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Unearthing History
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| Alumnus Investigates the Past to Benefit the Future |
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| Don Hardesty examines archaeological remains in the remote Alaskan interior. |
In November 1846, a group of families known as the Donner Party attempted to cross a section of the snow-laden Sierra Nevada mountain range in Utah during a westward migration. The party stalled in severe weather and was stranded with no supply source. To this day, the events leading to the survival of just one-half of the party are shadowed by mystery and speculation of cannibalism.
Donald Hardesty (Ph.D. ’72) was a pioneer in his own right when he began applying the concepts and techniques of historical archaeology to this infamous site in 1984. Weaving the clues left by remains such as burnt bone fragments with geological indicators such as sediment layers, Hardesty and his successors attempt to draw conclusions about the ill-fated party’s harsh winter experiences. Today’s sophisticated diagnostic methods can help narrow conclusions, but for Hardesty, vignettes such as the Donner Party tell an overall greater story.
“Archaeology, when used interactively with documents and oral histories, is capable of gathering information about and interpreting the collapse and survival of such systems in the modern world that have important implications for critical issues such as planning for sustainable development in the future,” he says.
Kelly Dixon is a historical archaeologist and former graduate student of Hardesty’s. As recently as summer 2004, she participated in Donner Party research, spending time at the site with archaeologist Julie Schablitsky. She first worked with Hardesty in 1998, although was already familiar with his research.
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| Hardesty at the Kennecott Copper Mine. |
“By the fall of 1999, I decided that I wanted to earn my Ph.D. with him,” she says. “His books, chapters, and articles became, and continue to be, my most dog-eared.”
The Donner Party dig is just one of myriad sites that lend well to Hardesty’s expertise. While his attachment to the project remains strong, his primary research focus is early mining technology and gold rush settlements in Alaska. The settlements’ remains provide backdrops for his study of early telegraph systems — specifically, the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System and the intermittent solitary relay stations manned in the early 1900s.
“Archeological remains include buildings, food, clothing, and newspapers, all of which has left a fairly dramatic physical record of life in the remote Alaskan interior,” says Hardesty.
The combined range, depth, and longevity of his research distinguish Hardesty in his field. While his work has brought recognition such as the University of Nevada’s 2001 Outstanding Researcher award, he also teaches courses and divides his summers between field work and field school for archeological methods.
“Don is a prolific scholar who has made important contributions in the realms of cultural ecology, archaeology of gender and ethnicity, and archaeology of colonization and industry,” says C. Melvin Aikens, Ph.D., Director of UO’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History and a new faculty member at the time Hardesty was completing his graduate studies. “Don has distinguished himself across a pretty significant range of archeological study, all of it informed by the anthropological perspective.”
Delving into the last 500 years of history is a long way from Hardesty’s undergraduate ambitions in electrical engineering in Washington, D.C. Trips to the Smithsonian Institute inspired his change of major to archaeology; he earned his B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1964. A graduate teaching assistant position and, more importantly, newly hired anthropology department chair Albert C. Spaulding, former director of anthropology at the National Science Foundation, drew Hardesty to UO for his graduate studies. He completed his doctorate after leaving UO in 1968 to accept a teaching position at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he remains. In July 2004, he entered his third year as chair of the Department of Anthropology.
Whether in the classroom, the folds of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or in the Alaskan interior, for Hardesty the reward of his work is piecing together enough facts to present as complete a story as can be told about the subject, both for historical preservation and future edification.
“I’m interested in how archaeology is used to help plan for the future,” he says, “especially regarding sustainable development and the direction that we as a human population might take in the future, learning from the recent past and looking at successes and failures in interactions with the larger environment.”
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1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245
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Copyright © 2004 University of Oregon
Updated October 28, 2004
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