The Buck Rock Tunnel Archaeological Site: Documenting Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Oregon & California Railroad

The history of the Buck Rock Tunnel captures in microcosm some of the larger themes that are characteristic of the greater Oregon and California Railroad story — including those of progress, industrialization and infrastructure development, mismanagement and fraud, as well as the details of daily life during the execution of such a major undertaking. Using fieldwork, remote sensing, and documentary research, collaborators on a public archaeology and history project are reconstructing the social, economic, and technical history of the Oregon and California Railroad’s Siskiyou Line, particularly as revealed in the abandoned Buck Rock Tunnel. This landscape-scale investigation has identified portions of the original tunnel, railroad grade, and associated work camps, providing a better understanding of the ways Chinese migrants accessed, lived, and worked at this remote site. Because the tunnel was abandoned mid-construction, the article’s authors can glean a host of otherwise invisible technical insights about the methods and technology employed by laborers and project engineers. This research article shifts the historical discussion of railroad construction in southern Oregon from the high-level realm of financiers and capital to the story of the people on the ground, humanizing railroad construction by providing insight into the people who made it possible — namely, Chinese railroad workers.

《巴克岩隧道考古遗址：华工及俄勒冈和加利福尼亚铁路建设纪实》

巴克岩隧道 (Buck Rock Tunnel) 的历史是俄勒冈和加利福尼亚铁路故事宏大主题的缩影——囊括了发展进步，工业化和基础设施发展，管理不善和欺诈，乃至在这一重大工程执行期间的日常生活细节。公共考古与历史项目的合作者们结合实地考察、遥感和文献研究，正在重建俄勒冈和加利福尼亚铁路锡斯基尤线 (Siskiyou Line) 的社会史、经济史和技术史，特别融合了废弃的巴克岩隧道揭示的一段历史。这项景观尺度的调研已经认定了部分原有隧道、铁道路基和相关劳工营地，深入探知了华人移民在这一偏远地区出入、生活和劳作的方式。由于隧道施工未完即被废弃，本文作者有幸收集到本来难以探知的丰富技术见解，涉及到劳工和项目工程师所采用的方法和技术。这篇研究文章将俄勒冈南部铁路建设的历史讨论从金融家和资本的高层领域转向基层个体的故事，通过深入挖掘使铁路建设成为可能的个体——即华人铁路劳工，赋予铁路建设人性化的意味。