At the Intersections of History: Collaborative, Public Archaeology of the Nineteenth-Century Tom Cook Blacksmith Shop along the Chisholm Trail in Bolivar, Texas

Bibliographic Information

Article Title

At the Intersections of History: Collaborative, Public Archaeology of the Nineteenth-Century Tom Cook Blacksmith Shop along the Chisholm Trail in Bolivar, Texas

Journal Title

Advances in Archaeological Practice

Author(s)

Menaker, Alexander and Clark, William Howard and Boyd, Douglas K. and Franklin, Maria and Wright, Halee Clark and Hanselka, Kevin

Month of Publication

September

Year of Publication

2023

Volume Number

11

Issue Number

3

Article Pages

328–40

Web Address (URL)

https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2023.15

Additional Information

Language

English

Notes

Abstract

The Bolivar Archaeological Project exemplifies the possibilities of archaeology as service, incorporating descendant communities and local stakeholders into the fabric of the research design and planning for a state infrastructure project. This collaborative, multidisciplinary project attends to marginalized histories to offer a model for how publicly funded cultural resources management archaeology can serve multiple goals. The Bolivar Archaeological Project was conceived as a public archaeology project, with dual goals of being community driven and yielding scholarly contributions. In the shifting rural–urban landscape of Denton County, a Texas Department of Transportation road improvement project has supported archaeological investigations of two nineteenth-century sites—a blacksmith shop and hotel—associated with the historic Chisholm Trail. The blacksmith shop belonged to Tom Cook, an African American freedman, whose descendants reside nearby and became active participants in the investigations, including as collaborative authors in this article. The project illustrates the importance of representation and praxis to realize inclusive community engagement, with this article outlining the development of the project and ongoing research. Informed by Black feminist archaeologies, the project works at the intersections of local communities and state infrastructure while navigating landscapes of fraught histories and presents to forge an archaeology for the twenty-first century.

 

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