Lonely Men, Loose Women: Rethinking the Demographics of a Multiethnic Mining Camp, Kanaka Flat, Oregon

Abstract

The historiography of the Western gold rushes is punctuated with rhetoric of the American Wild West. The mining camp in particular has become an institution of the traditional frontier narrative, biasing interpretations of the composition of early mining settlements. Historical and modern accounts of Kanaka Flat describe a lack of women, yet archaeological data and documentary evidence indicated women were present and integrated into the community. Low-status Indian or Hawaiian women on Kanaka Flat were disregarded and not seen as legitimate partners or wives, suggesting that the idea of “women” often referenced more than sex or gender, but also ethnicity and class. Archaeological investigations challenge dated frontier archetypes, allowing recognition of the diversity of experiences on the American frontier. The “invisible wives” of Kanaka Flat illustrate that the camp was not a haven of single men and sinful women, but a complex community comprised of both bachelors and families.