of funding the California 


Act. 

Status: In committee: Set, first 

hearing. Held under submission. 

Traditional Tribal Cultural Sites (S.B. 

18) 

Author: John Burton (D-03) 

Summary: Creates a procedure in the 

California Environmental Quality Act 

(CEQA) for the Native American 

Heritage Commission (NAHC), in 

consultation with Native American 

tribes and other interested parties, to 

determine whether a proposed project 

may adversely change a traditional 

tribal cultural site and to recommend 

project changes and mitigation 

measures to avoid or reduce those 

changes. Revises the duties and 

composition of NAHC, creates 

procedures for NAHC and Native 

American tribes to participate in local 

land use planning, and allows Native 

American tribes to take title to 

conservation easements. 

Status: Reconsideration granted on 

January 8, 2004. Placed on inactive 

file on request of Assembly Member 

Chan. 

Native American Sacred Sites (SB 447) 

Summary: SB 987 would appropriate an 

unspecified amount of Proposition 40 

bond funds to the Department of Parks 

and Recreation (DPR) for allocation as 

a grant to the California Missions 

Foundation (CMF, a nonprofit 

organization). 

Status: Set, first hearing. Held in 

committee and under submission. 

References Cited or Consulted 

Lindsay, David 

2003 SAA Government Affairs 

Program: Monthly Washington, 

D.C. Update December 2003. 

Society for American 

Archaeology, Government 

Affairs Program. 

San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco, 

California] 

2004 Congress returns to unsettled 

business: Both chambers remain 

deeply divided on key bills. 19 

January. 

204 Highway bill bogged down – 

state’s projects in jeopardy. 12 

February. 

Contacting Your Representatives 


Site Stewardship 

Committee 

Beth and Chris Padon 

We are very pleased to announce 

that the California Archaeological Site 

Stewardship Program (CASSP) 

received funding for 2004 through a 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 

grant from the Division of Off- 

Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation 

(OHMVR), Department of Parks and 

Recreation. The CASSP funding is 

administered by the SCA, under 

agreement with the California State 

Office of the BLM. We sincerely 

appreciate the support and interest that 

these sponsors express for CASSP. We 

thank Steve Horne and Jim Keeler of 

the BLM for preparing and presenting 

a successful grant application. We also 

thank the volunteers and agency 

participants who wrote letters of 

support for the 2004 grant; these letters 

contributed greatly to this grant 

application effort. 

At the SCA Annual Meeting in 

Riverside, CASSP volunteers will be 

California State Assembly www.assembly.ca.gov 

California State Senate 

www.senate.ca.gov 

U.S. House of Representatives www.house.gov 

U.S. Senate 

www.senate.gov 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_homepage 

President George W. Bush www.whitehouse.gov 

Author: Dennis Hollingsworth (R-36) 

Summary: Under existing law, the 

Native American Heritage 

Commission has various powers and 

duties with regard to Native American 

sites and sacred places. This bill would 

state the intent of the Legislature to 

establish a grant program for the 

preservation of Native American 

sacred sites. 

Status: To Senate Committee on 

Rules. 

California Missions (SB 987) 

Author: Bruce McPherson (R-15) 

Websites 

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov 

http://thomas.loc.gov 

http://acra-crm.org 

Contact Your SCA Legislative Liaison 

sbryne@garciaandassociates.com 


8 


giving papers on their work at 

various sessions. Just prior to the 

meetings, a CASSP advanced 

workshop on flintknapping will be 

held from 1:00 to 5:00, on 

Wednesday afternoon, March 17. It 

will feature archaeologists/ 

flintknappers Tim Gross and Bob 

Yohe. Only CASSP volunteers are 

eligible to attend. There is no fee, 

but registration is required; contact 

Beth Padon by phone (562-432- 

1801) or e-mail 

(bpadon@discoveryworks.com) or 

regular mail (Discovery Works Inc., 

235 East Broadway, Suite 980, Long 

Beach CA 90802) Please register by 

March 10, because space is limited. 

Participants in the advanced 

workshop and other CASSP 

volunteers are encouraged to attend 

the opening reception of the SCA 

meetings on Wednesday evening. 

After this reception, CASSP 

volunteers and other SCA members 

who are interested in site 

stewardship are invited to an 

informal and sponsored pizza dinner 

at the Riverside Brewing Company. 

Pizza will be provided by Discovery 

Works, but you will have to buy your 

own beverages. The restaurant is 

located at 3397 Seventh Street 

(Mission Inn Avenue), which is two 

blocks from the Mission Inn and four 

blocks from the convention center. 

Avocational Committee 

Jerry Dudley & Myra Herrmann 

Well it’s that time of year 

looking forward to the annual SCA 

meeting. Mark your calendars for the 

dates in March, 17 through 20. Also 

our annual Avocational Society 

meeting will be a luncheon on 

Friday March 19 from 11:30 AM to 

1:00 PM. This is a great time for the 

societies to get together and discuss 

problems and share information 

about our many activities. Please let 

us know if you will be attending this 

session. 

Announcements 

Table Bluff Reservation-Wiyot Tribe 

Establishes Tribal Historic Preservation Office 

Marnie Atkins 

The Table Bluff Reservation - Wiyot Tribe (Wiyot Tribe) has worked hard the past 

year and a half to establish and maintain a Cultural Department and Tribal Historic 

Preservation Program. Its success is founded upon the support of tribal members, the 

tribal council, other tribes (locally and far away), and numerous people and agencies. 

The reservation for the Wiyot Tribe is found in Humboldt County, California, twenty 

minutes south of Eureka. 

The mission of the Cultural Department and Tribal Historic Preservation Office is 

to Protect, Promote, and Perpetuate Wiyot culture and history. 

Cultural Department 

Before the Cultural Department was established, the employees of the 

Environmental Department were handling cultural resource protection. Due to the 

budget constraints of EPA funding, the Environmental Department staff could not 

dedicate sufficient time to this important goal. They also found that they were 

working the hours of a full time person, and the outlook that more and more 

consultation and protection would be needed was on the horizon. 

Our Treasurer and Environmental Director attended an environmental meeting in 

Reno in early 2002 where there was a presentation by an Oregon tribe about a 

successful tribal cultural resource management program. At that time, they realized 

that with the right management and support of the tribal council and membership, we 

too could have a designated person that would give voice to the Wiyot Tribe’s cultural 

resource protection and management issues. After the meeting in Reno, the 

Environmental Director spoke to our tribal council about what was learned at the 

meeting and proposed the idea of hiring a staff person. Initially, the Environmental 

Director suggested that the person hired would fall under the Tribe’s Environmental 

Department in regards to work assignment, direction, and supervision. However, the 

tribal council thought that if a cultural program were to be successful, the person hired 

would need to have the ability to speak on important issues of protection and 

repatriation, and provide consultation on behalf of the Tribe. Therefore, the tribal 

council formed a separate department and created the Cultural Director position. In 

May 2002, Marnie Atkins was hired as the Cultural Director. 

With the designation of a new department within the Tribe comes the difficult task 

of finding money to secure a position. The council asked the fiscal department to look 

in our budget to see if there was anyway a position could be funded. The Fiscal 

Manager found money in our General Fund that could be reallocated to fund the 

Cultural Director position. However, the funding would only last the rest of 2002, and 

the incumbent would need to find other sources of funding to secure the future of a 

successful program. In October of last year, we received a Revenue Sharing Trust 

Fund (RSTF) check. As a way to fund the Cultural Department, Atkins submitted a 

draft budget to the tribal council that listed some of the needs of the department. The 

tribal council approved $28,200.00 to fund the Cultural Department from the RSTF 

check the Tribe had received. This was a tremendous help to the program then and 

now. 


9 


The Cultural Department was established to educate, 

protect, promote, and perpetuate the Wiyot culture and 

history. The Department works in important areas such as: 

repatriation; reviewing, commenting and consulting with our 

local, state, and federal agencies regarding projects in our 

ancestral lands; supporting legislation to better protect and 

aid tribes; establishing classes, such as a language and basket 

weaving, for tribal members; negotiating memorandums of 

understanding or agreement with agencies to insure adequate 

and continued access to lands for traditional cultural practices 

or gathering of materials for basket making, medicines, or 

subsistence; overseeing the cultural monitoring program; and 

“other duties as assigned.” Currently, Atkins is the only full 

time employee in the department, in addition to six part time 

cultural monitors. 

The cultural monitoring program is a tool for the Tribe to 

protect or relocate important culturally significant sites. It has 

had a slow start, but increasingly agencies are calling us to 

request monitors on work sites where excavation will occur. 

We are continually working on county, state, and federal 

projects, with more and more monitoring of private industry 

projects. 

In January 2002, the SCA and the Tribe partnered to 

present a Cultural Resource Training session. This session 

was instrumental in training tribal members from several 

different tribes, while establishing working relationships with 

many of the federal and state agency representatives that 

presented and attended. Some of the subjects discussed 

were: the general history of cultural resource management 

laws; burial protection; repatriation; records and archival 

research; and monitoring. Field visits to culturally significant 

sites were incorporated into the session to encourage 

stewardship as part of cultural resource management. 

Tribal Historic Preservation Program 

During the summer of 2002, we began the process to 

submit our Tribal Historic Preservation Program Plan to the 

National Park Service. This was a convoluted process 

because there wasn’t, and still isn’t, any clear application or 

plan submittal process. 

While writing the Tribal Historic Preservation Program 

Plan to be submitted to the NPS, Atkins looked to the Yurok 

Tribe’s Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer, Dr. Thomas 

Gates, for guidance, help, and a good sounding board. He 

was, and still is, a very patient and gracious mentor. 

Especially, when she sought input or had questions about the 

THPO plan process. 

Section 101(d)(2) of the National Historic Preservation 

Act of 1966 creates a provision that tribes can assume the 

functions of a State Historic Preservation Officer on tribal 

lands. A Tribal Historic Preservation Officer is a person who 

is officially designated by a federally recognized tribe to 

direct a program that has been approved by the National Park 

Service that assumes the SHPO’s functions on tribal lands. In 

other words, by having a plan approved, the tribe assumes 

management of their cultural resources on their tribal lands. 

THPOs are able to give more emphasis and importance to 

protecting valuable cultural resources of the tribe by 

combining traditional beliefs and practices with current 

methods when documenting and managing cultural 

properties. 

Our Tribal Historic Preservation Program Plan was 

approved on October 5, 2002. We are the 3 rd tribe in the state 

of California, the Yurok and Timbisha Shoshone Tribes being 

the other two, and the 33 rd tribe to achieve THPO status. 

If your tribe is interested in gaining THPO status a good 

place to start is with the National Association of Tribal 

Historic Preservation Officers. They can be found on the 

web at www.nathpo.org. 

In the future … 

- We will be working with one of our basket weavers to start 

a basket class to teach interested adults and eventually 

those adults will teach our children. 

- A language committee has been established and meets 

regularly to discuss how to find and acquire funding to hire 

or consult with a person to help us create a curriculum to 

teach children and adults our language. 

- We are investigating the logistics of building a cultural 

center on the reservation. This facility would house the 

cultural department, interpretative center, tribal archives, 

classes, and enlarge our tribal library. 

- In the future, we would like to hire at least one full time 

cultural monitor and an assistant. However, with our plans 

for growth we expect to hire more staff to work in the 

tribal archives, cultural center, and cultural monitoring 

program. 

- We would like to upgrade our technology to create a 

database of culturally significant sites and to create and 

document oral history, photos, and important family and 

tribal papers. 

Now for some thoughts to leave you with …. 

- In the past year and five months, the department has 

grown rapidly. It seems that the more people that know 

the Tribe has a Cultural Department and a Tribal Historic 

Preservation Officer, the more they consult with us. 

- As we all know, tribes often have little funding, and 

employees of the tribal government often wear many hats 

and juggle several projects at a time. Often, tribal staff 

performs the same work and more, that private industry 

and federally funded counter parts do for higher pay and 

less responsibilities. Keep your head up and don’t get 

discouraged. 


10 


- Atkins urges members of tribal councils and partnership 

agencies to continue supporting cultural programs, not 

only financially, but always with the idea of preserving the 

future of unique indigenous peoples. 

- Atkins encourages all tribes to establish a cultural 

protection program. Don’t let this important task fall to an 

assistant that works in another program who doesn’t have a 

lot of time to dedicate to the protection of the culture and 

history of your tribe. 

- The information in this article may give the impression 

that the process to establish a successful Cultural 

Department and Tribal Historic Preservation Program 

seems quick and easy, but as you can see, the success is 

owed to the many people that believed that it was 

important to the Wiyot people that the Tribe have a voice 

in protecting their culture and history. 

About the author: Marnie Atkins serves as the Cultural Director 

and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Table Bluff 

Reservation - Wiyot Tribe. She is a tribal member and previously 

served on the tribal council. She presented this topic on October 11, 

2003 in Watsonville at the 18 th Annual California Indian 

Conference, for the symposium “California Tribal Programs in 

CRM” organized by SCA Native American Programs Committee 

Chairperson Janet Eidsness. 

New ACHP Web Page About Organization 

of the Office of Federal Agency Programs 

In response to a number of requests, the ACHP has 

developed an expanded discussion of the new organizational 

structure of the Office of Federal Agency Programs (OFAP) 

for our website (attached). Using a Frequently Asked 

Questions format, the web page provides information on how 

our Section 106 work is delegated among the staff, how best 

to reach our staff, new services we are hoping to provide 

Section 106 users in the field, and information regarding the 

role of our newly created Federal agency liaison positions. 

We hope this information will make it easier for you to work 

with our office. Any questions or suggestions about how this 

website could be further improved would be welcome. 

Please link to the following web page for further information. 

http://www.achp.gov/ofap-faq.html 

Language is Life: 11th Annual Stabilizing 

Indigenous Languages Conference at 

University of California at Berkeley 

June 11-13, 2004 

Hosted by The Advocates for Indigenous California 

Language Survival and the Survey of California and Other 

Indian Languages (Department of Linguistics, University of 

California at Berkeley) 

The Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Steering 

committee invites interested individuals and groups to give 

presentations at SILC this year, either in the form of a 15- 

minute talk (or less), a 1 1/2 hour workshop, or else to join 

one of our suggested panels, which will be 1 1/2 hours in 

length. Suggested panels include: 

Master-apprentice programs 

Immersion schools 

Archives and intellectual property rights 

Developing and using new writing systems 

Revitalizing languages without speakers 

We will also make time and space for the showing of films 

on language loss and language revitalization, if you have 

anything you’d like to show. See either of the following 

websites for the registration and presentation forms 

www.aicls.org or http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/ 

SIL9brochure.html 

Prof. Leanne Hinton 

Chair, Dept. of Linguistics 

1203 Dwinelle Hall 

University of California 

Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 

SWAA 75th Annual Conference 

April 15, 16, 17, 2004 

Jan English-Lueck, President 

Southwestern Anthropological Association 

I would like to invite you to the 75th Jubilee meeting of 

the Southwestern Anthropological Association. SWAA is the 

oldest regional association in the West, and has gone from 

being a unit of the AAA to an independent organization 

consisting of professionals, academics and students from 

California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Over the 

years the organization has reinvented itself to serve the 

various constituencies of academic anthropology. 

Anthropology itself has changed. This year, the President- 

Elect, Margaret Graham of Santa Clara University, and I 

would like to extend our invitation to all anthropologists, 

whether they are faculty, graduate students, senior 

undergraduates, emeriti and alumni. We are eager to include 

anthropologists who are not employed in academia. We 

encourage you to pass this invitation on to other 

anthropologists who might be interested. 

San Jose State University’s Department of Anthropology 

is co-hosting, along with Santa Clara University, the 75th 

Annual Conference of the Southwestern Anthropological 

Association on April 15, 16, 17, 2004. The conference theme 

is “Making it Work: Global and Local Applied

11 

Anthropology.” Forensic anthropologists, cultural resource 

managers, applied linguists and cultural anthropologists use 

their knowledge to grapple with many different issues. The 

greater Southwest is a center for anthropological application 

and training. This annual meeting is an opportunity to 

enliven and enlighten our anthropological communities. 

Academics, practitioners and students will discuss: What are 

our different practices? How do we contend with the practical 

and ethical constraints of our craft? How do we teach the next 

generation of practitioners to create effective communities of 

practice? The keynote speaker will be Dr. Susan Squires, the 

former president of the National Association of 

Practicing Anthropologists, and a noted applied 

anthropologist. Her lecture will be open to the public on 

Saturday, April 17. 

The submission deadline for the conference is March 1, 

2004. Registration for paper sessions, panels, workshops, 

roundtables or film screening, student paper guidelines and 

general meeting information can be found at 

 

Please be patient in accessing our site, our host web 

server has been up and down with tedious regularity. We 

request that you submit your abstract twice: both in hard copy 

to Jonathan Karpf, Program Chair, Department of 

Anthropology, San Jose State University, San Jose CA 95192- 

0113 with your registration form and check(s) for 

consideration and in electronic form to the program editor, 

Karl Lueck, for inclusion on the website. The electronic 

submission may be done by clicking the “submit form” 

button on the online form before you print it out. This should 

cause your mail program to open a window with all of the 

abstract form’s information already entered. If this fails to 

happen, simply place the text of your abstract into an email 

to swaa@att.net . 

If you have any questions, please contact: 

Jan English-Lueck 

Department of Anthropology 

One Washington Square 

San Jose State University 

San Jose CA 95192-0113 

(408) 924-5347 

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 


Web Sites of Interest 

SCA’s New Home on the Internet 

http://www.SCAHome.org/ 

NPS Southeastern Archeological Center 

http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/ 

NPS Special Report: Managing Archeological Collections 

http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/collections/index.htm 

Canadian Archaeological Association: 

Archaeology at the Crossroads Conference 

http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/conferences/ 

canadian_archaeology/index.html 

California Spatial Information Library, 

Digital Raster Graphics, 7.5 Minute (O) Series 

http://casil.ucdavis.edu/casil/gis.ca.gov/drg/ 

7.5_minute_series_albers_nad27_trimmed/ 

Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama 

Guide to Diffusionism and Acculturation 

http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/diffusion.htm 

Northern CA Horseshoe Pitchers Association 

http://www.horseshoepitching.com/nchpa/index.html 

Southern CA Horseshoe Pitchers Association 

http://www.horseshoepitching.com/links/CA_Sinf.html 

Editor’s e-mail: 

gwhite@csuchico.edu

12 


Out of the Pits: 

Guest Editorials on Problems and 

Prospects in Professional Archaeology 

—in California and Beyond 

A Comment on Indian Pass, 

Imperial County, California 

Dr. Jackson Underwood 

EDAW, Inc., San Diego 

In the September, 2003 issue of the Newsletter, Courtney A. 

Coyle, offered an update about the ongoing struggle 

between environmentalists and the Quechan Indians on 

the one hand, and the Bush Administration on the other, over 

a proposed heap/leach gold mine west of Indian Pass, eastern 

Imperial County, California. Coyle is an attorney for the 

Quechan Indian Nation, and predictably, she used the 

Newsletter article to forward her position. Unfortunately, she 

included some factual errors. Coyle began (2003:14) by 

stating that: 

The Quechan Indian Nation has lived since time 

immemorial at the juncture (sic) of what is now known 

as the borders of California, Arizona and Baja 

California (Coyle 2003:14). 

This statement stands in stark contrast to the ethnohistoric 

and ethnographic records and the oral tradition of the 

Quechan. 

The first Spanish entrada into the Lower Colorado area 

began when Alarcón sailed, poled, and rowed his boats up the 

river to perhaps as far as the Parker, Arizona area in 1540. In 

the same year, Melchior Diaz marched from Sonora, Mexico 

to the confluence of the Colorado and Gila. They noted a 

number of very closely related Native American groups 

living along the Lower Colorado River (Kroeber 1925:782; 

McGuire 1982:68). However, the Quechan, often in the past 

called the Yuma Indians (e.g. Kroeber 1925, Rogers 1936, 

1945), were not noted at the confluence of the Colorado and 

the Gila Rivers in 1540 by either Alarcón or Diaz (Forde 

1931:98; Kroeber 1920:483). Likewise, the Quechan were not 

mentioned by Juan de Oñate, who marched to the Colorado 

River from New Mexico in 1605 (he would later become its 

first Governor). At the confluence of the Gila and Colorado 

Rivers, Oñate found a non-Yuman people whom he called the 

Ozaras or Osera. Their identity is problematic. Kroeber 

suggests, “The most convincing explanation is that they were 

the Pima or Papago, or at least some Piman division, who 

then lived farther down the Gila than subsequently” 

(1920:483). At that time, the Matxalycadom or Halchidhoma 

lived below the Gila (Kroeber 1920:483). 

There are some plausible explanations of where the 

Quechan were in 1540 and 1605 when the Spanish first 

visited Colorado River. 

Oñate’s failure to encounter the Yuman may be simply 

explained by the assumption that they were at that time 

living exclusively on the west bank where they have always 

been most numerous. Oñate did not cross the Colorado and it 

is expressly stated that the east bank people did not cross the 

river “because those on the other side were enemies 

although of the same nation” (Forde 1931:99, citing Zarate- 

Sameron in Bolton 1916:277) 

Another explanation relates to Lake Cahuilla. At the time 

of the Alarcón and Melchior Diaz expeditions (1540), and 

Oñate’s expeditions (1605) Lake Cahuilla may have been 

full. For example, Waters (1980), suggests that the last 

lakestand occurred from about 1430 to 1540; and recently 

Schaefer (1994) suggests a final partial filling of the lake from 

about 1516 to 1659. The Alarcón and Diaz expeditions would 

have taken place at the end of Water’s proposed last filling 

episode and in the middle of Schaefer’s; the Oñate 

expedition would have taken place after the last lakestand of 

Waters, but within that of Schaefer. Since the timing and 

number of Lake Cahuilla lakestands is only poorly 

documented at this time, it could be that the Quechan were at 

Lake Cahuilla during the Spanish visits of 1540 and 1605. 

A third explanation is offered by Forbes (1965:103-4), 

who argues that the Quechan were just south of the Mojave at 

the time of Oñate visit (1605). Oñate traveled from New 

Mexico by way of Jerome, Arizona, arriving at the Colorado at 

the Bill Williams Fork. He first visited the Mojave in that 

area, then traveled south in their company past what is now 

known as the Chemehuevi Valley, where at the time, the 

Mojave also had settlements. South of the Mojave were 

people Oñate called the Bahacecha or Vacecha. Forbes 

argues that the Bahacechas were actually the Quechan 

primarily because, in the Oñate account, the Bahacechas were 

on very friendly relations with the Mojave, their language 

was very close to the Mojave, and their head chief was known 

as the Cohota, which corresponds to the Quechan term 

Kwoxot or coxot (Forbes 1965:103). Forbes argues that 

Oñate’s term for these people, the Bahacecha, may have 

been a lineage term, Pa’vaxa’s, transformed into Bahacechas 

by the Spanish (1965:104). 

A fourth explanation is that the people the Spanish called 

the Halchidhoma were actually a part of the greater Quechan

13 


group and that the Spanish were actually giving groups of 

Quechan lineages different tribal names (Lorey Cachora, 

personal communication, 1997). 

In 1701-1702, Kino visited the Colorado from the Gila 

south. At that time, he found the Matxalycadom 

(Halchidhoma) above, not below the confluence; he did not 

mention how far north their settlements were, but later they 

were found in the Blythe area. The Quechan were in what 

became their traditional territory at the confluence, as well as 

up the Gila for some distance. Below the Quechan were the 

Halyikwamai. Nearby and probably associated with them 

were the Kohuana (Kroeber 1920:484). 

We see from this very brief review of the Quechan 

ethnographic and ethnohistoric literatures, that the first time 

the Quechan were documented at the confluence of the Gila 

and Colorado Rivers was 1701. Where the Quechan were 

before that is a matter of some speculation. However, it is 

fairly clear that they were not at the confluence of the Gila 

and Colorado Rivers “since time immemorial” unless by that 

Coyle actually means since 1701 or so. 

If we turn to the oral traditions of the Quechan,, we see 

that the origin myths do not say that they have been at the 

confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers “since time 

immemorial” either. All the Colorado River tribes: the 

Mojave, Halchidhoma, Quechan, Kamia, Cocopa, Maricopa 

and others, trace their origins in various stories and songs to a 

single event and a single place: they were created by the god 

Kukumat on the sacred mountain Avikwaame. This 5,639 foot 

mountain is located approximately 10 miles northwest of 

Laughlin, Nevada (Forde 1931:214-244). (There are several 

different spellings of Avikwaame; the one we are using is 

based on the suggestion of Lorey Cachora, Quechan cultural 

resources consultant). 

After the death of the god Kukumat, his body was 

cremated and his house burned. His divine son, Kumastamxo 

sat quietly and listened while the people talked of their sad 

loss. Some of these early people were spirits, pipa’tuats 

(“people who have come to an end”). They were the agents 

of Kukumat in animal forms. These first people gave their 

names to the animals we know today so that all later people 

should respect the animals and keep them in mind. These 

pipa’tuats, or animal avatars, now live on the various 

mountains surrounding the Lower Colorado River area. 

Traditional Quechan and other Yuman peoples visit these 

mountains by means of dream travel and seek the counsel of 

the pipa’tuats, or first people. One can readily understand 

why mountains hold such special spiritual significance to the 

Quechan and other Yuman peoples. 

The events associated with the beginning of the world are 

re-enacted and memorialized in the traditional Keruk 

ceremony (Forde 1931:223). This mourning and memorial 

ceremony sometimes included Quechan pilgrimages on trails 

from Pilot Knob, near Yuma, Arizona, through the Indian Pass 

area, to Avikwaame, northwest of Laughlin, Nevada. Dream 

travel among the Quechan also stressed visits to Avikwaame, 

where one might witness various creation events in dream 

time and ask Kukumat, his son, Kumastamxo and the pipa’tuats 

for advice and guidance. This is one reason why the trail 

system in the Indian Pass area has such spiritual significance 

to traditional Quechan. 

Coyle also misleads her readers somewhat by calling the 

area in question Quechan Indian Pass. This is unjustified 

archaeologically since research suggests that at least some of 

the trails in the pass itself pre-date the arrival of the Quechan 

by several thousand years (e.g., Rogers n.d.). While I would 

encourage archaeologists both amateur and professional to 

visit the area at their earliest opportunity, do not look for 

Quehcan Indian Pass on maps. From Interstate 8 or Highway 

78, get on Ogilby Road and turn east on the plainly marked 

Indian Pass Road. I am not suggesting that Indian Pass is a 

particularly good name, it is just the real name. We might 

well remember that almost all passes in North American are 

Indian passes and that all but the most heavily engineered 

roads follow Indian trails. 

References Cited 

Coyle, Courtney A. 

2003 Sacred Places Are More Precious Than Gold: Update 

on the Struggle to Protect Quechan Indian Pass and 

Recent Legislative Reforms. Society for California 

Archaeology Newsletter 37(3):14. 

Forbes, Jack D. 

1965 Warriors of the Colorada: The Yumas of the Quechan 

Nation and Their Neighbors. University of Oklahoma 

Press, Norman. 

Forde, Daryll C. 

1931 Ethnography of the Yuma Indians. University of 

California (Berkeley) Publications in American Archaeology 

and Ethnology 28(4):83-278. 

Kroeber, A. L. 

1920 Yuman Tribes of the Lower Colorado. University of 

California (Berkeley) Publications in American Archaeology 

and Ethnology 16(8):475-485. 

1925 Handbook of the Indians of California. Dover 

Publications, New York. 

McGuire, Randall H. 

1982 Environmental Background. In Randall H. McGuire 

and Michael B. Schiffer (eds) Hohokam and Patayan: 

Prehistory of Southwestern Arizona. Academic Press, 

New York, pp. 13-56. 

Rogers, Malcolm J. 

1936 Yuman Pottery Making. San Diego Museum of Man 

Papers No. 2 

1945 Outline of Yuman Prehistory. Southwestern Journal of 

Anthropology 1:167-198. 

n.d. Fieldnotes, Colorado Desert Region. On file at the San 

Diego Museum of Man. 

(continued page 15)

14 

Field Notes 

Field Notes 

Michael Sampson 

Karin Anderson is the new Cultural 

Resources Program Manager for Redwood 

National and State Parks, located in the NW 

corner of our state. Cari Kreshak assumed the 

Heritage Resource duties at beautiful Lassen 

Volcanic National Park in early 2002. Nelson Siefkin has 

taken a new position within the National Park Service as the 

Archaeologist-Fire Management Specialist for the Pacific 

West Region, Pacific Great Basin Support Office. Nelson 

generally works from home, where he has an agricultural 

enterprise and a new baby on the way. Lynn Compas now 

works for PG & E (Sacramento) as a cultural resource 

specialist. James Barnes has taken a position as an 

archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Folsom 

Field Office. Denise Thomas recently vacated her position 

as Environmental Planner with Caltrans Fresno to accept an 

appointment with California State Parks as Associate State 

Archaeologist in the Sierra District, an office located on Lake 

Tahoe (tough duty!). The purview of Denise’s new job will 

include parks in the Lake Tahoe area, world-famous Bodie 

State Historic Park, and Plumas-Eureka State Park. Barbara 

Voss, who received her Ph. D. from UC Berkeley in 2002, is 

now serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of 

Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University. Far 

Western has announced that Kimberly Carpenter and Jeff 

Rosenthal have become junior partners in the Davis cultural 

resources consulting firm. Far Western opened a new branch 

in Virginia City, Nevada under the direction of Dr. D. Craig 

Young; this new office is staffed by Daron Duke, Steve 

Neidig, and Teresa Wriston. Brian Ramos has been promoted 

to District Branch Chief for Cultural Resources, Mitigation 

and Monitoring at Caltrans District 4 (Oakland). Dan Bell, 

long-time archaeologist with California State Parks, now 

works for the US Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento. 

Jelmer Eerkens, with Ph. D. in hand from UCSB, has joined 

the faculty of the Anthropology Department at UC Davis as 

an Assistant Professor. Jelmer has been involved in several 

important projects in recent years, including, a 

comprehensive study (with Jeff Rosenthal) of obsidian usepatterns 

through time at the Coso Volcanic Fields. 

Bill Hildebrandt and Kelly McGuire have been 

continuing debates with Frank Bayham and Jack Broughton 

about the rise of big-game hunting in California prehistory in 

American Antiquity. Whether one agrees with either side or 

neither one, we can all agree that articles and comments in 

regional and national journals reflect well upon the health of 

Archaeology in California. The important discussion by Rick 

Fitzgerald and Terry Jones about the Cross Creek Site and the 

recent works of Bob Bettinger, Brian Fagan, Lynn Gamble, 

Glenn 

Russell, Jeanne 

Arnold, John 

Johnson, Glenn Farris, 

and many others in national and international journals 

provide additional evidence of the significance of California 

in a global sense. Bill Hildebrandt and Kim Carpenter 

submitted a draft of “Native Hunting Adaptations in 

California: Changing Patterns of Resource Use from Deep in 

the Prehistoric Past to European Contact” to the editors of 

Volume 3 of the Smithsonian Handbook of North American 

Indians. Bob Bettinger and Eric Wohlgemuth submitted a 

draft chapter entitled “California Plant Use.” The subjects of 

Volume 3 of the Handbook series will be environment, 

origins, and population. 

Governor Schwarzeneggar appointed Michael Chrisman 

Secretary of the Resources Agency and Karen Scarborough as 

Undersecretary in recent months. This office is important to 

the affairs of Archaeology in California, as the Resources 

Agency has authority over several land-managing state 

agencies, conservancies, commissions, and boards. They 

include, California State Parks, CDF, Water Resources, 

California Fish & Game, the California Coastal Commission, 

and many more. In other Sacramento agency news, Steade 

Craigo left his position as Cultural Resources Division Chief 

at California State Parks, and now works in the Grants Unit of 

OHP. Walter Gray, formerly head of the California State 

Archives, has assumed the position of Cultural Resources 

Division Chief at State Parks. 

Michael Hilton has taken a job as the Assistant Forest 

Archaeologist for the Inyo National Forest. Ann Huston is the 

new Cultural Resources Specialist at Channel Islands 

National Park in Ventura, an office with land managing duties 

over the northern Channel Islands. It is our understanding 

Channel Islands NP also has a new Archaeologist, but, we 

could not confirm a name at this time. Twenty-Nine Palms 

Marine Base has a new Base Archaeologist, Meg McDonald; 

Marie Cottrell, formerly in that position, has promoted up 

within the Base command structure. Stan Berryman moved 

back to his old position as Base Archaeologist at Camp 

Pendleton from a short-lived job at the Cleveland National 

Forest. The Cleveland NF position is now vacant. Darrell 


15 

Field Notes 

Gundrum left Fort Irwin to work at the US Navy Southwest 

Division office in San Diego. Jan Townsend, formerly at the 

National Register Office, has promoted to head of the 

Cultural and Natural Resources Program at Southwest 

Division. Rod McLean has vacated his position at US Army 

Corps, Los Angeles to join LSA Associates as a project 

manager. Sources tell us John Killeen will assume the Rod’s 

archaeology duties at the LA Corps. Andy Yatsko has taken on 

new responsibilities for the US Navy’s cultural resources 

program in southern California, though, we could not confirm 

their scope at this time. 

Deborah McLean has received a nice promotion to 

Principal at LSA Associates, an employee-owned consultant 

firm in Irvine. The Irvine office of LSA does a lot of work in 

Orange County and the immediate region. Steve James 

joined the Anthropology faculty at Cal State University, 

Fullerton in the Fall 2003. Steve previously had worked for 

California State Parks in Sacramento. CSU Fullerton now 

have two active California Archaeologists on their teaching 

staff, with the earlier hiring of Colleen Delaney-Rivera. (We 

hope this trend can be followed by other California colleges.) 

Philippe Lapin has transferred from Caltrans District 12 in 

Orange County to District 4 in Oakland. Tim Gross, Principal 

Archaeologist at Affinis Environmental Services of San 

Diego, has become President of the Board of Trustees for the 

San Diego Archaeological Center. The Center, located in the 

San Pasqual Valley, provides curation services and public 

outreach for San Diego County and beyond. Carmen Zepeda- 

Herman, formerly at California State Parks, has taken a fulltime 

staff archaeologist position at Recon, a consultant firm in 

San Diego. Shannon Gilbert earlier joined the archaeology 

staff at BF Smith and Associates in San Diego. SWCA 

Environmental Consultants has opened an office in San 

Diego; Alex Wesson is their Program Director for cultural 

resources. 

This year marks the 40 th year of operation for the Malki 

Museum in Banning, the oldest Indian-managed museum in 

California. They are planning a celebration of this milestone 

on Memorial Day Weekend. Katherine Siva Saubel, 

respected Cahuilla Elder and past SCA Honoree, was a 

founder of the Museum and serves as President of the 

Museum Board. The Malki Museum Press has joined forces 

with Ballena Press to publish and market their books. Both 

organizations publish works significant to California 

Ethnology and California Archaeology. 

We will end this column with sad news. Scott Fulmer, a 

long-time personality in San Diego County Archaeology and 

historic preservation planning, passed away in January. Scott 

helped form one of the earliest cultural resources consultant 

companies operating in San Diego County, ASM Affiliates. 

An obituary for Scott is planned for an upcoming issue of the 

Out of the Pits (continued from page 13) 

Schaefer, Jerry 

1994 Stuff of Creation: Recent Approaches to Ceramics 

Analysis in the Colorado Desert. In Joseph A. Ezzo 

(ed.) Recent Research Along the Lower Colorado 

River: Proceedings from a Symposium Presented at the 

59th Annual Meeting of the Society for American 

Archaeology, Anaheim, California, April 1994. 

Statistical Research Technical Series No. 51, Tucson, pp. 

81-100. 

Waters, Michael R. 

1980 Lake Cahuilla: Late Quaternary Lacustrine History of the 

Salton Trough, California. Master’s thesis, Department 

of Geosciences, University of Arizona. 

From the President (continued from page 3) 

discussion. I’m pleased to inform the membership that, 

through stringent financial planning and cost cutting efforts, 

this year’s operating budget provides adequate funding to 

finance the Society’s activities and functions. To keep pace 

with operating costs, however, annual membership rates will 

be raised effective March 17, 2004. The new rates will be 

implemented at the Annual Meeting Membership desk, and 

will be posted to membership page of the SCA website. 

This is my final “From the President” column and, at times, 

it’s difficult to believe how quickly the year has passed. It has 

been both my honor and my pleasure to have served as the 

Society’s president and, in this role, represent its scientific 

and educational goals of research, understanding, 

interpretation, and conservation of California’s rich cultural 

heritage. During this past year, I learned first and foremost 

that the SCA exists through the collective efforts of many 

dedicated professionals and colleagues—it truly does take a 

village to keep our organization running smoothly. I extend 

my deepest thanks and gratitude to the Executive Board— 

Dana, Amy, Terry, Rick, Vicki, and Stacy—for their abiding 

support and unfailing assistance in all matters. Also, many 

thanks to Greg White and the SCA Business Office staff for 

their dedication and timely execution of all tasks they were 

asked they undertake. I would also like to acknowledge the 

friendship and support of past Executive Board members 

Sannie Osborn, Tom Origer, Ken Wilson, and Greg Greenway, 

who were always there to help with recreating “historical 

memory” and were great sounding boards. To my URS 

colleagues, particularly Mike Kelly, know that I sincerely 

appreciated the daily encouragement you provided this past 

year. Those of you who know me well know that I cannot 

leave office without extending my thanks to Rachel who, in a 

way only a daughter can, provided my greatest source of 

spiritual support. Thank you all for a truly memorable year. 

Amy, the chair is yours. 

— Elena Nilsson 


16 

2004 Annual Meeting 

SCA 38th Annual Meeting 

March 17–20, 2004, 

Riverside, California 

WORKING SCHEDULE 

(AS OF FEBRUARY 29, 2004) 

Golf tournament (Dan Foster and Donn Grenda) 

Wednesday afternoon 

12:00–6:00 SCA Board Meeting (Elena Nilsson). 

1:00–5:00 Early Registration. 

1:00–5:00 Exhibitor Set-up. 

1:00–4:00 CAAMP Meeting (Tom Origer). 

1:00–5:00 CASSP Training Session for Volunteers (Beth Padon). 

Wednesday evening 

6:00–8:00 Early Registration (continued). 

6:00–9:00 Reception for early arrivals (no-host bar). 

7:00–10:00 Pizza dinner and social hosted by CASSP (Beth Padon). 

Thursday morning 

8:00–9:00 Volunteer orientation and breakfast (Debbie McClean and Terri Fulton). 

9:30–10:00 Welcome and Awards (Elena Nilsson, SCA President). 

10:00–12:00 Plenary Session, DNA Analysis and Archaeology–From Times Ancient to 

CurrentCommunities (Amy Gilreath and Randall Milliken). 

Thursday afternoon 

1:30–4:30 Theoretical/Methodological Contributions to California Archaeology 

(Joseph Chartkoff). 

1:30–4:30 Archaeological Science (Robert Yohe). 

1:30–4:30 Material Culture in Historical Archaeology (Karen Swope). 

1:00–5:00 Workshop 1, Consulting with SHPO 

(John Sharp, Mike McGuirt, Jennifer Darcangelo, Andrea Galvin, OHP) 

4:30–5:30 SCA Native American Programs Committee (Janet Eidsness). 

Thursday evening 

6:30–10:30 Silent Auction and Party, Gourmet Mexican Food and Music by De Nada. SRI, 

Redlands. 

Friday all day 

8:00–5:00 Poster Session (Mark Allen). 

8:00–5:00 Wine country tour to Temecula Wineries (Debbie Cogan). 

Friday morning 

7:00–9:00 CASSP Breakfast (Beth Padon). 

9:00–12:00 Returning to the Source I: The Ethnographical Layer of 

Archaeological and Historical Research I (Shelly Davis-King). 

9:00–12:00 Cultural Landscape, Lower Colorado Desert (Rebecca Apple, EDAW). 

9:00–12:00 Archaeology of Fortifications and Families, San Francisco Presidio 

(Sannie Osborn) 

9:00–12:00 Holocene Adaptations at Goleta Slough (Clay Lebow). 

Friday lunch 

11:30–1:00 Avocational Committee Workshop and Luncheon (Myra Herrmann). 

Friday afternoon 

1:30–5:00 Returning to the Source II: The Ethnographical Layer 

of Archaeological and Historical Research (John Johnson). 

1:30–5:00 China Lake, Papers in honor of Carolyn Shepherd (Russ Kaldenberg). 

1:30–4:30 Newport Bay Archaeology (Pam Maxwell). 

1:30–4:30 Archaeology and Public Interpretation in California 

(Lee Panich, Kent Lightfoot). 

1:00–5:00 Workshop 2, Remote Sensing (Lew Somers). 

4:30–6:00 SCA General Meeting. 

Friday evening 

6:30–11:00 Awards Banquet 

Keynote Speaker Dr. . John Rick, “Archaeology at Chavín de Huántar, , Peru.” 

Saturday all day 

9:00–4:00 Demonstrations of Native American Technology and Arts: 

Basketry, Pottery, Flintknapping, Storytelling, Music. 

Saturday morning 

7:00–8:00 SCA Board Meeting (incoming President Amy Gilreath) continental breakfast 

9:00–10:00 SCA Proceedings–Authors’ Meeting (Amy Gilreath) 

8:00–12:15 California Archaeology and Prehistory 2004: I (Terry Jones). 

9:00–12:00 Papers in Honor of Jay von Werlhof I (Russ Kaldenberg). 

9:00–12:00 Current Investigations in the Santa Rosa/San Jacinto National Monument 

(Wanda Raschkow) 

9:00–12:00 General Session, Northern and Central California Archaeology. 

9:00–12:00 Jobs Fair. 

Saturday afternoon 

1:15–5:30 California Archaeology and Prehistory 2004: II (Terry Jones). 

1:30–4:30 Papers in Honor of Jay von Werlhof II (Russ Kaldenberg). 

1:30–4:30 Special Baja California Session (Ken Wilson and Matt des Lauries) 

1:30–4:30 General Session, Southern California Archaeology (Mike Kelly). 

Saturday evening 

5:30–7:00 Closing Reception with Speakers, Authors of “California Archaeology in 2004” 


17 

2004 Annual Meeting 

Ongoing Activities 

Thursday–Saturday, 8:00 am–5 pm 

Registration. 


SCA Café, Bar, and Grill. 


Exhibitors/Books. 


Quiet Room for Parents and Infants. 


Slide Preview Room. 


SCA Office and Membership Renewal. 

Sunday 

Field trip to Little Petroglyph Canyon, China Lake NAWS (Amy Gilreath) 

The 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for California 

Archaeology will be held at the Riverside Convention 

Center, located just a few blocks from the junction of the 60 

and 91 freeways, and 20 miles east of Ontario International 

Airport (ONT): 

Riverside Marriott 

3400 Market Street, Riverside, CA, 92501, USA 

Phone: 1 909-784-8000 Fax: 1 909-369-7127 

International Toll-Free: 1-800-228-9290 

Mission Inn 

3649 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92501, USA 

Phones: 1 909-784-0300 Fax: 1 909-784-5525 

International Toll-Free: 1-800-843-7755 

Annual Meeting Registration Forms 

Annual Meeting 2004 registration forms in doc and pdf format 

at www.SCAHome.org/events/index.html. Please fill out all 

three pages, then return the form by mail to: 


CSU Chico 

Chico CA 95929-401 

Visit 

SCAHome.org! 

Check www.SCAHome.org 

for up-to-the-minute Annual 

Meeting updates, including 

schedule details, and 

information on events, field 

trips, banquet items, 

accommodations, and 

meeting arrangements. 

Direct your Annual Meeting 

questions to Michael K. 

Lerch, Local Arrangements 

and Program Chair: 

Mike Lerch 

Statistical Research, Inc. 

Redlands, California 

(909) 335-1896, 

mlerch@sricrm.com. 


18 

Articles 

Angel Island 

Immigration 

Station 

Trish Fernandez 

Pacific Legacy, Inc. 

Pacific Legacy, under contract with Environmental 

Science Associates and the California Department of 

Parks and Recreation (DPR), excavated the site of the 

Angel Island Immigration Station (AIIS), located in the San 

Francisco Bay. The project is part of a plan to preserve and 

interpret the history of the Immigration Station, which was in 

use between 1910 and 1940 and was the main Pacific Coast 

entry for Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese. The current 

study was aimed at identifying the subsurface remains of the 

Administration Building to determine if and how those 

remains might contribute to the interpretive program. One of 

the aims of the interpretive program is to convey how Angel 

Island exemplifies the history of immigration policy and 

compare this station with the major east coast immigration 

station, Ellis Island. Key parties in the development of the 

program are the DPR, the AIIS Foundation, the Golden Gate 

National Recreation Area, and the National Park Service 

(NPS). 

Historic Context 

Immigration Policy 

With the population increase from the California Gold 

Rush, labor became more competitive in the western United 

States and couched in terms of distinctions between 

nationalities. Eventually, the Chinese became scapegoats for 

the growing pains of America’s industrialization and 

capitalization, including the depression of the 1870s (Figure 

1). Anti-immigration sentiment swept through the country 

and the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in 1882. The act 

excluded Chinese from obtaining American citizenship, but 

exempted merchants, diplomats, ministers, travelers, 

students, and children of American citizens. Chinese 

attempting to immigrate under these exemptions were 

heavily scrutinized by U.S. officials. Contributing further to 

this scrutiny, many vital records were destroyed during the 

San Francisco Earthquake, enabling Chinese residents in the 


19 

Articles 

U.S. to claim they had more 

children than they actually 

Figure 1 

did and thereby assisting 

“illegal” immigration. 

Between 1888 and 1943, 

congressional amendments, treaties, and 

acts effectively extended the Chinese 

Exclusion Act, which led to interrogations, 

hearings, appeals, and extended detentions 

for Asian immigrants. In 1943, when China 

became a wartime ally of the United States, 

the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. 

The immigration process at Angel 

Island began in the San Francisco Bay, as 

immigration officers boarded ships to 

inspect passengers’ documents. Those with 

questionable documents were ferried to 

Angel Island for further examination. At 

the island, “whites” were separated from 

other races and the Asian population was 

separated into Chinese, Japanese, and 

“other.” Men and women were kept apart 

and not allowed to communicate with each 

other until cleared for admission. During 

the first years of the station’s operation, the average waiting 

period could stretch into months. After complaints by leaders 

of the Chinese community in the 1920s, however, the 

average waiting time reduced to approximately three weeks. 

Figure 2 

Site History 

The AIIS was touted as the Ellis Island of the West; 

however, it was also known as the Guardian of the Western 

Gate, as it was overtly designed to control the flow of Chinese 

into the country. The station, which officially opened in 1910, 

consisted of an administration building, power house, 

hospital, wharf, baggage shed, carpentry shop, recreation 

areas, water tanks, a reservoir, a mule barn, a separate 

detention barracks for Chinese, and three managers’ houses 

and nine smaller employee houses designed by Julia Morgan 

(Figure 2). The steep topography of the site required the 

construction of a total of 27 retaining walls. In 1910, a tenperson 

privy was constructed in the Chinese recreation area, 

but was removed in 1920 after flush toilets were added to the 

barracks. A guard house was constructed northwest of the 

Chinese detention barracks in 1930. 

The Administration Building was located close to 

the wharf, forming the threshold to the AIIS (Figure 

3). This building was the largest structure at the 

facility and occupied the majority of the flat portion of 

the site. It was an imposing, three-story building that 

housed a registration room, general office, medical 

examination room, Inspector and Doctor’s offices, kitchen, 

separate “Chinese” and “European” dining rooms, 

employee dormitories, and detention quarters for 100 

European immigrants (Figure 4). 

An accidental fire destroyed the Administration Building 

in 1940. Between 1941 and 1946, the U.S. Army constructed 

several new buildings at the site, including a 1600-person 


20 

Articles 

mess hall and kitchen. In 

1966, most of the island was 

Figure 3 

under DPR management. 

Three years later, the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers destroyed and 

buried the mess hall and kitchen and by 

1973 the site had been leveled. The 

nine employee cottages designed by 

Julia Morgan were razed in the 1970s. 

During this time of destruction, the 

Chinese detention barracks were spared 

because Alexander Weis, a park ranger, 

noted poems carved on the walls by the 

detainees (Figure 5). These carvings can 

be viewed by participating in the public 

tour on the island and are a poignant 

reminder of the despair Chinese 

immigrants experienced during forced 

detainment. In 1997, as a result of efforts 

by the Angel Island Immigration Station 

Foundation, the site was declared a 

National Historic Landmark. 

Methods 

The most prominent remains of the 

Administration Building are along the 

west end of the former building and 

consist of concrete retaining walls, 

pathways, and exterior stem walls. The 

footprint of the former building is 

approximately 200 feet north/south by 

100 feet east/west. The trace of the 

foundation is defined by materials on the 

south, east, and west sides of the lawn. 

The primary purpose of the 

excavation was to determine the 

presence or absence of intact foundations 

and cultural deposits associated with the 

Administration Building and to 

determine if those remains might be 

integrated into the station’s interpretive 

plan. It was expected that the episodic 

ground disturbance from construction, 

fire, destruction, and burial of structures 

between 1908 and 1973 left layers of 

thick rubble underground. As such, we 

began our effort by using historic plans of 

the foundation and the first floor to mark 

the corners of the building with wooden 

stakes. Dr. Lawrence Conyers of the 

University of Colorado, 

Denver, then conducted a 

Figure 4 

Ground Penetrating Radar 

(GPR) survey of the building 


21 

Articles 

Figure 5 

site. Data were gathered from 0-220 cm throughout the entire 

building outline in increments of 20 cm. The GPR data were 

then electronically overlain on the historic foundation plan. A 

total of seven trenches were excavated in areas offering the 

highest potential for the discovery of subsurface remains 

(Figure 4). The depth of each of the backhoe trenches was 

determined by reconciling the materials being recovered 

with the GPR data and historic plans. These two sources of 

data were integral to the efficient excavation of the site. 

Cultural materials were recorded in the profiles and spoil 

piles of the backhoe trenches; cultural deposits were recorded 

but left in place. The nature of the soils inspected, depths of 

deposits, constituents, disturbances, and other pertinent 

observations were also recorded. Documentation included 

field notes, trench records, feature records, context records, 

digital photographs, and a photograph log. Plan and profile 

drawings were made for each trench and a soil sample from 

each stratigraphic context was collected for controlled 

description in the lab. Cultural materials were documented on 

the feature and context records and a small sample (n=7) of 

materials was collected. All trenches, the GPR grid, and the 

provenience of structural and cultural materials were recorded 

with a transit and stadia rod. Cultural materials removed from 

the field were processed, cataloged, and photographed at 

Angel Island by Michelle St. Clair of Pacific Legacy. 

Summary of Findings 

Intact structural remains were discovered from 1 ft. to 4 ft. 

9 in. below the surface and included concrete walkways, 

steam heating pipes, and concrete walls and stairways. The 

range in depth of structural materials is attributed to the 

terraced character of the building, the slope of the natural 

topography, and the two major phases of construction at the 

site. Structural materials attributed to the AIIS era include 

context 17 (Trench D); and contexts 35, 30, and 29 (Trench 

C). The structural materials in Trench C include the concrete 

entrance steps that correspond with the foundation plans, and 

the iron pipe that corresponds with the directional location of 

the steam pipe (Mathews n.d.). The structural remains in 

Trench D consist of the concrete stem wall. These structural 

materials are overlain by a soil matrix that includes burned 

materials or, as in Trench C, black organic material mixed 

with sand that has a distinct marbled appearance. This 

marbled sand and black or burned material appears to be the 

result of rapid water action, which may be from naturally 


22 

Articles 

occurring wave action, but is more likely from high pressure 

water hoses used to help put out the burning building. 

Structural materials attributed to the WWII-era mess hall 

(Trenches A and B: context 22 and 23) were found 

approximately 1 ft. 7 in. below the surface, and 5 in. above 

the nearest and shallowest identified Administration Building 

remains (Trench C: context 35). The presence of gravel and 

asphaltum in Trenches A and B indicates the area was leveled 

and used as a road after the WW II buildings were 

demolished. 

The structural materials in Trenches E, F, and G cannot be 

positively attributed to either the WW II era or the AIIS era 

because of the lack of burned material in the trenches that 

would indicate the level at which the Administration 

Building was burned. However, the paved walkways 

(contexts 2 and 8) in Trenches F and G appear to be similar to 

those that appear above ground near the retaining walls and 

that are associated with the Administration Building. 

Conclusions and Recommendations 

The excavation of the Administration Building reveals 

that the site contains intact, though minimal, subsurface 

structural remains. In terms of how these remains might 

contribute to the interpretive program, the overall low 

percentage of subsurface remains and the depth at which they 

exist do not lend themselves to a feasible, meaningful, or safe 

reconstruction or interpretation of the site. These conclusions 

have assisted the DPR in ruling out the inclusion of 

subsurface remains in the interpretation of the site, and allow 

them to focus on what remains of the site above ground. In 

addition to the standing structures (the power house, hospital, 

and detention barracks), the above-ground remains include an 

extensive retaining wall system, as well as the foundations of 

the employee cottages and the large void where the 

Administration Building once stood. 

These voids are not simply the absence of structures; they 

have shape and substance both physically and historically. 

Artistically speaking, negative space plays an important role 

in defining the subject. The fact that the Administration 

Building is lost and that the employee cottages were 

destroyed can itself be integrated into the interpretive 

program. These negative spaces are a result of a lack of active 

preservation of this important site, illustrating the ignorance 

and ambivalence with which the site has been regarded. This 

disregard is in stark contrast to our historic treatment of Ellis 

Island—which has been preserved, maintained, and is a 

widely recognized and familiar site to the general public 

(Figure 6). These disparate conditions prompt us to ask 

ourselves what the different treatments of Ellis Island and 

Angel Island reflect. Is it a result of the focus on our country’s 

history “from east to west”? Does it suggest that, while Irish 

and Italian immigrants on the east coast were persecuted, the 

racism toward the Asian population was, and may still be, 

endemic throughout the country? The negative spaces at the 

AIIS can speak as loudly as standing structures, conveying the 

history of exclusionary policy, ignorance, and racism in the 

United States and how this history shapes our contemporary 

world. 

The power of the negative spaces can be maintained in 

the interpretive program while also creating an interpretive 

exhibit through the site of the Administration Building. This 

exhibit would include pathways to simulate the processing of 

immigrants through the site, which would introduce visitors to 

the social, physical, and psychological impact that 

enforcement of the exclusion laws had on immigrants. Each 

room of the building could be outlined with a low profile 

stone or concrete wall, and a pathway could be delineated 

Figure 6 


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Articles 

that guides the visitor along numbered interpretive panels, 

moving the visitor through the immigration process. Two 

different pathways could diverge, indicating the different 

processes a Chinese immigrant and a European immigrant 

would have experienced (Moore 2002). 

Recommendations for Further Research 

The Angel Island Immigration Station is a lens through 

which broad contemporary issues of immigration, diversity, 

culture, and class conflict can be examined with historical 

perspective; its legacy serves as a touchstone for 

personalizing and humanizing the complicated intersections 

of race, immigration, and our American identity (Moore 

2002). As such, the structural and archaeological remains of 

the station offer additional venues for interpretation of these 

ideas to the public. 

Although a significant portion of the AIIS has been lost, 

the remaining portion of the built environment holds 

potential for future research and interpretation. Specifically, 

the functional and aesthetic aspects of the overall built 

environment should be studied and presented in terms of the 

communication of power and control through the use of 

imposing facades, panoptic architectural features, and ordered 

landscape vegetation and walkways (Leone 1995). As Moore 

(2002) states: “The design and construction of the barracks, 

Administration Building, and hospital, with segregated areas 

for Asian and European immigrants, reflects the 

institutionalized prejudice of the Bureau of Immigration 

toward Asian immigrants in the early 20 th century”. Pacific 

Legacy will be presenting a paper at the 2004 SHA Meeting 

that discusses these themes. 

Davison and Meier (2002) suggest that the remains of the 

employee cottages be studied in terms of their archaeological 

remains. The two different sets of employee cottages appear 

to represent two different types of employees. The set of 

nine cottages near the hospital are smaller and closer together 

than the three larger “cottages” near the power house, 

indicating that individuals of higher status probably lived in 

the larger and more spacious cottages. The study of 

archaeological remains associated with these residences has 

the potential to shed light on the lives and hierarchy of the 

employees. 

In addition, the privy that existed in the recreation yard of 

the Chinese detention barracks offers a plethora of data 

regarding these segregated detainees. The privy was built to 

accommodate 10 people at one time and was in use when the 

AIIS first opened in 1910. It may have been discontinued as 

early as 1912, when the bathrooms were added to the 

detention barracks, but it was certainly not in use by 1920, 

when the privy had been demolished. This privy potentially 

contains 10 discrete deposits, with a known period of use and 

a known population. The study of the cottages, in 

combination with the study of the privies and the dominant 

constructed landscape, would provide outstanding data by 

which to more clearly understand the lives of the people 

detained, living, and working at the Angel Island 

Immigration Station, and the ways in which they related to 

one another in terms of culture and class conflict. 

Portions of this report are adapted from Architectural Resources 

Group (2002); Davison and Meier (2002); Soennichsen (2001); 

and Moore (2002). Special thanks to Nick Franco, Superintendent 

of the Angel Island Immigration Station State Park; Alisa Moore 

of Environmental Science Associates; Jeff Brooke, California State 

Parks Archaeologist; Frank Ross of the Federated Indians of 

Graton Rancheria; Dr. Lawrence Conyers of the University of 

Colorado; Dr. Lori Hager and Roberta Jewitt of the Archaeological 

Research Facility (ARF) at UC Berkeley; and John Holson, 

Jennifer Burns, Michelle St. Clair, and Dr. Michael Bever at 

Pacific Legacy. 

References 

Architectural Resources Group 

2002 Hospital Building Historic Structure Report, Angel 

Island Immigration Station. San Francisco, CA. 

Davison, M. and L. Meier 

2002 Cultural Landscape Report for Angel Island 

Immigration Station, Volume 1-3: Site History, 

Existing Conditions, and Treatment. Prepared by 

National Park Service, Olmsted Center for Landscape 

Preservation, in collaboration with the Pacific Great 

Basin Support Office for the California Department of 

Parks and Recreation and the Angel Island 

Immigration Station Foundation, San Francisco, CA. 

Leone, M. 

1995 A Historical Archaeology of Capitalism. American 

Anthropologist 97(2):251-268. 

Mathews, W. 

n.d. Foundation Plan. Main Administration Building, U.S. 

Immigration Station, Angel Island, San Francisco, 

California. On file at the Angel Island State Park 

Superintendent’s Office. 

Moore, D. 

2002 Interpretive Strategy: Angel Island Immigration 

Station. California State Parks, Sacramento. 

Soennichsen, J. 

2001 Miwoks to Missiles: A History of Angel Island. Angel 

Island Association, Tiburon, California. 

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Articles 

Indians’ Hidden 

Paintings Open 

Window Into S.F.’s 

Sacred Past 

Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer 

Reprinted by permission 

from the San Francisco Chronicle 

Kristina Crawford 

Two young men, one an artist, the other an 

archaeologist, crawled over the ancient redwood 

beams of San Francisco’s Mission Dolores earlier 

this month, opened a trap door, lowered an electric light into 

a space behind the main altar — and stared into the 18th 

century. There, in a space thick with the dust of centuries and 

dark as a tomb, is a wall of nearly forgotten religious murals, 

painted in red, black and yellow by Native Americans in 

1791 and hidden from public view for 208 years. 

The two — freelance artist Ben Wood, 23, and Presidio of 

San Francisco archaeologist Eric Blind, 29 — have 

rediscovered the old murals, have taken digital photographs 

of them, and are projecting the images on the inside of the 

dome of the modern Mission Dolores Basilica next door for 

all to see. The display runs through Feb. 7. 

Only part of the murals has been photographed, and the 

pictures show two representations of the Sacred Heart of 

Jesus, penetrated by swords and daggers. There are also 

decorative swirls and patterns, and apparently more Roman 

Catholic religious symbols are still hidden in the dark. Some 

niches there contained statues at one time. The murals, 

apparently painted with colors made from natural dyes on the 

site, are the work of the native people of San Francisco, 

Ohlone and other tribes that lived at the Spanish mission. 

The murals have been seen only by a handful of people since 

they were blocked from view when a new and elaborate 

altarpiece was installed with great ceremony in 1796. The old 

murals were left in the dark, effectively walled off. Only 

workers and extraordinarily nimble clergy or historians could 

even find them. 

Now, Blind said, anyone can see them. “They are a 

fascinating look into the nexus of history,’’ he said. 

Displaying the work “is of extraordinary significance,’’ said 

Brother Guire Cleary, curator of Mission Dolores. “It is the 

best-preserved example of art from the period of first contact 

with Europeans that I am aware of,’’ said Andrew Galvan, an 

Ohlone Indian who will succeed Cleary as curator next 

month. 

Mission San Francisco de Asis was founded in June 1776 

near an Indian village on a lagoon the Spanish called Nuestra 

Senora de los Dolores — Our Lady of Sorrows. Franciscan 

friars, using native labor, built a permanent mission building 

in 1790 at the corner of what is now 16th and Dolores streets. 

At that time, San Francisco was the northern frontier of the 

Spanish empire, the very edge of the European world in 

North America. Mission Dolores, as it came to be called, was 

built of adobe with roof beams of redwood tied together with 

rawhide thongs. 

“It was built by Ohlone slave labor,’’ said Galvan, who is 

descended from an Indian baptized in Mission Dolores in 

1801. The original redwood beams are still visible in the 

mission attic, tied together with rawhide. “My ancestors did 

good work,’’ he said. 


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The mural was painted behind the main altar about a year 

after the mission opened, but in 1796, a brand-new structure 

— called a reredos and carved in Mexico — arrived by ship. It 

came in pieces, and when it was assembled, it was pleasing to 

the eye of the priests: grand and ornate, elaborately carved 

with statues of the Archangel Michael and the Blessed Virgin, 

flanked by her parents, whom the Spanish called Santa Ana 

and San Joaquin. 

The new reredos was so splendid it was placed in front of 

the murals, where it stands to this day. The old murals were 

eclipsed. “They were hidden since 1796,’’ Cleary said. “You 

could only see them by climbing up there and looking 

through a trap door. If that’s not hidden, I don’t know the 

definition of the word.’’ 

The murals were never really lost. They were always 

there, like a forgotten treasure. Information about them 

surfaced from time to time, most notably in the 1980s, when 

historian Norman Neuerburg made his way up the wooden 

spiral staircase to the choir loft, climbed a ladder into the 

attic, crossed over the interior roof of the mission to the trap 

door, and lowered himself on a rope ladder to see the murals. 

He had black-and-white sketches made. “He may have been 

the first person to see the murals in perhaps a century, ‘’ 

Cleary said. Then, late last year, along came artist Wood, an 

Englishman who is interested in art and history in equal 

doses. He heard the story of the murals from Cleary and 

enlisted Blind in the enterprise of using modern digital 

photography to document the murals. Cleary gave his 

permission, Galvan gave his encouragement, and the job was 

on. 

Wood and Blind had to figure out a way to get into the 

space without touching the murals, which have crumbled in 

some places. Finally, they rigged up a series of ropes and 

pulleys and found a way build a cradle to lower their camera 

and lights into the 3-by-3-foot opening. They put the digital 

images on the computer, and there it was: the world of 1791, 

when a handful of Europeans in an adobe mission and a few 

soldiers in a windblown Presidio clung to a Spanish colony on 

the far side of the world. “You can only imagine what these 

people were thinking to be put to work painting a wall with 

completely alien symbols,” Blind said. 

The mural images will be on display in the Basilica from 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day through Feb. 7. There is no 

admission charge. After that, Wood and Blind will pack up 

their equipment. They’d like to do more, but so far this has 

been unpaid work, a labor of love. “Perhaps,’’ Wood said, 

“someone will give us a grant.” 

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Preliminary Condition Assessment, 

Building 50, Presidio of 

San Francisco, California 

Anthony Crosby, Architectural Conservation LLC, Denver, Colorado 

Sannie Kenton Osborn, Presidio Trust 

Vance Bente’ URS Corporation 

Leo Barker, National Park Service 

Megan Wilkinson, Presidio Trust 

Eric Blind, Presidio Trust 

This article documents a preliminary investigation to 

assess the condition of the Officers’ Club (Building 

50), part of which encapsulates the last remaining 

adobe building on the Presidio of San Francisco, California. 

The Officers’ Club is a contributing property to the Presidio 

National Historic Landmark District and by virtue of its 

significance formed the basis of the original landmark 

nomination in 1963. El Presidio de San Francisco was founded 

in 1776, one of four 18 th century Spanish military garrisons in 

Alta California, along with San Diego, Monterey, and Santa 

Barbara. The Presidio was the longest continuously occupied 

military installation in the western United States (Spain 1776- 

1821, Mexico 1821-1848, U.S. 1848-1994) until its transfer to 

civilian use in 1994 and is now jointly administered by the 

Presidio Trust and National Park Service. Additional 

information on the Presidio’s history can be found in many of 

the references below. 

The study of the adobe and related architectural features 

is being conducted by the senior author working as a 

subcontractor to URS Corporation to provide information 

regarding the condition of the adobe structures and their 

related building systems and the extent of the historic fabric. 

Fabric information related to the history of the structure and 

its evolution will be collected as appropriate, but is not the 

thrust of this project. Archaeological investigations in support 

of the condition assessment are being carried out as a 

collaborative effort between the Presidio Trust, National Park 

Service URS archaeologist Vance Bente’. The initial 

investigations took place in November 2003. 

Purpose 

The purpose of Crosby’s site visit was to begin the 

condition recording phase of the project, to meet with other 

project team members (Sannie Osborn, Eric Blind, Megan 

Wilkinson of the Presidio Trust, Leo Barker of the National 

Park Service, Bente’, and structural engineer Roy Tolles, and 

to review the results of the archaeological investigation that 

began in advance of Crosby’s assessment. Crosby worked 

together with the archaeologists discussing the overall 

project, reviewing the foundations exposed on the interior 

and of the building, and investigating the exposed adobe 

walls and roof from the attic level. 


26 

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already begun with the archaeological investigation and the 

prior removal of some of the wall coverings in the east part of 

the Mesa Room. 

Foundations 

To understand the adobe structural system it is necessary 

to have the most information possible on the foundation 

system. The foundation at the southeast corner of the Mesa 

Room is in the process of being excavated on the interior and 

the exterior. Figure 1 shows the interior condition. 

Figure 1: Detail of the foundation of the south wall at the southeast corner. 

A piece of flooring is at the top of the exposed stone foundation. 

Figure 2: A line of vertical holes drilled through the exterior hard stucco. 

This location is on the north side of the north wall of the Mesa Room. 

Discussion 

The original intent of Crosby’s site visit was to undertake 

only the condition recording phase, which is a non-invasive 

part of the documentation of the existing conditions. The 

subsequent stage of fabric investigation that will include a 

more comprehensive investigation of the building fabric and 

system analysis was to have taken place on a subsequent site 

visit. However, the condition of the structure with the 

principal building fabric and systems covered by stucco 

renderings and interior wood siding, paneling and gypsum 

board restricted the amount of information available from the 

initial non-invasive approach. Consequently, we began the 

deconstruction phase and more comprehensive fabric 

investigation by drilling holes through the exterior stucco in 

several locations. In fact this deconstruction phase had 

The coursing of the unshaped rocks is very uneven with 

large gaps and without a clear edge line. This character of this 

section of the foundation could have resulted from a casual 

construction approach. The other possibility, and a more 

likely one is that disturbance that may have occurred after the 

construction of the feature that altered the original condition. 

The excavation has not exposed the actual base, so any 

additional analysis at this point is premature. An extension of 

the excavation to the west of this area between the adjoining 

fireplace and the closed doorway may yield additional 

information. A comparison of foundations that had been 

previously exposed to the east of this structure, part of which 

may be an extension, may also yield important comparable 

information. The exterior excavation at the southeast corner 

was in an area that had been extensively disturbed previously 

and provided no additional information about the corner 

condition or evidence of an extension of the south wall 

foundation to the east. There is evidence that the present 

exterior east wall is an original interior wall, as the south end 

of the east wall did not appear to have any foundation stones 

with the adobes placed directly on the ground. This east wall 

is also approximately two feet thick, another characteristic of 

an interior wall. From the standpoint of developing a more 

clear understanding of the condition of the building, it will be 

important to continue the investigation of the foundations. 

Adobe Walls 

Although the fabric investigation is in its early stages, it 

does appear that the four walls of the Mesa room are adobe 

construction. There appears to be one missing section of 

adobe in the south wall and there are other sections where the 

adobe wall has been altered. The specific extent of these 

missing sections and alterations will be identified further in 

subsequent work associated with this project. The evidence 

of the adobe was available from observations in the attic of 

both adobe rooms as well as from the attics of the adjacent 

rooms to the south of the Mesa Room. 

There are also some missing sections in the adobe walls 

of the De Anza Room as well, but the majority of the wall 

fabric of all four walls of this room is adobe construction. 

The existence of the adobe was also confirmed by drilling 

holes through the hard exterior stucco in several locations of 


27 

Articles 

both buildings. The purpose of drilling the holes was 

primarily to determine the extent of the hard stucco, identify 

the wall material and collect information on the condition of 

the immediate substrate. Figure 2 shows one of the areas 

where holes were drilled through the stucco. 

The holes were drilled with a power drill with a 1/2” 

masonry drill until the stucco was penetrated. At that point, 

the drilling continued at a reduced rate and the materials from 

the drill holes were examined. Later each hole was probed 

with a steel probe and a brass tube. The brass tube was used to 

extract small material samples in some cases. The brass probe 

was pushed into the substrate by hand, and this also provided 

an idea of the relative softness of the substrate materials. 

Additional holes will be drilled to provide more of the basic 

information available through this process. 

The preliminary results from the drilling are (1) the stucco 

appears to be reasonably uniform in material and thickness, 

(2) the walls are composed of adobe masonry, (3) there is 

some variation in the dampness of the adobe walls, and (4) 

the north walls of the two adobes are damper than is the east 

end wall. The relative dampness was not unexpected, as the 

north side appears to be the wettest side of the structure. The 

location and extent of the dampness also appears to indicate 

that there is not a systemic ground moisture problem that 

affects the integrity of the adobe walls, but rather is localized 

and probably the results of watering and the accumulation of 

surface runoff along the front of the structures. There are two 

important pieces of additional information that will help to 

understand the threat of moisture to the adobe walls more 

comprehensively. First is the effect that the wet season or a 

wetter year will have; second is the actual subsurface 

condition of the site. Additional testing and research will 

provide this information. 

The results of the drilling indicates that to better 

understand the wall conditions in some areas, some of the 

hard stucco will have to be removed. The result of the 

drilling was discussed with project team members and several 

areas were identified where the stucco would need to be 

removed to expose more of the actual wall fabric. The two 

initial areas are to be on the east of the Mesa Room. 

The purpose of the stucco removal at this location is 

primarily to determine the condition of the adobe wall and 

the connection of the east and south walls. Stucco on this 

same east wall near the northeast corner will be removed in a 

similar way and for the same purposes. In this latter case, the 

stucco should be removed to the existing ground line and an 

excavation unit should be placed at the same location. The 

drilling showed evidence of stone at the base of the wall, 

which is somewhat inconsistent with the present 

understanding of this wall derived from the interior 

excavation. The excavation should also provide additional 

information on the foundations systems in general. 

The exterior wall surfaces were also mapped on sketch 

drawings, locating wall bulges, stucco patches, cracks and 

Figure 4: A detail of the top of the south wall near the fireplace and the 

closed doorway in the Mesa Room showing the location of a deep 

structural crack that is on axis with the wall plane. The view is looking 

directly down on the top of the wall 

other indications of wall conditions. The interior wall surfaces 

were not mapped as all the interior walls are covered with 

combinations of wood siding and gypsum board. Several 

cracks were located and mapped on the elevation drawings. 

Most were very typical and do not appear to reflect a response 

to a severe structural condition. One crack does appear to be 

active and a crack monitor will be installed on that crack in 

the future. 

The adobe wall was investigated from several different 

areas of the attic, but the access was extremely limited 

because of the configuration of the roof system. Eric Blind 

examined the gable of the east wall and we both were able to 

check the top of the south wall of the Mesa Room. In order to 

gain a greater understanding of the walls more areas need to 

be accessed and examined. There is some evidence that the 

adobe wall has suffered structural trauma in the past. The 

short section of wall between the fireplace and the closed 

door in the east part of the Mesa Room had what appeared to 

be a significant crack and a deep fissure. The top of the wall 

was partially cleaned, but more cleaning and the exposure of 

more of this wall is needed. This will be done during the next 

site visit. Figure 3 is a detail of this part of the wall. 

Roy Tolles, project structural engineer visited the site on 

Thursday and after an initial examination we decided that, 

rather than returning immediately to complete his 

investigation, it was more practical to wait until more of the 

adobe wall was exposed. This will be coordinated with the 

next site visit, which will probably take place in March. 

Roof System 

The existing roof system is a combination of what appears 

to be a mid-19 th century roof and modifications to the ca. 


28 

Articles 

1934 roof when the building was “restored” and the tile roof 

was added. Some of the earlier rafters were left in place and 

others were partially removed and new roof trusses installed. 

The existing system appears to be in good condition, 

although the details of the wall connections, a critical factor, 

may not be adequate – additional investigation and analysis 

is necessary to determine the adequacy of this part of the roof 

system. 

A 19 th century ceiling exists above the west part of the 

cafeteria located adjacent to the south adobe wall. Several 

19 th century buildings are known to have existed in this area 

prior to the construction of the current structures attached on 

the south side and this ceiling is probably the remains of one 

of those structures. 

Summary 

The condition recording, including fabric investigation 

based on a de-construction approach, will continue during the 

next site visit, tentatively planned during the spring of 2004. 

This will include the drilling of additional holes through the 

hard exterior stucco and the removal of selected small 

portions of the stucco on the exterior as well as very limited 

exposure of the ceiling system in the Mesa Room. Tony 

Crosby will also expose more of the top of the adobe wall 

where possible. Prior to that, the additional archaeological 

investigations will be undertaken. 

The continued investigation in the east part of the Mesa 

Room will proceed over the next two months. This may 

include the excavation of the foundation near the closed 

doorway in the south wall, the continuing excavation of the 

south wall foundation near the southeast corner, and 

completing the excavation and cleaning of the south end of 

the east wall. Excavation of the foundation on the exterior 

near the northeast corner of the Mesa Room may also occur in 

order to collect more information about the foundation 

system of both the north wall and the east wall. 

The interior deconstruction may proceed with the 

removal of a portion of the wall covering and siding on the 

interior wall near the southeast corner where the process has 

begun with the removal of the gypsum board in this area. 

Prior to the actual deconstruction, the project team will 

consult and determine the most effective approach. 

Because of the difficulty of accessing the attic spaces 

above both the adobe rooms, an additional access way will 

need to be cut in the ceiling of both rooms, near the west 

ends. The new access ways should be constructed similarly to 

the existing ones. 

Additional historical research should concentrate on the 

period between 1885 and ca. 1935, where a gap presently 

exists. In addition, the collection of all available historical 

photographs should be completed and made available. 


Alley, Paul, et al 

1993 Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Landmark 

District. National Register of Historic Places 

Registration Form. National Park Service, San 

Francisco 

Architectural Resources Group 

2002 Building 50, Presidio Officers’ Club Historic Structures 

Report. Prepared for the Presidio Trust. 

Association for Preservation Technology 

2001 Conservation of Historic Adobe Workshop Handbook. 

APT Conference, Asilomar, California 

Barker, Leo 

1997 The Presidio within the Presidio: Historical 

Archaeology in a NHL. CRM 20:9 

Foster, Lee, Jerry Fuentes, and Sannie Kenton Osborn 

1997 The Presidio of San Francisco: A Study in Interagency 

Cooperation. CRM 20:13 

National Park Service 

1976 The Presidio of San Francisco 1776-1976: A 

Collection of Historical Source Materials. Western 

Regional Office 

Osborn, Sannie Kenton and Robert Wallace 

2001 New Frontiers, New Soliders of Preservation – The 

Presidio of San Francisco under Civilian Control. 

CRM 24:3 or http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm> 

Langellier, John and Daniel Rosen 

1996 El Presidio de San Francisco: A History under Spain 

and Mexico 1776-1846. The Arthur H. Clark 

Company, Spokane. 

Tolles, E. Leroy, Frederick A. Webster, Anthony Crosby, and 

Edna E. Kimbro 

1996 Survey of Damage to Historic Adobe Buildings after 

the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Getty 

Conservation Institute 

Voss, Barbara 

2002 The Archaeology of El Presidio de San Francisco: 

Culture Contact, Gender, and Ethnicity in a Spanish- 

Colonial Military Community. PhD dissertation, 

Department of Anthropology, U.C. Berkeley 

Voss, Barbara and Vance Bente’ 

1996 Archaeological Discovery and Investigation of the 

Historic Presidio de San Francisco. Woodward Clyde 

Consultants, prepared for Sacramento District Corps of 

Engineers. 

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Culture Contact 

at El Presidio De 

San Francisco: 

The Tennessee 

Hollow Watershed 

Archaeology 

Project 

Dr. Barbara Voss, Assistant Professor 

Department of Cultural and Social 

Anthropology, Stanford University 

This past summer, Stanford University began a new 

phase of archaeological research at El Presidio de 

San Francisco: The Tennessee Hollow Watershed 

Archaeology Project. Founded by the Anza expedition in 

1776, El Presidio de San Francisco was the Spain’s 

northernmost military outpost in California (Figure 1). Its 

archaeological remains were first discovered in 1993, and 

since then the Presidio Trust, National Park Service, and the 

Army Corps of Engineers have led an active research program 

to better understand the history and culture of this important 

settlement. Stanford participates in this overall research 

program as an educational partner, along with several other 

universities and colleges in Northern California. 

Our investigations this summer marked the beginning of a 

new chapter in this research. To date, most of the work that 

archaeologists have done at El Presidio de San Francisco has 

focused on the settlement’s main quadrangle – the nucleus of 

the presidio (e.g., Barker, et al. 1997, Voss 2002, Voss and 

Bente 1996). But the daily life of the settlement extended far 

beyond the walls of the quadrangle, and both colonists and 

Native Californians established residences and work camps in 

the surrounding landscape. This project – perhaps the first 

Figure 1: Map of San Francisco Bay regions 

showing locations of major Spanish, Mexican, and 

Russian colonial settlements. 

systematic investigation of extramural residences at any 

presidio site in North America – promises to generate new 

information about the historic presidial community and 

provide a broader perspective for the interpretation of 

presidial settlements. Its ultimate goal is to better understand 

the complex interactions between colonial and native 

populations that occurred at El Presidio de San Francisco, and 

to trace the emergence of the City of San Francisco from its 

origins at the Presidio. 


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Early Investigations: Predictive Models 

and Archaeological Survey 

The site of El Presidio de San Francisco is unusual in that 

both the quadrangle site itself and the surrounding landscape 

have been managed since 1847 by Federal agencies. It thus 

provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the 

presidial settlement from a holistic perspective, one in which 

the presidio’s main quadrangle is viewed as the military, 

economic, and administrative nucleus of a much broader 

network of ancillary fortifications, residential areas, 

infrastructure facilities, and agricultural and resource 

extraction operations. 

My preparations for the Tennessee Hollow Watershed 

Archaeology Project began in 1996. Then a graduate student 

at UC Berkeley, I approached National Park Service 

archaeologist Leo Barker with a proposal to conduct an 

archaeological survey of lands within the Presidio of San 

Francisco to try to identify the remains of these extramural 

activities and households. Working from Barker’s models of 

predicted locations of archaeological resources at the Presidio 

of San Francisco (Barker 1989, Barker 1992), we identified 

the valley floor of the Tennessee Hollow Watershed as a 

promising area for further research. 

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed is a sheltered valley 

located immediately east of El Presidio de San Francisco’s 

main quadrangle. Tennessee Hollow is rich in both historical 

and ecological significance. The year-round presence of fresh 

water supports diverse plant and animal communities. During 

the Spanish and Mexican periods, the valley floors were used 

for farming and grazing, and the serpentine bedrock outcrops 

on some of the watershed’s slopes were quarried for stones 

used to make the foundations of adobe buildings at El 

Presidio de San Francisco. 

Typical of other areas in the present-day park, the valley 

floor today is a patchwork of intensely developed residential 

areas interspersed by heavily vegetated open space covered 

with brush, forest, and grasslands. Earlier archaeological 

survey at the Presidio of San Francisco found that surface 

visibility in the park is near zero (Ivey 1991). Ultimately, I 

chose to use shovel probe survey as a method to detect 

colonial-era sites. 

The shovel probe survey of the valley floor was 

completed in the summers of 1997 and 1998, with students 

from the University of California, Berkeley serving as field 

crew (Voss 1999). (Figure 2) Our methods were 

straightforward: having divided the valley floor into several 

survey zones using both natural and cultural features, we 

excavated shovel probes at the nodes of a thirty-foot grid. 

Each probe was excavated to a diameter of twelve inches and 

to a depth of twenty-four inches; excavated soils were 

screened through 1/8” mesh to recover any artifacts that 

might be present. Because of the indurated, clay-rich soil 

found in the valley floor, this process was very labor-intensive 

– on average, each survey crew member was able to cover 

only about 0.15 acre per day. Despite this slow pace, the 

shovel probe survey method was highly effective in 

identifying the locations of near-surface deposits that would 

not have been detected with the naked eye. In all, three 

Spanish-colonial/Mexican period deposits were discovered 

(Figure 3). The general location of one residential area – El 

Polín Springs – was known through historic documents, but 

the other two deposits – named the MacArthur Avenue 

deposit and the Lovers Lane Bridge deposit – are not 

recorded in any historic sources and would not have been 

discovered without systematic subsurface survey. 

Artifacts collected from the shovel probe survey indicated 

the research promise of the deposits. They included many 

artifacts typical of Spanish-colonial deposits: construction tile 

tejas and ladrillos, household ceramics such as majolicas, 

galeras, and British creamwares and pearlwares, wrought 

ferrous artifacts like nails, spikes, and hinges; and bottle glass. 

In addition the survey recovered artifacts typically associated 

with colonial-era Native Californian lifeways: flaked stone 

and flaked glass artifacts and debitage, fragments of 

groundstone tools, glass beads, and cut and shaped shell 

artifacts. 

Current Excavations: 

Reconstructing Life in the Valley 

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project is 

currently scheduled for five years. Our efforts are centered on 

two of the three deposits discovered during the 1997-1998 

survey: El Polín Springs and Lovers Lane Bridge 

(unfortunately it appears that much of the MacArthur Avenue 

deposit has been disturbed by modern construction, limiting 

its research potential). We plan to excavate for two summers 

at each site – first, a series of test excavations, followed by 

areal exposures and data recovery excavations of the deposits 

encountered by the test excavations. 

El Polín Springs 

We began this research at El Polín Springs (Figure 4). El 

Polín is a bowl-shaped valley located at the southern end of 

the watershed, with at least three springs that emerge from 

the valley slope and gather into a small stream. This 

historically-important water source is located only a short 

five-minute walk from the main quadrangle along the trail 

that used to lead from the Presidio to Mission San Francisco 

de Asís (Mission Dolores). 

As noted above, El Polín Springs is the only deposit in the 

valley for which historical documentation exists. From 

archival studies, we know that by the 1810s, El Polín had 

become the home of a large extended colonial family headed 

by Marcos Briones and at least three of his adult daughters, 

María de Guadalupe Briones (married to Calendario 

Miramontes), Juana Briones (married to Apolinario Miranda), 


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As noted above, the shovel probe survey recovered numerous 

artifacts related to traditional Native Californian material 

culture: debris from crafting flaked chert tools, a cut and 

shaped trapezoidal abalone shell, and fragments of 

groundstone tools. From military documents, Milliken (1995) 

has shown that there were many Native Californians who 

labored at colonial El Presidio de San Francisco. It appears 

that some of these may have worked and perhaps lived at El 

Polín Springs alongside the Briones family. 

Our Summer 2003 research at El Polín Springs used a 

dispersed pattern of test excavations to develop baseline 

stratigraphic information about the deposits located there. 

Using density plots of different classes of artifacts recovered 

through the shovel probe survey, test units were placed in 

Figure 3: Map showing the locations of archaeological deposits 

discovered during the 1997-1998 shovel probe survey. 

Figure 2: UC Berkeley graduate student Erica 

Radewagen excavating a shovel probe in 1998. 

and the widow María de la Luz. Marcos Briones 

and his daughters all had large families, and at 

least thirty children were raised at El Polín 

Springs. We don’t know why the Briones family 

chose to live at El Polín rather than in the main 

quadrangle with the rest of the colonial settlers. 

Marcos Briones’s wife, Maria Ygnacia Ysadora 

Tapía, had just died, and some people that I have 

talked to have suggested that perhaps the family 

wanted to be together. Others have pointed 

attention to the fact that the women in the Briones 

family were noted healers, midwives, and 

herbalists, and that they may have wanted to live 

at El Polín Springs because of the diversity of 

plants there. I also think it is possible that the 

Briones family was stationed at El Polín Springs by 

the Spanish-colonial military, perhaps to oversee 

or coordinate farming, ranching, and quarrying 

activities in the valley. 

While historic research provides much 

information about the Briones family, it is largely 

silent about the other people who contributed to 

the El Polín Springs deposit: Native Californians. 


32 

Articles 

history of El Polín Springs. We learned that the 

present-day picnic area was once a patchwork of 

different micro-environments, including low-lying 

wetlands and ponds, sand dunes, and gentle slopes 

of clay loam. In many cases these different 

geological formations occur in spaces of as little as 

10 meters from another, and in no case were soil 

profiles continuous from one test block to the next. 

We are expanding the scope of our planned 

investigations in Summer 2004 to include 

geomorphology and palyntology studies that can 

further refine these initial findings. 

Together the test excavations recovered over 

100,000 archaeological specimens. Project 

researchers are currently working on cataloging 

Figure 5: The Summer 2003 research team posted 

in front of our most important discovery – the 

stone foundation of this adobe house. 

Figure 4: El Polín Springs as it looks today, a popular 

picnic area and trailhead for park visitors. 

both high- and low-density areas to explore the 

full range of deposits that might be present. 

The most significant finding of the test 

excavations was the discovery of the stone 

foundation of a Spanish-colonial/Mexican 

period adobe house (Figure 5). We quickly 

amended our research plan to trace the 

orientation and size of this structure. This 

foundation feature – termed Building 1 for the 

purposes of our investigation – is surprisingly 

well-preserved. Although the collapsed adobe 

walls above the stone foundation have been 

largely removed by American-period grading, 

the foundations retain the upper leveling course 

of stone, mud mortar, and adobe brick 

fragments. Both this and the presence of what 

appear to be roof collapse deposits indicate that 

floor surfaces might still be preserved within 

this structure. We also discovered what may be 

the opening of a pit or well feature immediate 

east of Building 1, and verified the presence of 

intact yard deposits to the west of the structure. 

Both the interior of Building 1 and the yard and 

pit deposits on the structure’s exterior will be 

further excavated in Summer 2004. 

The test excavations also provided 

substantial information about the environmental 

Figure 6: Project crew chief Ingrid Newquist explains the 

archaeological process to one of our many visitors. 


33 

Articles 

and analyzing this collection at the Stanford Archaeology 

Center laboratories. We are joined in our efforts by 

zooarchaeologist Cheryl Smith at UC Berkeley, 

archaeobotanist Virginia Popper at UCLA, and lithic analyst 

Kathleen Hull at San Jose State University. The findings of 

both field and laboratory studies will be compiled in an 

annual progress report to be produced in May 2004. 

A Holistic Approach to Research on Culture Contact 

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project 

integrates oral history, ethnography, and archival research 

with archaeology in the study of culture contact. This past 

spring, I began an oral history study to locate and interview 

people whose heritage is related to the Spanish-colonial/ 

Mexican era at the Presidio of San Francisco generally, and to 

El Polín Spring specifically. Twenty-nine interviews have 

been conducted to date, with more scheduled for the months 

ahead. We are also fortunate to benefit from archival research 

being conducted by US/ICAMOS Visiting Scholar Veronica 

Dado, who has been transcribing and translating Spanishcolonial/Mexican 

era documents related to the history of El 

Presidio de San Francisco (Dado 2003). 

Our project also includes a vigorous public interpretation 

component with interpretive stations and tours for on-site 

visitors (Figure 6). About 1,000 people visited the 

excavations in Summer 2003 and a project website provides 

regular project updates and opportunities for public comment 

on our research (www.stanford.edu/group/presidio). 

Because both archaeological and ethnohistoric research 

are still in very early stages, it is premature to speculate on 

what the conclusions of this investigation might be. Already, 

however, we have found that the extramural residential areas 

at El Presidio de San Francisco survive in the form of wellpreserved 

archaeological deposits, and we anticipate that the 

findings of this investigation will result in a more holistic 

understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of culture 

contact at colonial military settlements. 

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project is directed by 

Dr. Barbara L. Voss through a research partnership between 

Stanford University and the Presidio Trust in cooperation with the 

National Park Service. Funding for this research has been 

provided by several Stanford University programs, including 

Urban Studies, Feminist Studies, the Office of Technology Licensing, 

the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the Iris F. Litt, 

M.D., Fund. 


Barker, L. 

1989 Archaeological Resources: Presidio of SF NHL 

District Nomination., NPS, Western Regional Office, 

National Register Programs, San Francisco, CA. 

1992 Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Landmark 

District Predicted Archaeological Features and 

Historic Forest Plantation. Western Regional Office, 

San Francisco, California. 

Barker, L. R., C. Whatford and V. Bente 

1997 Unraveling the Archeological Structure of the Presidio 

of San Francisco. Paper presented at the Society for 

California Archaeology 31st Annual Meeting, Rohnert 

Park, California. 

Dado, V. 

2003 El Presidio de San Francisco: Spanish Colonial 

Documentation Translation Project. Report submitted to 

the Presidio Trust and the National Park Service, 

Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 

Ivey, J. 

1991 Inventory of Potential Archaeological Resources of Presido 

[sic] San Francisco. Report submitted to the National 

Park Service. 

Milliken, R. 

1995 A Time of Little Choice. Ballena Press Anthropological 

Papers. Ballena Press, Menlo Park. 

Voss, B. L. 

1999 Report on Archaeological Shovel Probe Survey at the 

Presidio of San Francisco, 1997-1998. Report submitted 

to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 

National Park Service. 

2002 The Archaeology of El Presidio de San Francisco: Culture 

Contact, Gender, and Ethnicity in a Spanish-colonial 

Military Community. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of 

California, Department of Anthropology. 

Voss, B. L. and V. G. Bente 

1996 Archaeological Discovery and Investigation of the Historic 

Presidio de San Francisco. Woodward-Clyde Consultants. 

Report submitted to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

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○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 

○ 

See you at the Annual Meeting Banquet, 

Friday, 19 March 2004 

in Riverside... 


34 

Articles 

The San Francisco 

West Approach 

Project: 

Unearthing 

San Francisco’s 

Accidental 

19 th Century 

Time Capsules 

Jack Mc Ilroy 

Anthropological Studies Center 

Sonoma State University 

Figure 1: Crew working on a well inside the 

slide-rail shoring box on Block 10. 

From May 2001 until January 2003 ASC archaeologists 

from the Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) at 

Sonoma State University carried out open area 

excavation on six city blocks in downtown San Francisco. 

The project was the result of a long planned research effort 

that initially targeted fourteen blocks. It was part of the 

seismic retrofit of the West Approach to the San Francisco- 

Oakland Bay Bridge undertaken by the California 

Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Toll Bridge Program. 

Detailed historical research and analysis of the development 

history of each block indicated there was nothing left in the 

impact areas in the eight blocks that didn’t make the cut, due 

principally to disturbance from modern construction. Strolling 

through the city you could have walked past the sites a few 

blocks from Market Street and the financial district and not 

known what was going on behind the black plastic covered 

chain-link fence that keep the dust in. To the world outside, it 

must have looked like any other downtown construction job. 

Specific excavation sites were chosen based on the 

historical research. Commuters were evicted from their 

parking lots under the elevated section of Interstate Freeway 

80 where it cut through the heart of downtown. This did not 

endear the archaeologists, Caltrans, or Balfour Beatty, the 

international construction company we worked with, to the 

hapless drivers. Large areas, and sometimes all, of a city 

block were fenced off. Security guards were employed to 

keep the bad guys from looting features as we dug. 

Archaeologically Sensitive Areas (ASAs) were marked out 

and the homeless drunks lying paralytic on the asphalt 

politely escorted off the block. Sticking their heads over the 

fence the homeless were to be our most frequent spectators, 

advising the odd passerby (they can be very odd in San 

Francisco) on the progress of the excavation. We were later to 

be thankful to them when the field director drove off the site 

with his laptop sitting on the lowered tailgate of his truck. A 

group of homeless people recovered it after a following car 

had run over it. They were camped on the sidewalk 

discussing the potential impact on the hard drive that had 

miraculously survived (it was a Dell Inspiron) when the 

hapless field director stumbled upon them. He had been 

roaming the streets, looking for his lost computer. Data 


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rescued and the finders rewarded, he bade farewell to his 

benefactors thinking unemployed Silicon Valley dotcommers 

had to wind up somewhere and wasn’t it lucky for 

him they wound up where they did. 

A hardy and dedicated crew then set out to uncover the 

inadvertent time capsules left behind by the earliest and 

often forgotten inhabitants of this city. These were the pits, 

privies, and wells in residential, commercial, and institutional 

back yards on lots occupied in some cases from the 1850s. 

After water and sewer lines were hooked up, generally no 

later than the 1880s, they were no longer needed, and they 

became convenient receptacles for all sorts of unwanted 

household materials, as well as accidentally dropped objects. 

Even back then, no-one wanted open pits in their backyards 

for children or older family members to fall into, so these 

features would usually be rapidly filled and sealed with a 

clean layer of sand, turning them into the time capsules they 

were never intended to be. When combined with census and 

city directory data, which often enabled the residents on 

specific lots to be identified across a time spectrum, the 

excavation opened a window into San Francisco’s past with a 

view from an angle different to that provided by written 

documents alone. 

With each city block from the original fourteen assigned 

an identifying number, the excavation started on Block 9 

(Harrison, Bryant, Second and Third). The site was down near 

Third Street between the small side streets of Perry and 

Stillman (formerly Silver Street). Situated on the western 

slope of Rincon Hill, the highest landform in the downtown 

area, this ASA was where the undisturbed surface was found 

closest to modern street elevation, at only about 2 ft. depth. 

On much of the rest of the project, particularly to the west 

sloping down toward the 1850s bay marsh, the undisturbed 

ground surface was up to 8 ft. deep. This was due to sand fill 

pushed in from nearby dunes and in some cases hauled in 

from way up Market Street where the modern hill rises en 

route to the Castro district. 

Sandwiched between the broader thoroughfares of 

Harrison and Bryant, the Block 9 ASA was where Kate 

Wiggins, author of ‘Rebecca of Sunningdale Farm’, opened 

the Silver Street Kindergarten in 1878. Like almost all of the 

project area and a large part of old San Francisco, it burned 

down in the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake. The 1906 

disaster was marked by debris and burn layers of brick and 

concrete building rubble, melted, twisted bottles, and black 

charred wood with the underlying sand burnt red. This 1906 

horizon varied from about 3 ft. to 6 ft. depth across the project 

area. 

Residents in the apartment block overlooking the site 

were annoyed by the noise and din of the heavy equipment 

used to break up the asphalt surface of the Block 9 parking lot 

at seven in the morning. Negotiations prevailed and Caltrans 

presented the tenants’ association with a copy of the detailed 

historical research on the block. The irritated locals 

eventually got to like both us and their front row view of the 

project as the ASC crew delved into the depths of Block 9 

through the fire and earthquake horizon and unearthed the 

remains of the Silver Street Kindergarten. Its old wood-lined 

privies were filled with the slate pencils and tablets used by 

the children. Other privies and wells were excavated 

associated with the working class homes crowded in along 

Silver and Perry streets from the 1850s. Excavation of deep 

wells was achieved with the use of slide-rail shoring. Once 

inserted around a well, this created a safe work zone about 14 

ft. square. The bucket from a backhoe or a tracked excavator 

was then lowered into the shored area. The hand-excavated 

well deposits, which had been stored in five gallon buckets 

were loaded into the machine bucket, the archaeologists got 

safely out of the way and the archaeological materials were 

brought to the surface for processing. Once we had excavated 

four feet of well deposit, the crew came out of the shored area 

and the heavy equipment was used to lower the surface 

around the well by another four feet. An RKI Eagle electronic 

air monitor was then used to assess contamination levels 

before the crew entered the deep shoring box trench. This 

process was repeated until bottom was reached at around 25 

ft. depth. At about $2000 a week to rent, the shoring system 

was expensive but well worth it from the safety angle. 

The excavation then moved to Block 5 (Howard, 

Folsom, First and Second) on the northern slope of Rincon 

Hill targeting the Folsom Street frontage near the 

intersection with modern Essex Street. This residential block 

was developed in the late 1850s and then devastated by the 

1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed everything on it. 

More of the logistical problems associated with working 

within the freeway right-of-way in an urban environment 

became evident. A well was uncovered in a lot that was built 

on in the 1850s. It had the potential to contain some of the 

earliest historic period artifacts found in San Francisco. But it 

was within three feet of a concrete footing supporting a 

column holding up the Fremont Street exit-ramp from the 

Bay Bridge. After consultation with Caltrans engineers, it was 

decided that even with shoring there was the potential for 

excavation to destabilize the overhead ramp and the well had 

to be abandoned after being excavated to only 4 ft. depth. On 

the house lots where we were able to excavate, it was clear, 

based on the high quality of the ceramics and glassware 

found, that the former inhabitants were fairly up-market. 

Block 7 (Harrison, Bryant, First and Second0 was next in 

line. This was the site of the Saint Mary’s Hospital complex 

built in 1869 on the east slope of Rincon Hill. Run by the 

Sisters of Mercy, the four-story buildings of this charitable 

institution survived the 1906 earthquake but not the fire that 

followed. The ASAs targeted included the Dead House, the 

Greenhouse, the Sisters’ Sleeping Rooms, the oven, and part 

of the Museum. Initial exploration uncovered substantial 

brick wall foundations beneath demolition debris and fire 

deposits at depths from 9ft. to 11 ft. Had the foundations been 

shallower we would have continued. But other foundations 

and associated privies or wells could have been much deeper. 


36 

Articles 

Enormous quantities of soil would have 

needed to be removed and stockpiled and 

there would have been excessive heavy 

equipment and crew costs involved. It was 

decided that the budget could be spent more 

efficiently on the remaining city blocks. We 

had to be content with demonstrating that 

the wall foundations of St. Mary’s were solid, 

intact, and deep. 

Block 10 (Harrison, Bryant, Third and 

Fourth) presented a different challenge. 

Located on the edge of the 1850s bay marsh 

this block saw the largest excavation area cut 

a swathe through the historical remains of 

what had been the most densely crowded 

19th century housing in the project area. 

Below as much as eight feet of landfill, 1906 

fire-scarred building foundations survived 

along with many privies and two deep wells 

that produced the bulk of artifacts recovered 

during the project. Innovation was the rule 

on this block. Ground penetration radar was 

used to attempt to peer through six feet or 

more of landfill in advance of excavation. Two ASAs were 

selected and a Caltrans crew from Sacramento brought in state 

of the art GPR equipment to probe beneath the post-1906 

sand and rubble fill near the Third Street edge of Block 10. 

Initial results indicated that the fill deposits may have 

attenuated and bounced the signal around substantially but 

these results are being refined and reanalyzed. Final data will 

become available as soon as a Caltrans GPR backlog related 

to other construction projects has been cleared. 

Based on its location close to the edge of the bay marsh 

and on the proximity of a known prehistoric site, Block 10 

was considered the most likely to harbor Native American 

sites. A layer of shell midden was located at a depth of about 

8 ft., about 200 ft. from the 1850s marsh edge close to the 

Third Street end of the block. Only about 9 inches thick, it 

spread over an area of 25 ft. x 7 ft. and was cut through by a 

19 th century brick lined well. It contained dense 

accumulations of marine mollusk shells, mammal, bird, and 

fish bones, and small quantities of fire-cracked rock, 

groundstone, and obsidian and chert debitage. Approximately 

three cubes of midden soil were excavated. Given its position 

adjacent to the historic period marsh, it is anticipated that the 

site will be no more than a few hundred years old. Carbon 

dating will help resolve the true age. 

In the fall of 2002, the crew moved on to Block 4 

(Howard, Folsom, First and Fremont), targeting the Miner’s 

Hotel, homes on Fremont Street, and the small, cramped and 

overcrowded houses set on 25ft. by 25 ft. lots on narrow 

Baldwin Court, which used to run downhill off Folsom. 

Located on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove in the 1850s 

before landfilling began, this block developed as a mix of 

industrial and residential lots. By the 1880s it was dominated 

Figure 2: Excavation of the shell midden which is cut by a brick lined well. The tracked 

excavator in the background is placing slide-rail shoring around another well. 

by the Golden State Miner’s Iron Works that overshadowed 

Baldwin Court. With the pollution associated with that 

industry, it can’t have been the healthiest place to live. 

Privies began to emerge in unexpectedly high numbers at 

about 3 ft. depth along Baldwin Court. 

Based on results from this alleyway alone, ‘Life on a San 

Francisco Side Street’ could be one of the chapters in the 

final report. Privies were also located at the Miner’s Hotel 

and on Fremont Street, one of the latter over 6 ft. deep, an 

unusual depth for a privy when you remember that before we 

find them, they have all been truncated by later 

development. 

A puzzling feature in the project was connected with 

Privy 1326, found on Block 4. Seemingly a typical privy, 

when fully excavated it was found to be resting on a rather 

elaborate granite base for which there was no obvious 

explanation. It remains unexplained. 

US Coast survey maps from the 1850s and other 

documentation indicated that much of Block 4 was filled in 

with sand after the Gold Rush. This raised the possibility that 

Gold Rush shacks and associated features might have 

survived buried deeply on this block. Three trenches were 

opened with a backhoe in an attempt to determine where the 

old Gold Rush period surface was located. It was possible to 

dig in this way to about 15 ft. depth before the sandy soil 

collapsed back into the trench and made further excavation 

pointless. There was some indication of a possible earlier 

surface at about 14 ft. depth in the trench nearest First Street 

but for safety reasons it was not possible to enter the trench. 

Looking for early Gold Rush camps on this block would 

require excavating the sand to near mean sea level. This 


37 

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firing two security firms, we finally got it 

right with the third and the looting stopped. 

The potential for mainstream media 

coverage to attract looters to the excavation 

was one reason such coverage was not 

encouraged. However Caltrans journalists 

visited the site, interviewed the crew, and 

wrote an article in the July/August 2002 

California Department of Transportation 

Journal (“Digging up San Francisco’s 

History” by Gene Berthelsen and Janet 

Pape). 

Figure 3: Privies crowded together at the rear of Baldwin Court on Block 4. 

The crew worked through the cool of 

spring and on into the dog days of summer 

when the ground hardened and the wind 

blew dust everywhere. And it can get hot in 

summer in downtown San Francisco despite 

what Mark Twain said. For those of you who 

live far from the Golden State the famed 

scribe and professional cynic proclaimed 

that ‘the coldest winter he ever endured was 

a summer’s day in San Francisco’. Tourists 

would have involved moving a large amount of material and 

shoring the entire area of the excavation. If the City of San 

Francisco opens Block 4 to development at a later date, that 

would be the time to take a closer look for what could then be 

the earliest historic period material to emerge from under the 

city. 

The once diverse and crowded Block 11 (Harrison, 

Bryant, Fourth and Fifth) was all that was left. Project impacts 

and logistical problems with getting heavy equipment under 

the elevated freeway as it came down to ground level limited 

the ASA to a small area. Two privies were located where a 

gold miner lived on the inner block Perry Street in 1880. He 

may have been a flamboyant character, parts of a gold watch 

and a gold tipped cane were among the items recovered. 

These privies were excavated during some of the worst 

weather encountered on the project and like most features 

found on adjacent Block 10, they were uncovered below 

about 7ft. to 8ft. of fill. 

That was the fieldwork. And then there were the looters. 

Few things are as disturbing as arriving on site in the early 

morning hours to find features dug through and artifacts 

scattered across the surface, obviously the work of looters, and 

a security guard with a deadpan ‘It wasn’t on my shift, buddy’ 

look upon his face. Looters hit the project on three occasions. 

They were usually looking for valuable old bottles and even 

with security guards on site 

after hours, they would still 

climb the fence after dark 

and take their chances. Not 

that I would suggest the 

guards ever dozed off. After 

Figure 4: Privy 1326 on Block 

4. To all purposes a typical 

privy. Ceramic artifacts 

towards the bottom with ash 

and lime deposits higher up. 


38 

Articles 

will understand. Summer faded into the misty fall – the 

archaeologists’ least favored season as leaves are forever 

blowing across the site, usually just as everything has been 

cleaned up for a photo. Fall turned to winter, and rain 

hammered down like oversized buckshot as a deluge of miniwaterfalls 

cascaded from the elevated freeway above our 

heads. While the freeway provided some shelter, the climatic 

assault intensified when tractor-trailers speeding through 

puddles overhead sent huge jets of spray over the entire crew. 

Still, covered head to foot 

with yellow oilskins and red 

Gore-tex, they got on with 

the job. So thanks to the 

hard-line core crew of Mike 

Meyer, Mike Stoyka, Maria 

Ribeiro, and Brian Mischke. 

And also to Don Bignell, 

Melinda Button, Chris 

Caputo, Gina George, 

Suzanne Howard Carter, 

Christian Gabriel, Ginger 

Hellmann, Damon Haydu, 

Maria LaCalle, Sandra 

Massey, Mike Newland, 

Sunshine Posta, Annita 

Waghorn, Mark Walker, and 

Grace Ziesing (editor of our 

almost 700 page project 

Research Design and 

Treatment Plan). They got 

their hopes high, their hands 

dirty, and their designer (or 

thrift store) work gear 

covered in mud. And my 

belated apologies to the crew 

on Block 7 who were nearly 

deafened by the roar of traffic 

noise as the commute 

assailed the Bay Bridge just a 

few feet away and the winds 

wafted exhaust fumes all 

over the site. Thanks to the 

historic researchers, Nancy 

Olmsted, the late Roger 

Olmsted, and Elaine-Maryse 

Solari, whose detailed work 

Figure 5: The granite base below Privy 1326 on Block 4. 

paved the way for the 

project. And then the 

prehistoric whiz kids - 

Thomas Martin – who dealt with the remains of the Native 

American site discovered near Third Street and 

geoarchaeologist Jack Meyer who fearlessly descended into 

the depths of Pleistocene sands below the city in narrow 15 ft. 

deep trenches, recording stratigraphic deposits never before 

seen by human eyes. Thanks go also to Erica Gibson’s back 

room boys - actually mostly the opposite gender – in the lab 

at the ASC who dealt with the thousands of artifacts that were 

shipped back in an almost endless stream. And thanks finally 

to Dani Renan, our safety and hazardous site training 

consultant who made sure everything on the project was 

CALOSHA kosher and 

the crew emerged at the 

end of the day with the 

same number of digits 

they had at the 

beginning. 

Was it fun? In parts. 

We recorded the 

excavation of the old 

days of subterranean San 

Francisco on video. 

When the twenty hours 

of tape is edited to 

something manageable 

and hopefully broadcast 

on public television, 

those of you who weren’t 

there will be able to 

judge for yourselves. 

And the future will have 

a record of the social 

history of the project. 

But intriguing though 

the occupation of 

archaeologist may sound 

and dedicated though 

your crew may be, there 

were times, yes, there 

were times. They were 

usually around 7am on a 

winter’s morning, when 

the frigid bay winds 

howled through the 

tunnel of the columns 

holding up the freeway, 

like Mark Twain’s ghost 

riding on the back of 

some demented 

banshee. And then we 

hunkered down and froze and cursed both our fortune and the 

ancient residents of this city and their scattered time capsules. 

Next Issue: The California Grizzly... 

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 


39 

Articles 

A Brief History of 

Russell City, California 

Megan Wilkinson 

Presidio Trust, San Francisco 

Russell City, California emerged as a small Danish 

farming community in the mid-1800s. The 

demographics of Russell City changed over time, and 

by the late 1930s it became predominately African American 

and Latino American. It was never an incorporated entity, had 

no sewer system and residents relied on well water up until 

the 1960s, yet Russell City provided some of its own civic 

services. In its latter years, Russell City was considered a 

blight to surrounding towns and in 1963 Alameda County 

began the forced relocation of its tenants, bulldozed the 

entire community, and turned it into an industrial park. 

Post Spanish contact, the Yrgin territory fell under Mission 

San Jose’s domain. While some Yrgin members participated 

in the mission system willingly, others were coerced 

(Milliken 1995: 1-2). Mission San Jose was 

considered successful in its 

founding intent so much 

so that, “in the 

number of its 

No comprehensive history of Russell City existed prior to 

this research. To chronicle the events leading up to the 

town’s demise, I conducted interviews of ex-residents 

and built an archive of newspaper accounts relating 

to the city. I also created two maps, one of 

landownership circa 1963-1968 and another 

representing renter and business information. 

This project is essential to reconstruct 

Russell City’s past and is meant to provide 

the background data for additional projects 

that will help secure Russell City’s place 

in history. 

The Early Years of Russell City: 

Pre-Contact Until 1900 

The land that was to become Russell City 

was originally home Yrgin Native Americans 

(Milliken 1995: 261). They were members of 

the Penutian linguistic group (Miller et al 1978: 

6) and some historians have considered them to 

be the same group later known as the Jalquin 

(Milliken 1995: 261). Sustaining themselves on the 

ample natural biodiversity of the Bay Area, the Yrgin 

and the neighboring Tuibun coastal group also took 

advantage of the naturally occurring salt ponds around 

southern San Francisco Bay to help preserve their food 

and cure hides (Sandoval 1945). Later, European settlers 

milled the same ponds to initiate the town’s economy. 

Figure 1: Joel Russell, 1866 

Prohibitionist Party 

candidate for Governor. 


40 

Articles 

Figure 2: Russell City Railroad Station. 

Indian converts; in the number of horses, sheep, and cattle; in 

the extent of its agricultural and mechanical productions, the 

Mission San Jose far excelled the neighboring missions of 

Santa Clara and San Francisco” (Thompson and West 1878: 

14). 

After their revolution in 1822 and the subsequent 

claiming of Alta California, the Mexican government decreed 

that missions secularize. Mission holdings were then divided 

up into land grants, or rancheros, and most Native Americans 

went to work for the new landowners (Basin 1993:3, 

Thompson and West 1878: 14-15). The land that was to 

become Russell City was part of such a land grant given to 

Francisco and Barbara Soto on October 10, 1842 by 

Governors Alvarado and Micheltorena (Wood 1883: 433, 

Basin 1993: 3). Their Rancho San Lorenzo covered 6,658 acres 

(Basin 1993: 3). 

California became American territory in 1846 (Chavez 

1979: 11) and squatters began moving onto the Soto land in 

the early 1850s. Some offered to purchase sections of the 

ranchero when, in 1856, the Land Commission decreed the 

land legally belonged to the Soto family. Squatter Joel 

Russell, for whom Russell City was named, bought a oneseventh 

share from the Sotos and sold about 700 of those 

acres to several Danish families. The city had so many 

Danish settlers it became known as ‘Little Copenhagen.’ 

Other prominent founding families included the Johnsons, 

Pestdorfs, Jensens, Hansons, and the Christensens. 

Joel Russell came to the Bay area after several failed 

attempts at gold mining in Northern California’s Shasta 

region. He held a teaching degree from Bethel Academy in 

Massachusetts and was elected as a Justice of the Peace in 

1854. Russell farmed his property while studying law and 

earned admittance to the California State Bar. An activist that 

opposed slavery, Joel Russell joined the Prohibitionist Party 

after the Civil War (Figure 1). It was with this party that he 

was nominated for Governor in 1866 (Baker 1914: 506-507). 

His bid for the state house was unsuccessful but Russell was 

again nominated on the Prohibitionist Ticket, this time for 

Presidency (Sandoval 1991: 289). Russell received very few 

votes nationwide and subsequently remained in California. 

Joel Russell died Feb. 19, 1888 (Baker 1914: 508). 

Captain Andrew Johnson, the first mayor of Russell City, 

moved to the town in 1885. Soon after settling, Johnson 

retired as a barge operator and became the station agent at the 

crossing of the South Coast Pacific Railroad and Russell Road 

(Figure 2). He also founded the first market in Russell City. 

Johnson served in these various community roles until his 

death in 1921. (Sandoval 1945) 

During this time another enterprise was taking foot: salt 

milling. Exploiting the same salt flats as the Yrgin, the new 

tenants evaporated and then shipped salt to San Francisco and 

abroad. “Most Danish families had their own salt ponds in the 

marshes outside their home plots… about 50 to 100 acres per 


41 

Articles 

family…. (Brightside 1980: 2). The Pestdorf and Jessen 

families had the largest salt production sites in the area 

(Sandoval 1974, Moore 1978). 

In 1895, Russell City formed its own school district, 

separating from neighboring Mt. Eden’s school district. The 

first school in this new district was built on land donated by 

the Russell family (Sandoval 1988: 134). With a school 

system intact, its own commercial opportunities and a train 

depot, Russell City was a bustling community. 

1900-1930: Plans to Make Russell City the Biggest City 

on San Francisco Bay 

After the 1906 earthquake there was great excitement 

over the potential of Russell City. Real estate agents 

promoted the idea that Russell City could be the largest city 

on San Francisco Bay (Figure 3). Realtors convinced the heirs 

of the Russell and Pestdorf families to combine their 

properties for sale. One thousand acres were secured and by 

the year 1908, 700 lots had been sold. (Sandoval 1945) 

However, only some lots were actually were built upon. 

Williams finds that ultimately, homes were only built on half 

of Joel Russell’s original holdings (1958). 

The Great Depression of the 1930s severely impacted 

Russell City. At this time professional development halted 

and some residents were forced to build their own homes. 

The community grew in a haphazard fashion. Helen Russell 

McCallum, Joel Russell’s granddaughter, remembered that 

during this time, “lots were being sold for as little as $10.00” 

but even at that price “few lots were sold and no one made 

any money” (Brightside 1980: 2,3). 

By 1941, Russell City had a population of 1200, palm 

lined streets, and its own volunteer fire department. While 

the residents of Russell City relied on the Alameda County 

Sheriff’s Office for official policing, interviewee Dave 

Bassard recalls that theirs was a community that policed itself. 

The town also had a school, a motel, churches, restaurants, 

stores, gas stations, and bars. The area was semi-agricultural 

and some residents grew gardens and raised farm animals. 

Russell City had no formal mayor, but many interviewees 

considered Mr. Buster Brooks the unofficial mayor. Still 

others remembered that fellow resident Nick Milekovich 

proclaimed himself mayor. 

African American migrants to Russell City brought with 

them cultural customs rooted in the south, including a rich 

blues musical tradition. In the years that followed, Russell 

City became a center for the West Coast style of blues. 

Legends such as Big Momma Thorton, Jimmy McCracklin, 

Jimmy Witherspoon, and Billy Dunn performed in Russell 

City (Arts 1994). Blues artist Johnny “Waters” Sanifer 

recollects that, “Russell City was a blues capital” (Figone 

1988: 86) and Ronnie Stewart of the Bay Area Blues Society 

purports that people worldwide recognize Russell City for its 

Figure 3: Russell City Real Estate Advertisement. 

The War Years: The 1940s in Russell City 

The 1940s marked a transition for Russell City. Jobs made 

available by the War Effort meant that thousands of people 

migrated to the area. Because Russell City did not have 

restrictive housing covenants, a large percentage of its new 

residents were African Americans from the South, poor White 

farmers displaced by effects of the Dust Bowl, and Mexicans 

and Mexican-Americans from Southern California. In fact, 

Russell City was one of the few places where these groups 

were encouraged to buy. Interviewee Mary Tolefree Johnigan 

states that the reason many non-White residents bought in 

Russell City was because of “old-boy networking.” They 

were always subtle, she says, but the suggestion was there to 

buy in Russell City rather than Hayward. In Robert de Roos’ 

article on Russell City a resident asserts, “lots are cheap and a 

man can own a place of his own in Russell City- a man who 

might happen to be a Negro or a Puerto Rican or a Mexican. 

People like that are not always welcome in other 

communities” (1951: 18). During this time, ex-resident Sam 

Nava estimates that the demographics of Russell City 

amounted to 45% Black, 45% Hispanic, and less than 10% 

Caucasian. 


42 

Articles 

contributions to the Blues. 

Yet the streets remained unpaved, housing was haphazard, 

and there was no water or sewage system. A Housing and 

Sanitation Survey on Russell City published in 1940 

describes the streets as “unleveled and full of ditches. During 

rainy seasons many sections of Russell City are not accessible 

to auto traffic because of the deep, soft mud and water filled 

holes” (Dierup and Firestone 1940: 3). The same survey 

expresses the shelter situation as, “Some of these people 

were able to obtain lumber and materials, but most of them 

built temporary shelters that have long since become 

permanent” (Dierup and Firestone 1940: 5). Indeed, exresident 

Les Johnigan’s remembers living in a converted 

chicken shack. Reverend Green recalls that families without 

electricity relied on kerosene lamps while Sam Nava 

recollects that he had never seen a clear ice cube until he left 

Russell City. Additionally, Mary Tolefree Johnigan shares that 

when their cesspool would overflow and contaminate their 

well water they would have to tote potable water in from out 

of town. Health hazards posed by such living situations were 

serious. At least one death in 1949 was attributed to dysentery 

due to contaminated well water (de Roos 1951: 18). 

The 1950s and Russell City’s New Status as a Blight 

Between the years 1951 and 1957, Russell City attempted 

several times to bring sewer lines into the town. They 

approached Hayward, the neighboring Oro Loma Sanitary 

District, Alameda County, and even the state about the 

possibility. In each case, Russell City was denied. City 

Manager of Hayward John Ficklin explained, “Hayward 

neither wishes to annex Russell City from an aesthetic point 

of view nor is it able to extend all municipal services to the 

area because the assessed valuation is not sufficient to return 

any portion of such an expense” (de Roos 1951: 18). Instead, 

the Oro Loma Sanitary District and Alameda County 

suggested that Russell City apply for federal funds earmarked 

for urban renewal (Monto 1957). To that end, Alameda 

County officially designated Russell City a blighted area. 

In March 1958, Alameda began considering rebuilding 

Russell City as an industrial park. At that time a study was 

conducted “concerning the type of industrial activity that 

would be suitable for the area” (Joachim 1958). Citizens 

petitioned the county to zone the area for residential use to 

no avail. In August 1958, the prospect of relocating the 

residents was publicly discussed. Also at this time, Hayward 

accepted bids to build two industrial parks just east of Russell 

City, near the Hayward Airport and Clawiter Road (Daily 

Review 1958). 

In response to Hayward’s advancement, several citizens 

formed a committee to discuss incorporation in August 1959. 

This group tried three times to incorporate that year: twice 

with neighboring Mt. Eden and once on their own. All three 

efforts failed. The committee’s efforts suffered from lack of 

consistent legal representation and an inability to generate 

and file proper petitions with the county. 

The Last Days of Russell City, 1960-1968 

Alameda County granted Hayward responsibility for 

Russell City’s redevelopment in March 1961 (Ward 1961). In 

July 1961 a 17 member Russell City Redevelopment 

Committee was formed. The Redevelopment Committee 

went on to oversee the purchase or condemnation of Russell 

City homes and the relocation of its 1,107 residents, 13 

businesses and seven churches (Oakland Tribune 1963). Most 

residents were moved to homes in Hayward, North, East and 

Central Oakland, Freemont, Newark, Union City, Castro 

Valley, San Leandro, and Livermore (Oakland Tribune 1964). 

Formal demolition of the remains of Russell City began in 

October 1965, when the Redevelopment Agency began 

bulldozing structures (Daily Review 1965). 

Throughout the last days of Russell City, a series of arson 

attacks plagued the town. By December 1966 over 100 

structures had been burned, including some of the 

neighborhood’s well-known landmarks such as the Russell 

City Hotel and the Country Club blues bar (Oakland Tribune 

1966). No one was injured during these attacks and no 

arsonists were ever caught. Almost all of the buildings 

destroyed by the fires were already empty. 

In 1968, Alameda County accepted a $2.45 million dollar 

bid for the land from Cabot, Cabot and Forbes (Oakland 

Tribune 1968). Other businesses soon followed and the area 

became added to Hayward’s city limits. Today, the 200-acre 

area that was Russell City is still an industrial park. The last 

vestige of Russell City, the Russell City School, was turned 

into an adult continuation school after the residents relocated. 

It, too, was destroyed in 1983, replaced by industrial 

construction. 

Recommendations and Conclusions 

The purpose of compiling this history is twofold: to 

establish Russell City in the annals of history and to 

encourage future investigations into its past. Russell City 

physically does not exist but its stories, traditions, and 

material culture do and should be documented accordingly. 

The maps created in association with this research should 

guide any archaeological testing in the area and the oral 

history accounts provided should be used as background for 

additional interviews. 


Arts; A Hayward Arts Council Publication. Winter/Spring 1994. 

“The Birth of West Coast Blues: Remembering Russell 

City.” Vol. 8, Number 1. 


43 

Articles 

Baker, Joseph, ed. 

1914 Past and Present of Alameda County, California. Vol. II. 

Chicago IL: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 

Basin Research Associates 

1993 Zone 4, Line A Tidegate Improvement Project. Report S- 

14888 on file at the Northwest Information Center of 

the California Historical Resources Information 

System, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA. 

Bassard, Claudia 

2001 Phone interview with the author. Transcripts including 

interviewee’s telephone number and present address 

are in the possession of the author. 

Bassard, Dave 

2001 Interview with the author at the First Baptist Church of 

Castro Valley. Transcripts including interviewee’s 

telephone number and present address are in the 

possession of the author. 

Brightside. May 25, 1980. “Once There was Russell City… 

Now There are Only Memories.” The Daily Review. 

Newspaper clipping archived at the Hayward Area 

Historical Society. 

Chavez, David 

1979 Cultural Resources Evaluation for the East Bay 

Dischargers Authority Reclamation Reuse EIR, Alameda 

County, CA. Report S-1479 on file at the Northwest 

Information Center of the California Historical 

Resources Information System, Sonoma State 

University, Rohnert Park, CA. 

The Daily Review. October 24, 1965. “Demolition Begins.” 

Unpaginated newspaper clipping archived at the 

Hayward Area Historical Society. 

______________. October 3, 1958. “Huge Park for Industry 

in Hayward: $80,000,000 Project to Start Early Next 

Year.” Unpaginated newspaper clipping archived at the 


de Roos, Robert. June 3, 1951. “Hope for Alameda Fever 

Spot—Russell City: Tin and Tar Paper Town Trying to 

Vote Itself Sewers, Water.” San Francisco Chronicle. 



Dierup, Anne and Bernie Firestone 

1940 Russell City Survey: Housing and Sanitation. Los 

Angeles CA: State Division of Immigration and 

Housing. 

Figone, John 

1988 The Growth of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Black Music 

Community During World War II. Master of Arts, Social 

Science: Interdisciplinary Studies. San Francisco State 

University. 

Garron, Henry 

2001 Phone interview with author. Transcripts including 



Green, Rev. Albert 

2001 Phone interview with author. Transcripts including 



Hernandez, Frank 

2001 Interview with the author at his home. Hayward, CA. 

Transcripts including interviewee’s telephone number 

and present address are in the possession of the author. 

Joachim, Leland. March 6, 1958. “Wide Effect Due in 

Russell City Planning Study.” The Daily Review. 



Johnigan, Leslie “Les” Leroy 




Johnigan, Mary Tolefree 




Lozoya, Salome and Mary Miranda 

2001 Interview with author at their home. Hayward, CA. 

Transcripts including interviewees’ telephone numbers 

and present addresses are in the possession of the 

author. 

“Map of Russell City.” November 8, 1907. Book 23 of Maps, 

Page 51 in the Office of the County Recorder of 

Alameda County. 

Miller, George, Michael Sawyer, Diane Watts, E.B. Parkman, 

Patricia Ogrey, and Robert Harmon 

1978 An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Hayward-San 

Leandro Transportation Corridor, Alameda County, CA. 

Report S-1743 on file at the Northwest Information 

Center of the California Historical Resources 

Information System, Sonoma State University, Rohnert 

Park, CA. 

Milliken, Randall 

1995 A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal 

Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1810. Menlo 

Park CA: Ballena Press 

Mills, Zenobia Kimble and Dorothy Kimble 


interviewees’ telephone numbers and present 

addresses are in the possession of the author. 

Monto, Frank. Feb. 7, 1957. “Russell City Citizens Hold 

Key to Help.” The Daily Review. Unpaginated 

newspaper clipping archived at the Hayward Area 


Moreno, Gloria Anguiano 

2001 Interview with the author in her home. Hayward, CA. 

Transcripts including interviewee’s telephone number 

and present address are in the possession of the author. 


44 

Articles 

Nava, Sam 




The Oakland Tribune. January 9, 1968. “Russell City Sold by 

County.” Unpaginated newspaper clipping archived at the 

Oakland Public Library. 

_________________. December 22, 1966. “Russell City 

Requiem … Few Morn Its Death.” Unpaginated 



_________________. May 18, 1964. “Renewal Project: 

Land Acquisition Ahead of Schedule.” Unpaginated 



_________________. January 16, 1963. “Residents of 

Russell City Denounce ‘Blighted’ Label.” 


Oakland Public Library. 

Sandoval, John 

1991 The Rancho of Don Guillermo: The Early Years: 1843- 

1890. Hayward CA: Mt. Eden Historical Publishers. 

____________. 1988. Mt. Eden: Cradle of the Salt Industry in 

California. Hayward CA: Mt. Eden Historical 

Publishers. 

____________. November 24, 1974. “Salt-making has Rich 

History in South County.” The Daily Review. 



____________. April 5, 1945. “Brief History of Hayward.” 

The Hayward Journal. Unpaginated newspaper clipping 

archived at the Hayward Area Historical Society. 

Thompson and West 

1878 New Historical Atlas of Alameda County, California, 

Illustrated. Fresno CA: Valley Publishers (Reprinted in 

1976). 

Tingley, Frances Maita 




Ward, Leona. October 3, 1961. “Industrial Park: County Acts 

on Changing Russell City.” The Daily Review. 



Williams, Wayne. August 3, 1958. “Once Utopian Russell 

City May Become Industry Area.” The Oakland 

Tribune. Unpaginated newspaper clipping archived at 

the Oakland Historical Society. 

Wood, M.W. 

1883 History of Alameda County, California, Illustrated. 

Oakland CA: M. W. Wood, Publisher. 

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45 


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