Mount Lowe Archaeological Project

Week Five - Keys, Marbles, and Lots of Visitors!

What a hot, hot week it has been! Despite the heat wave, we have completed a good amount of the excavation and plan to shut down the site at the end of Week Six (this coming week). I’ll be sad to leave the site, but with the heat getting more and more intense by the day, it’s probably a good thing that we’re packing up for the summer. With funding, I hope to return in the fall and possibly in the summer of 2006. If you are interested in sharing your history of Echo Mountain with me for another research project, I will be around in the fall conducting archival research at the Autry and would love to meet up with you!

The Pasadena Star News did a news bit on us this weekend. I am in the process of obtaining permission to reproduce the images and video produced by the paper on this website. Raul Roa, the editor/videographer/photographer of the story, was kind enough to hike out to our site and take some photos and videos of our Public Archaeology Day. We had a wonderful time showing visitors around Echo Mountain and discussing the findings we’ve had this summer. Brian Marcroft and Joe, two local historians, were kind enough to assist with the event. Thanks to everyone who showed up and made the event successful!

This week, we completed the A trenches (A1, 2, and 3) in the Southern portion of the section house. We continued to find interesting artifacts in the final A excavation (A3) – a couple keys, buttons, and children’s toys. The amount of keys found in A3 suggests that the Mexican occupants may have worked as maids at the Alpine Tavern. We also found a piece of either newspaper or a page out of a mail order catalog in A3. We are opening up one last unit, Z2, south of the A trench and in the corner of the house with the hopes of locating a few more personal effects from the section house’s occupants.

The cesspool (D1) appears to have no end and, consequently, we are going to have close up excavation in that area of the site on Monday. We continue to find ashy layers within the cesspool, suggesting that we have yet to hit artifacts dumped during the section house’s period of occupation. I am bit disappointed about this factor, but with funding, perhaps I will be able to return next summer to further explore the feature.

What I am calling the “corral” area of the site, excavation unit E1, has expanded into a 2 meter by 2-meter unit from a 1m x 1m unit this week. This has resulted in the exposure of what I, for the meantime, am calling “seedling casings.” You can take a look at a photo of these interesting objects below. Could they be part of a historic garden or part of a historic Forest Service reforestation project? Claire Rich, a volunteer and teacher, and I believe that these circular objects (possibly made out of tar paper or leather?) may have been used to project seedlings from rabbits and other wildlife. The deeper we get in E1, the more faunal materials we encounter.

We are also finding lots of large ceramic fragments in E1, a few with maker’s marks and decorations. Maker’s marks are imprints left on bottles and ceramics by the object’s producers – with a little (or a lot depending on the object and mark!) research, archaeologists are often able to figure out where the object was produced, when it was in circulation, and what types of materials and/or liquid it contained. My gut instinct tells me that these ceramic fragments were used to dump slop and excess food waste for the corral’s animals to eat.

We have had a number of visitors to the site this week, including Forest Service archaeologists Mike McIntyre and Darrell Vance, local historian and lawyer Paul Ayers, former volunteer Scott Mathers, USC Professor of Geology Lawford Anderson, and an artist (I will post his website up shortly!) who owns a cabin in Chantry Flats and an art gallery in downtown Pasadena. Jarrod Diamond, a Forest Ranger for Angeles National Forest, also spent some time at the site helping us screen and dig.

We said goodbye to Amy Amberger, a history student at Pacific University who has been with us since Week One of the project! Thanks, Amy, for all of your hard work! A special thanks also is need for volunteers who helped out this week in the intense heat; they include Amy Amberger, Jarrod Diamond, Cailee Mellen, Laura Ng, Koji Ozawa, and Claire Rich. They have endured long workdays since it’s nearly impossible to hike out with our equipment in the afternoon heat. We have been working 7am to 6pm everyday!

A few more thank yous are needed: a thanks goes out to Ed Chambers (www.chamcal.com) for donating money to pay for our rental car! We have had an extraordinary and unexpected amount of volunteers this season, many of whom don’t have a car to take up to the site. We ended up renting a large Chevy Tahoe from Pasadena Enterprise (1890 Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA) to get everyone up to the site. Thank you to Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Pasadena for helping us with our rental car and being so accommodating with our needs!

And last but definitely not least, thank you to Paul Ayers for doing some research on the occupation dates of the section house. According to Paul and Charles Seims, it appears as though it may have burnt down in 1941 instead of 1940 or 1936. Paul and me also discussed the foundations of the section house. We are interested in why the Eastern wall of the section house appears to be stronger and made of a different material than the house’s center and Western walls. Is it an addition to the house, or, as I am suggesting, related to the way in which Pacific Electric Railway’s management wanted the house to appear to visitors who could only see the Eastern wall from the train? Perhaps this is one of the many mysteries of Echo Mountain that will never be solved. Any ideas are appreciated!

If you are interested in coming up and seeing the site exposed, please do within the next week! We will be closing up and backfilling the units starting Wednesday, July 26th, 2006. The site will be closed for the year on Saturday, July 29th, 2006.

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Stacey with Forest Service Archaeologists Mike McIntyre and Darrell Vance (courtesy of Claire Rich)

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Amy Amberger works in Unit A2 (courtesy of Claire Rich)

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Possible Seedling Casing (courtesy of Claire Rich)

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(from left to right) Koji, Claire, and Laura digging in E1

Archaeologists excavating the Southern Portion of the Section House (aka the “A Line”)

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Koji and Stacey recording Information in E1’s Unit Binder (courtesy of Claire Rich)

Stacey chatting with Members of the Public on Public Archaeology Day – July 22, 2006

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Raul Roa of the Pasadena Star News photographing a Key found in the A Line

A Key found in the A Line

A Decoration found in the A Line

Marbles found in A3

Weeks Three and Four - Earrings, Bottle Tops, and Spoons!

We are nearly a month into the project after finishing Weeks Three and Four! Week Three was a short week due to the holiday, but nonetheless we completed a good amount of work. Our volunteers learned how to profile a unit on the 8th. “Profiling” is performed when we finish excavating a unit and can clearly see the stratigraphy (the different layers in the soil dating to different ecological and/or historical periods) in the unit’s walls. While profiling, we map out the different layers in the soil (based on color changes as well as other perceived differences in the soil) and eventually use this information to help date the artifacts we find. All artifacts are mapped in relationship to these soil changes (aka “stratum” or “strata”) as we excavate each unit.

On July 8th and July 15th, we hosted a Girl Scout and Boy Scout Career Day. For those of you who couldn’t make it to the event, I am including a link to the information packet we passed out at the event. You can obtain this packet by clicking here. We had at least 30 scouts at both events and had wonderful time sharing information on archaeology and the history of Echo Mountain with them. Participants learned how to be an archaeologist by “Munseling,” practicing excavation techniques, learning how and what to record at an archaeological site, and by finding important historical artifacts by screening the dirt from open excavation units. We want to thank Boy Scout Troop 161 from Temple City and their adult leader Mark Howlett for volunteering their time on both days and for making both events successful!

In Week Four, we completed our work in B2 and decided to add another excavation unit to its Northeast corner to gather more information on cooking practices in the section house. So far, we have found lots of window glass and a jar lid in B2a (the extension of B2) and hope to finish this unit off by Tuesday of Week Five.

We opened up three additional units during Week Four, including two units inside the Southern portion of the section house (named A1 and A2) and a unit North of the cesspool (named E1) and in what we now believe to be was a corral owned and/or operated by the section house owners (see photograph below). We have found lots of faunal materials (animal bones) in E1 as well as ceramic fragments that may have been thrown into the corral while the section house occupants were feeding their pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, mules, and/or cattle. We will be extending this unit out during Weeks Five and Six of the project to see if we can find further evidence of corral activity.

In Week Four, we welcomed Dr. Barbara Voss, Stacey Camp’s advisor at Stanford, and Dr. Dudley Gardner and his team of students from Western Wyoming Community College, to the site. Dudley’s team of archaeologists and students worked incredibly hard at exposing the Southern portion of the section house. So far, the Southern units (A1 and A2) have provided a wealth of personal effects from the house’s occupants. This week, the Wyoming team found an eye glass, a spoon, and some jewelry pictured below. Based on these findings, we have decided to excavate more units in the Southern portion of the house in Weeks Five and Six of the project. Depending on funding and the amount of volunteers who are able to come out to the site, we may also decide to extend the project for one more week (Week Seven). If anyone is interested in volunteering during the first week of August and can provide their own lodging, please email me (Stacey Camp) at scamp@stanford.edu.

Marisa Solorzano, our Crew Chief, is continuing to work hard on excavating the cesspool (also known as D1). We have yet to find the base of it and are hoping to find it by the end of Week Five. The cesspool has produced a number of interesting artifacts in Week Three and Week Four, including fragments of a toothbrush, medicine bottles, and bottle stoppers (see photographs below).

We said goodbye to a few of our volunteers this week, including Sonia Sifuentes and Melanie Rudolph, who have both been with us since the start of the project, and John Colgrove, who spent his vacation week with us. Thanks you guys for your help and for braving the wildlife and intense heat!

This coming Saturday, July 22nd, we will be hosting Public Archaeology Day on Echo Mountain. For the past two years (2005 and 2006), Stacey Camp has been excavating a historic section house on Echo Mountain that was inhabited by Mexican immigrants working on the railway between 1906-1936. At the event, you will learn information on the history of Echo Mountain, see excavations in progress, and view artifacts found so far at the site.

To get to the site, you’ll need to exit the 210 Freeway at Lake Avenue and go North (towards the mountains) to the top of Lake. On the right is a gate which marks the remains of the historic Cobb estate. The street then curves around to the left and turns into Loma Alta Drive. Park your car at or just below the Cobb estate gates on Lake and wait in front of the gates. We will be meeting here on Saturday at exactly 7:00am. My car is a grey 2003 Ford Escape and will usually be at the meeting point by 7:15am.

Once everyone arrives at the gates, we will discuss the history of the project and site. We will then tailgate up to a fire road which can only be accessed by Forest Service personnel (Stacey Camp). It is therefore vital that you contact me at 626.429.2912 if you are running late. You will not be able to access the trail to the site if you do not carpool up to Echo Mountain. We are asking all participants to transport themselves to the trailhead. The road up to the site is paved. We will be hiking approximately 1 mile to the site from the trailhead. There is an elevation gain of approximately 400 feet on the hike out of the site. We will be leaving the site at approximately 11:30am and will get back to Lake Avenue around noon.

Stacey Camp discussing Profiling with Volunteers (left to right) Laura Ng, Melanie Rudolph, Claire Rich, Sonia Sifuentes, and Kaitlyn Rich

Marisa and Sonia screening while Kaitlyn looks on

Girl Scout and Boy Scout Event on July 8, 2006

Stacey opening up a New Unit – E1 – in the “Corral” Area of the Site

B2a, an extension of B2, opens up and exposes more of the Cooking Feature

The Archaeology Team – Weeks Four and Five. From left to right: Koji Ozawa, Amy Amberger, Marisa Solorzano, Laura Ng, Sonia Sifuentes, Claire Rich, and John Colgrove.

E1 – Wooden Posts possibly related to the Corral exposed in Southern Portion of Unit

Marisa Solorzano (Crew Chief) and Zach Wegner (Local Historian and Volunteer since 2005) profile the Cesspool (D1)

Left to Right: Laura Ng, Koji Ozawa, and Dr. Barbara Voss examine E1

John Colgrove (Volunteer Archaeologist) and Paula Wegner (Local Historian and Volunteer since 2005) screen dirt from the Cesspool

Spoon found in A1

Inkcap

Bottle Stopper

An Earring

A Teapot Lid to a Doll’s Teapot Set

A2 in the Southern Portion of the Section House

The Wyoming Team working in the Southern Portion of the Section House

Week Two of ANF ECHO 2006

Week Two has revealed many new things about the section house on Echo Mountain. This week, we completed two excavation units – B1 (a 2x2 meter unit located inside the section house) and C1 (a 1x1 meter unit located on the pathway between the house) – as well as continued working on B2 (a 2x2 meter unit inside the house) and began exploring the cesspool. Stacy Kozakavich, a doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley, came down to the site to assist with the excavation.

B1 produced an interesting looking metal star. After a bit of research (thanks to my husband Ben Camp who assisted with this!), we found an advertisement in the 1908 Sears Roebuck Catalog for a “Security Cyclometer” that features a star similar to the one we uncovered. Stacy K. also pointed out that the star could have been used as a decoration on a number of things as well – a leather belt, a hat, a boot. We also think we have found what may be a posthole in B1 (see photo below). This would have contained a wooden beam to hold up the section house’s wooden frame structure.

After carefully mapping, photographing, and removing the brick cooking (?) feature in B2, we came across numerous bone fragments. Kristin Nado identified several of these fragments, one of which is a fish vertebrae pictured below. With a bit of funding, I am hoping to send off these fragments to a zooarchaeologist or faunal specialist who can help me identify the exact species of the fish and other faunal samples found across the site. Several large cement fragments also came out of B2, including pieces which feature paint that would have most likely been applied onto the exterior of the house. The colors – which are incredibly faded – appear to be light red and light yellow, Pacific Electric Railway Corporation’s company colors.

Several visitors to the site have asked how I, as an archaeologist, decide where to place excavation units. I have chosen to place my excavation units in spaces that were both out of view and in sight of the railway and tourists at Echo Mountain with the hope of seeing if particular practices can be associated with public and private space. Are there, for instance, spaces where condemned behavior (forbidden by Pacific Electric Railway’s reform program, see “Site History” section on this website for more information) – such as eating Mexican food or consuming products associated with Mexican identity in 19th and early 20th century California – could take place? I am also interested in seeing how the space of the section house was used – are there different types of activities (cooking, sewing, etc.) taking place in different rooms of the house, and if so, how is this division of space related to Mexican American identity and/or Pacific Electric Railway’s conception of Mexican Americans.

We laid out new units in the South of the house since we’ve been working on the North portion of the house for the last two weeks. This will help me answer some of the questions I have in regard to space and identity outlined above. We will be opening up these units in Week 4.
We bid goodbye to several of our volunteers at the end of Week Two – Denise Brown, Christine Hajek, Jamie Kistner, and Kristin Nado all gave nearly two weeks out of their busy lives to assist with the project. I am looking forward to welcoming a few experienced archaeologists on the project in Week 4 (Dr. Dudley Gardner and Dr. Barbara Voss) to pick their brains about the possible posthole and the stratigraphy in each unit.

Upcoming Events

Week 3 will be a short work week due to the holidays, so if you plan on coming out the site, make sure to visit on Thursday or Friday as we will not be working Monday through Wednesday. On Saturday, July 8th, and Saturday, July 15th, we will be welcoming Girl Scouts from the Mount Wilson Vista Council division of GSUSA for a Career Day. On Saturday, July 22nd, we will be welcoming the general public the site for a Public Interpretation Day. More information on this event will be posted on the main page of the website in Week 3.

Metal Star found in B1

Advertisement taken from 1908 Sears Roebuck Catalog showing Star

Possible Posthole in B1

Brick Cooking (?) Feature in B2

Fish Vertebrae found in B2

Painted Cement from B2

The Team working on a Rainy Day!

Back in action - Week One of ANF ECHO 2006!

Welcome back to the Mount Lowe Archaeology Project website! This field season has already started off on the right foot with some exciting finds during Week One of the project. Below I (Stacey Camp) discuss some of our preliminary findings. We hope you will continue to check out our updates as the season progresses. Last year’s updates will also be placed on this website shortly.

Day One began with volunteers setting up tents to work under for the rest of the season, Stacey mapping and re-establishing the grid from last year, and conducting another surface collection of artifacts that had been uncovered thanks to the rain and wind of the 2005-2006 year. Stacey also laid out a few excavation units so that the team could get going on the digging on Day Two.

The rest of the week was spent excavating two units – B1 and B2 – which are both located inside the section house. B2 is located near what we believe to be a cooking feature/hearth. So far, B2 has produced a headless porcelain doll, a fish vertebrae (identified by Kristin Lynn Nado, a Stanford student volunteering on the project), and lots and lots of melted glass! B1, placed a meter South of one of our test excavation units (Unit 1) from last year), produced a large number of buttons and beads throughout the week. Unit 1 also produced a similar amount of buttons and beads, which leads me (Stacey) to believe that this area of the household was used for laundry and sewing. The reform movement instigated by Pacific Electric Railway required that Mexican women practice sewing, and if they ignored the corporation’s requests, they were not allowed to visit their family and friends in downtown Los Angeles via railway passes.

In B1, we have also uncovered a penny dating 1915, a portion of a doorknob, a porcelain ball (possibly a marble or decoration), and several bullet casings. Amy Amberger, one of the students volunteering at the site, researched the casings in detail. Here’s what she has to say about them:

“On one of the bullet shells that we found on the first day we were able to read the bottom and find out that it belonged to a colt .44. The gun was made in about the 1860s but the ammunition was so good that many other manufacturers made their weapons to work with it. Consequently thousands of guns have been made to fit the shell all the way into the late 1920’s. Given that there were so many guns made it is hard to tell what kind the people at the site may have used. However, on the second day we found more shells. One of which was the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 32 WCF. Looking this shell up it was found that the first repeating rifles that Winchester made also happen to fit the colt .44. These rifles were made from 1866 to 1873 (these also just happen to be the model numbers for the rifles). So it is possible that the people who lived at the house may have had a Winchester.”

On Friday, my car had some issues so we worked a half-day on the site. We removed brush from the “cesspool” area of the site, mapped the bricks related to the cooking feature in B2, and dismantled the tents and covered up the site to prepare for the weekend. Lloyd, a mechanic from Pasadena Ford, fixed my car. We chatted about the site and he had something interesting to say about the buttons. Apparently, his Hispanic mother used to take the buttons off of worn out shirts and save them in a small box for future sewing projects. The old shirts would then be used to patch up torn clothing.

We continue to run into fascinating people up at the site – each visitor seems to have their own story to tell about Echo Mountain’s past, present, and sometimes even future! If you are interested in getting up to the site or have a story to share about it, please contact me at scamp@stanford.edu or 626.429.2912. We typically work Monday through Friday, 7am to 3:30pm on site. We hope to see you at Echo Mountain soon!

Conducting a Surface Collection

Our tents!

Buttons found in B1

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A clip found in B1

The Back of the Porcelain Doll

The Front of the Porcelain Doll

Preliminary Findings in the Field

Most of our interpretations will be based off of the labwork we do in the upcoming year, but there are a few things that shovel testing and excavating has revealed. This week, we discovered the remnants of a cement-lined cesspool or cistern. Based on the degree of fragmentation of the artifacts found in it, it appears that it may have been disturbed. However, some of the fragments (bone, glass, ceramics, etc.) may provide further insight into the lifestyles of those living in the section house. Next year, we will continue to excavate this feature because next week, we will begin work on Zone 2.

Perhaps a cesspool?

Though the heat does get to us, there are many days where the beauty of the site makes it all worth it! Today was one of those days:

Marisa, Stacy K., Dr. Voss, and Ilana "above the clouds" as Mount Lowe's postcards say.

Tonight we're gearing up for tomorrow's Public Archaeology Day. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Continuing Shovel Testing and Opening up an Excavation Unit

The last couple of days have been filled with more shovel tests as well as opening up our first excavation unit. We placed this unit in one corner of the house because it is typically in corners where materials get swept in and never picked up. This house may have had board flooring which may have allowed things to slip through more easily.

My dissertation advisor and the project's Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Barbara Voss, and myself excavating the first unit in the section house.

In the early morning on the 10th, a freak thunderstorm which produced lots and lots of hail, hit Pasadena and the San Gabriels, so we decided not to go out to the field in case the rain storm picked up. The day turned out to be quite beautiful (and cool for once!) so we decided to have a lab day at the house I'm renting. We cleaned and labeled artifacts - two key steps in the cataloging process.

Scott and Whitney washing artifacts.

Stacy and Marisa labeling artifacts.

The hike in is getting a bit tiresome in the heat, but we're sticking it out.

The hike in...yes, it's daunting!

Shovel Testing Begins!

Today we finally made our way below surface by starting two shovel tests around the section house. Shovel probing/testing is a quick method archaeologists use to assess the extent of archaeological deposits in an area. Some archaeologists use a statistical grid to determine the placement of these shovel tests when working with an immense landscape. In terms of my research, I wanted to use shovel tests to determine 1) if there were any artifacts at all at the site (since the site has a long history of landscape modification, floods, and fires), 2) if we would actually find artifacts related to the occupation of the section house, and finally, 3) how far the deposits extended outside the section house's architectural remains.

Opening up a shovel test.

When we perform a shovel test, we record how deep we're finding artifacts (for example, a glass fragment 50 centimeters below surface) in a binder containing information on the location of the shovel test, the soil in the shovel test, and photographs of it. When I return home, I will consider all these factor to determine how the artifacts got into that location on the site (what archaeologists call a "depositional history").

Ilana and Marisa screening soil from a shovel test. Archaeologists do this so that we can recover the smallest bits of glass, bone, ceramics, and other artifacts.

Ilana, Marisa, and Scott using a Munsell chart to assess the soil. Studying the soil helps archaeologists determine particular events in the site's history. Sometimes we can see evidence of a fire, a flood, or other environmental event.

This week a new Crew Chief, Stacy Kozakavich, joined us from Northern California. Stacy is an incredibly experienced archaeologist, having worked at a variety of sites across Canada and the United States. Today, she lead students in hand mapping an incinerator related to the section house.

Emily, Stacy K. and Adelle mapping the incinerator.

We'll continue shovel testing and we'll open up a few excavation units within the section house this week. Stay tuned!

Brush Clearing and Mapping

We finally finished clearing all the brush in Zone 1 to reveal the architectural remains of the section house and its bathhouse. Take a look at our work in these photos.

Zone 1 before brush clearing.

Zone 1 after brush clearing.

We have been creating maps using our total station of the architectural features which I hope to post up on this website in the near future.

Adelle using the stadia rod.

Next week we'll be getting into the dirt, but for now we have a basemap to work from on which we'll record the location of other features and artifacts we find below ground.

Setting up the Grid in Zones 1 and 2

The last few days have been spent clearing brush in the somewhat intense heat as well as setting up two separate project grids on opposing sides of Echo Mountain. Though it is somewhat of a hassle to haul in the total station everyday, it has saved a lot of time by doing a lot of the mapping for me!

The total station in Zone 2.

A number of volunteers have joined the crew in the last few days, including Scott, a local mountain biker and musician who biked up on the trail on Monday and after running into my crew and talking with me, decided to help out! Another volunteer, Emily, has generously donated her time to the project as the dig's official artist. Her artwork will be posted on this website soon. The crew will continue to work hard this week to clear some brush (without removing any of the roots) for the sake of the surface collection and shovel tests.

The First Day of Fieldwork

Today is officially the first day of the project! Today's crew consisted of Bryn, myself, Marisa, and Brian Marcroft. We began the project by repairing some of the Echo Mountain trail so that a larger crew can walk on it safely. The unusually heavy rainfall from this past January caused damage to many of the trails in Angeles National Forest.

Marisa, Stacey, and Bryn in Zone 1

This rainfall also caused an unexpected amount of brush and plantlife to spring up on the site, so when we finally arrived on site, we were a bit taken aback by the foliage!

Echo Mountain is taken over by brush!

After a brisk hike into the site, we started testing our total station equipment on Zone 1. Zone 1 contains what historians and myself believe to be the remains of a "section house," a home that would have possibly housed Mexican-American workers . Zone 2, which we didn't work in today, is located on the opposite side of Echo Mountain. My theory is workers were segregated by space at Mount Lowe - Zone 2, for example, could have housed Anglo-American workers while Zone 1 would have been home to Mexican-American employees.

Back to a summary of today's work! It was insanely hot today, and, according to our total station's thermometer, it reached 113 degrees by 1pm this afternoon. Believe it or not, the sole of Marisa's shoe melted!! Despite Marisa's shoe, we spent most of the afternoon using the total station to stake out a grid to survey upon. I am still amazed at the intensity of plant growth since December. Surveying under these conditions will be interesting.

Marisa's melted shoe

Preliminary GPS Work

GPS receiver on Echo Mountain

Today I dragged my father up to Echo Mountain to be my archaeology assistant because the Forest Service was kind enough to loan their Trimble GeoExplorer GPS receiver to me for the day. I placed 8 nails in the ground so that I can eventually tie the archaeology of the site to a real coordinates on the Mount Wilson quadrangle. This helps me keep track of where work has and has not been done, as well as allows me to conduct all types of spatial analyses on the artifacts and structures we are finding. During our initial survey, we plan on mapping all the artifacts we discover in our research zones onto this type of map.

A nail connected to GPS coordinates

Back in Pasadena

I am proud to write that the official Mount Lowe Archaeology Project website is now up and running. I decided to shift to this format as it is more accessible than the normal blogger format I used previously. A big thanks goes out to Claudia Engel who helped me get this page online!

Now for a quick update. After dealing with a few medical issues in Northern California and loading the car up with supplies from Stanford, I am finally back in Los Angeles and ready to start work again. I spent the first week and a half of July 2005 working at the Southwest Museum and the Huntington Library. The staff at the Southwest Museum were incredibly helpful.

I also met with William Deverell, a famous historian and professor of history at USC. He is a great source of knowledge and citations! I also met with numerous other historians and grad students who continue to broaden my understanding of labor relations and Pacific Electric Railway history in California.

I am continuing to meet with local historians who, throughout my dissertation research, have been beacons of information. Several websites have been dedicated solely to the site which provide great detail on the history of Mount Lowe and Echo Mountain. I highly recommend paying both sites a visit after reading my entry (see the front page of this website)! Scholarly work can be incredibly fulfilling when you have a network of individuals (professors, local historians, curators, etc.) that graciously share their knowledge with others.

This week I will continue to examine manuscripts (journals, old books, magazines, etc.) and photographs to better understand the history of Echo Mountain. Magazines such as the Pacific Electric Railway Magazine sometimes yield information on the identities of those working at Mount Lowe – they note who was hired and for what position as well as company news and wage information. I still have to sort through 20 years worth of these magazines at the Huntington (I’m through 1908!).

I am thrilled to note that I have several volunteers joining me on my project. I will post bios of them as soon as possible. If you are interested in volunteering during the field season (in Los Angeles) or after it (for labwork conducted at Stanford University), please contact me at scamp@stanford.edu.