A view of the West: Community and visual landscape in Depression-era Rabbithole Springs mining district, Pershing County, Nevada.

摘要

One method some individuals used to mitigate the extreme economic hardship and rampant unemployment prevalent during the 1930s Great Depression was to mine smallscale gold placers in the American West. The Rabbithole mining district, located in northern Pershing County, Nevada, was one area where such practices occurred. Numbering between fifty and four hundred, Rabbithole residents formed a tightly knit community, the nature of which can be discerned by examining three aspects of the visual landscape: site layout, architectural remains, and archaeological assemblages. Specific examples of these three aspects are analyzed using approaches from community and landscape archaeology and visibility studies. Analysis reveals that residents interacted with people within and outside the district in many different ways, leading to complex expressions of identity and feelings of community.