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

Abstract

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.