Abstract
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sheep ranching industry in the western United States had become an important economic focus for Basque immigrants. One explanation put forth by historians and demographers for the eventual prevalence of the Basque in the sheep industry is found in the idea of chain migration, the process of immigration of individuals from one region to another through time and across generations. To test this hypothesis, data in the form of carvings from aspen trees in the northern Sierra Nevada were collected and cross-referenced with the name and place of individuals listed in birth data available in World War I draft registration cards from seven northern California and western Nevada counties and relating those data to the high mountain aspen carvings. The results show the chain migration hypothesis to be supported by the archaeological and historical data.
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