O&C Railroad Buck Rock Tunnel

Project ID: L16AC00169

Federal Agency: Bureau of Land Management

Partner Institution: Southern Oregon University

Fiscal Year: 2016

Initial Funding: $14,129

Total Funding: $79,129

Project Type: Technical Assistance

Project Disciplines: Interdisciplinary

Principal Investigator: Tveskov, Mark

Agreement Technical Representative: Foster-Curley, Cheryl

Abstract: Support of the O&C Buck Rock Tunnel Project aligns with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) cultural resource program, and directly contributes to our understanding ofthe archaeology and history of Southwestern Oregon. The Southern Oregon University Lab of Anthropology’s (SOULA) purpose and objective under this agreement is to reconstruct the social, economic, and technical history of the O&C Railroad’s Siskiyou Line, as revealed in the story of Buck Rock Tunnel. The resultant data will become a source for expanded research and public education, and provide opportunities to connect the public with the past, and highlight an often under and misrepresented population, that was critical in the settlement and development of the West.
1. Phase 1 Goals (Background Research Preliminary Analysis, current year funding)
a. Complete initial Literature sourcing by 01/30/2017, provide update report,
b. Complete literature review by 4/30/2017, provide update report, and
c. Compilation of literature review in a report format, list of targeted research questions to provide direction for out-year project focus by 9/15/2017

Phase 1 Measures
a. Provide list of literature/sources that will be examined.
b. Provide list ofliterature /sources that have been examined to date.
c. Provide professionally prepared study that includes a written compilation of all reasonably available data and literature pertaining to the Buck Rock Tunnel and the Chinese laborers. Provide within the report a list of targeted questions, based on literature review, that will provide a more focused study for out-year projects.

2. Phase 2 Goals (Context Development, out-year funding)
a. Formal Historic Context Statement, b. Data Recovery Research Design,
c. 3D Laser Scanning of Site, and
d. Public Interpretive Program (Updates based on research results)

3. Phase 3 Goals (Data Recovery, out-year funding)
a. Systematic Class III Survey, b. Research Excavation, and
c. Public Interpretive Program (Updates based on research results. Educational outreach thru Passport in Time and Project Archaeology)

4. Phase 4 Goals (Publication and Outreach, out-year funding)
a. Final Publication Program (Monograph for both academic and public consumption that captures all survey and excavation results), and
b. Final Interpretive Program (Permanent Web-Presence (BLM Story Maps), Regular BLM-hosted Interpretive Hikes, and Annual Public Lecture Program)