The Historical Archaeology of Dam Construction Camps in Central Arizona, Volume 1: Synthesis

In June 1986, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded Dames & Moore a contract for historical archaeological studies as part of the mitigation program for the Central Arizona Project's Regulatory Storage Division, designated as Plan 6. This study focused on reconstructing the social history of the workers and their families who lived in several temporary dam construction camps dating from the 1890s through the 1940s. This document, the first in a series of three volumes that constitute the final technical report, synthesizes the results of the study. Chapter 1 describes the research context, themes, and methods. The second chapter discusses the archaeological record encountered at the various dam locales, and provides a reconstruction of the nature of the dam construction camps. Chapter 3 elaborates on the social history of the camps, by discussing the demography, the nature of the work, and daily life in the temporary construction communities. The fourth chapter combines various lines of archaeological and historical evidence to discuss the role of Apache laborers in historic dam construction in central Arizona, particularly at Roosevelt. The final chapter summarizes the major conclusions of the research, highlighting a dozen identified patterns and trends that characterize a half century of temporary dam construction communities in central Arizona.