The Historic Archaeology of a Chinese Mining Venture Near Igo in Northern California

This report details the archaeological project of mapping and data recovery from several trash dumps, a reservoir, ditches and other features of a small historic rural Chinese mining operation (CA-Sha-15l2) in the vicinity of Igo in Shasta County, California (Township 31 North, Range 6 West, Section 34). This site was discovered during a routine survey of public land in response to a mining proposal. This archaeological project may deal with only part of a larger historic mining system or systems encompassing a goodly portion of southwestern Shasta County. Nevertheless, in conjunction with nearby regional studies of Chinese mining activities (Smith 1983; Johnson and Theodoratus 1984; SeIdner, 1986; Tordoff 1986) this project presented an opportunity to study archaeological remains related to Chinese use at one site and integrate the work into the broader examination. In this manner, history can be supplemented and corrected; anthropological inquiries made fruitful.

Certainly this project did follow the idealized research process from development of an explicit set of goals in order to generate field methods and analytical techniques. Rather, discovery as part of the field survey of major features (a ditch system and dam) led to a program of mapping and evaluation through a comparative analysis. There were no obvious habitation or associated refuse areas. During the mapping phase a detailed examination of features led to the discovery of several trash dumps with a high percentage of Chinese goods strongly suggesting Chinese association. Materials from these dumps and the general area were recovered as part of the impact mitigation excavation process.

Originally the information in this record was migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. In 2014, as part of its effort to improve tDAR content, the Center for Digital Antiquity uploaded a copy of the document and further improved the record metadata.