5.0 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

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Chapter Contents

• Introduction
• 5.1 Delimiting the Scale of Behavioral Inferences: Moving from Frequencies of Classified Items to Inferences about the Past
  • Function versus Behavior and Partitioning Data Set Variability
  • Assessing the Utility of the Skagway Approach to Classification
  • Operationalizing the Sprague Functional Classification
  • Assessing the Connection Between Classified Units and Behavioral Observations
• 5.2 Commodity Flow and Access to Markets
  • The Geographer's Commodity Flow Model
  • The Archaeologist's Commodity Flow Model
  • Study Summaries
    • Waverly Plantation, Bay Springs, Silcott, and Sandy Ground
    • Ashley Plantation
    • Oregon
    • Peoria, Illinois
  • The Barnette Analysis
    • Weighted Analysis
    • Unweighted Analysis
  • Conclusions
• 5.3 Observations on the Waterfront
  • The Saloons
  • Construction Techniques and the Attitude of Permanence
  • Conclusions
• 5.4 Floods and Fires: Fairbanks Responses to Disasters
  • Hydrology of Interior Alaska Rivers
  • Flood History of Fairbanks
  • Floods and River Bank Stabilization: Historical Data
  • Floods and River Bank Stabilization: Archaeological Evidence
    • "Deadman" Timbers
    • Log Cribbing Below the NC Dock
    • Box Drain
    • NC Boiler Ash and Trash
    • Modern Fill
  • Fires
  • Discussion: Floods and Fires
• 5.5 Fairbanks and the American Frontier: From the Gold Rush to the Golden Heart
  • Fairbanks in the Early 20th Century
  • Fairbanks and the "Last Frontier"
• Endnotes

Bowers, Peter M. (1998) 5.0 Analysis and Interpretation. In Historical Development of the Chena River Waterfront, Fairbanks, Alaska: An Archaeological Perspective, edited and compiled by Peter M. Bowers and Brian L. Gannon, CD-ROM. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Fairbanks.

In Chapter 4, we examined each of the areas of investigation within the realm of the Barnette Project, and presented the basic data and relevant observations about the sites. More detailed site descriptions are provided in Appendix 1. In this section, our goal is to analyze and interpret the more complex and interrelated archaeological data sets which, combined with results from archival research, begin to paint a more colorful picture of a part of Fairbanks’ history.

Section 5.1 begins by summarizing key points derived from the statistical analysis of the database. More details of the analyses are given in Appendix 10. We examine several Barnette artifact database subsets using a non-metric multidimensional scaling technique:

• How are the artifacts from different spatial and temporal units patterned?
• What do the different artifact assemblage signatures have to tell us?
• Do the data subsets form homogeneous or heterogeneous distributions?

From this level of site analysis we move in Section 5.2 to the broader level of national and international markets reflected in the material culture excavated.

• How and to what extent did Fairbanks participate in a larger network of transportation, commerce, and commodity distribution?
• How does the signature of identifiable (those with trademarks, maker marks, and/or manufacture marks) and dateable artifacts from Fairbanks compare and contrast with artifact signatures from other systematically-studied sites?
• Did changes occur in the mid 1920s that can be attributed to the change in the primary transportation mode from steamboats to railroads?

In Section 5.3, we investigate in greater detail some of the issues dealt with in both Chapters 2 and 4, the "waterfront culture" as viewed through analysis of some of the data available from the excavated saloons and steamboat dock.

• Who were some of the people who used these sites?
• What were their preferences?
• To what extent do different groups of people leave similar/dissimilar signatures of artifacts in the refuse they left behind?
• What comparison may be made among the different architectural approaches found in the sites?

The river front is examined from a different perspective in the subsequent Section 5.4 on floods and fires, and the town’s response to disasters.

• What tangible evidence was found archaeologically which illustrates these responses?
• How did Fairbanks cope with being built on a flood plain?

Finally, in Section 5.5, we examine the elusive and much-debated concept of the "frontier," a term which has been used in a myriad of ways ever since it was first codified by Frederick Jackson Turner in the late nineteenth century.

• What is a frontier?
• Is Fairbanks a frontier?
• Was Fairbanks ever a frontier? If it was, for how long?

Section 5.1 Delimiting the Scale of Behavioral Inferences: Moving from Frequencies of Classified Items to Inferences about the Past

Section 5.2 Commodity Flow and Access to Markets

Section 5.3 Observations on the Waterfront

Section 5.4 Floods and Fires: Fairbanks Responses to Disasters

Section 5.5 Fairbanks and the American Frontier: From the Gold Rush to the Golden Heart

Endnotes

¹The material presented in this section is a condensation of Appendix 10. The complete details on the data set and the specifics of the statistical analyses are presented there.
²This movement is now known as processual archaeology. This also does not render comment on post-processual archaeology, which is contemporary movement back toward the subjectivist position.
³This is the approach used by Spude and others, e.g. Blee 1988, 1991.
⁴Sprague 1981:251-261.
⁵Blee 1991.
⁶Blee 1991:83-117.
⁷Blee 1991:83. This does not address the issues of rates and locations of discard (if any).
⁸Sprague 1981:252.
⁹The four age- or gender-specific classes (child-, female-, and male-specific items, and generic personal items) are combined into a single class. There are only ten categories involved here; as a result of the fact that we treat Spude’s model expectations as an extrinsic hypothesis, df = 9.
¹⁰Sprague 1981:252.
¹¹Blee 1991:78-81.
¹²Pred 1964:65-84; Pred 1970.
¹³Pred 1970:280-82.
¹⁴In this study, Klein mentioned local, short range, and long range classes, but did not define the terms; Klein 7:68-77.
¹⁵Schuyler 1974:99-120; Schuyler 1978.
¹⁶Adams 1973:335-46; Adams 1976; Adams 1977; Adams 1991.
¹⁷Pred 1964; Pred 1970.
¹⁸Riordan 1980; Adams et al. 1981:126-40.
¹⁹Riordan and Adams 1985:8.
²⁰Adams 1980; Adams and Smith 1985:309-34; Smith 1991.
²¹Adams et al. 1981.
²²Schuyler 1974; Schuyler 1978. The Sandy Ground assemblage presents a problem because it includes the glass containers from two features. The total sample size of 330 compares well with the Waverly sample, but only market oriented industries are included.
²³Brooks n.d.
²⁴Spedula and Bowyer 1996.
²⁵Cabak and Groover 1993:17-30.
²⁶Riordan and Adams 1985:Figure 1.
²⁷Additional discussion of the distinction betrween these two temporal and analytical units are given in Section 2.3.
²⁸Pastron and Hattori 1990.
²⁹Pred 1970.
³⁰Report to the 75th U.S. Congress, House Doc. No. 561, 1935, 1938.
³¹Church 1988.
³²Ketz and Arundale 1986:50; Kitchener 1954.
³³Data tabulated by O.K. Mason from annual records of the U.S. Geological Survey gauges at Fairbanks and Nenana reported in annually published Water Resources Bulletins.
³⁴McFadden and Collins 1977:15.
³⁵See various articles in Baker et al. 1988.
³⁶See discussion in Mason and Beget 1991:392-403.
³⁷Mason and Beget 1991:392-403.
³⁸Collins 1990.
³⁹McFadden and Collins 1977:10.
⁴⁰McFadden and Collins 1977:10.
⁴¹Childers and Meckel 1977.
⁴²Childers and Meckel 1977.
⁴³Fairbanks Evening News, August 9, 1905.
⁴⁴Collins 1990.
⁴⁵Childers et al. 1972.
⁴⁶Ketz and Arundale 1986.
⁴⁷Ketz and Arundale 1986.
⁴⁸Ketz and Arundale 1986.
⁴⁹Fairbanks Daily News Miner April 26, 1946.
⁵⁰Fairbanks Daily News Miner April 20, 1935.
⁵¹Ensign 1993.
⁵²Fairbanks Daily News Miner September 16, 1990.
⁵³Solka 1980:31.
⁵⁴Ketz and Arundale 1986:68.
⁵⁵Ketz and Arundale 1986:68.
⁵⁶Fairbanks Evening News, August 15, 1905.
⁵⁷Ketz and Arundale 1986:70.
⁵⁸Fairbanks Daily Times, January 6, 1906:4.
⁵⁹Ketz and Arundale 1986:72.
⁶⁰Ketz and Arundale 1986:72.
⁶¹Ketz and Arundale 1986:72.
⁶²Fairbanks Evening News, August 9, 1905 and August 15, 1905; Fairbanks Daily Times, June 1, 1905, and June 25, 1906.
⁶³See various papers in Swanson et al. 1982.
⁶⁴As early as 1906, miners on Dome Creek recognized the deleterious effects of unchecked logging and "Dome men" organized to restrict logging that could accelerate overland flow and erosion.
⁶⁵In 1913, 300,000 board feet of logs were cut during winter, and floated down to the mills at Fairbanks on the first flood water after break-up. Fairbanks Daily Times, May 7, 1913.
⁶⁶Fairbanks Daily Times, May 7, 1913.
⁶⁷Naske and Rowinski 1981:62.
⁶⁸Webb 1985.
⁶⁹The temporal and historic context for the process of city building and development of the waterfront was discussed in Chapter 2 of this report, and in Ketz and Arundale 1986:61-68.
⁷⁰Cole 1981; Robe 1943.
⁷¹Snodgrass 1982.
⁷²Martin Harrais in Wold 1988:139.
⁷³Robe 1943:191-192.
⁷⁴Robe 1943:174-206.
⁷⁵U.S. Army 1969: 53.
⁷⁶Robe 1943.
⁷⁷Robe 1943.
⁷⁸Kitchener 1954.
⁷⁹Wickersham 1937.
⁸⁰Naske and Rowinski 1981.
⁸¹Atwood 1979:170.
⁸²Cole 1981.
⁸³Meaker 1984:437-47.
⁸⁴Kitchener 1954.
⁸⁵Monahan 1959:99.
⁸⁶Cronon et al. 1992; Jordan et al. 1997.
⁸⁷see however Lewis 1984; O'Brien et al. 1984.
⁸⁸Turner 1926:319-327.
⁸⁹Billington and Ridge 1982.
⁹⁰Webb 1985; Jordan et al. 1997.
⁹¹Turner 1926.
⁹²Turner 1921:14-15; Turner 1926:327; Webb 1985:2.
⁹³Webb 1931; Webb 1964.
⁹⁴see also Worster 1985, 1992, 1994.
⁹⁵Jordan et al. 1997: 4-5.
⁹⁶Rowlands 1987:1-11; Champion 1989; Chase-Dunn and Hall 1991.
⁹⁷Limerick 1994:72.
⁹⁸Limerick 1994:73.
⁹⁹Lamar and Thompson 1981.
¹⁰⁰Forbes 1962, 1968.
¹⁰¹see also Limerick 1994:76; Lightfoot and Martinez 1995.
¹⁰²Limerick 1994:74.
¹⁰³for example, White 1991; White and Limerick 1994.
¹⁰⁴Lightfoot and Martinez 1995.
¹⁰⁵Lightfoot and Martinez 1995: 473.
¹⁰⁶Steffen 1980.
¹⁰⁷Limerick 1994.

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