Theses and Dissertations Collection

In the nineteenth century, gold rushes reshaped much of the American West, attracting fortune seekers from around the globe to rural areas that turned to metropolises seemingly overnight. From the start, Chinese migrants were a part of these rushes and the unique communities they gave rise to among constantly shifting manifestations of opportunity and risk. This dissertation is about one such place, southern Idaho’s Boise Basin. In it, I use historical and archaeological methods to reconstruct the experiences of multiple individuals connected to Chinese mining networks through occupation, land title, market network, or skilled trade. Progressing through vantage points along these networks, I explore the varied ways that Chinese merchants in Idaho City, Chinese miners outside of “Old Boston,” and Chinese specialists employed at the Reid Placer Mine built lives and cultivated livelihoods during the Basin’s peak gold rush years of 1860 through 1915. Drawing on multiple lines of evidence, including 16 legacy archaeological collections and a spate of archival materials, I use an agency-based network perspective to examine rural Chinese mining experiences in the context of racial exclusion, transnational connections, local dynamics, and individual positionality. From the carefully curated market networks of Chinese merchants to the informally traded skills of Chinese blacksmiths, this study highlights ways that Chinese mining network members used material culture and overlapping webs of interpersonal ties to navigate the shifting exclusions and uncertainties of the Boise Basin’s gold rush industry, often influencing local practices in the process.