Year of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage Option)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Douglas MacDonald

Commitee Members

Kelly Dixon, Mike Monsos

Keywords

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, HOMESTEADING, NORTH FORK OF THE FLATHEAD, SCHOOLHOUSE ARCHAEOLOGY

Publisher

University of Montana

Abstract

In the summer of 2010, I excavated the remnants of a historic one-roomed schoolhouse near Polebridge, Montana, just outside of Glacier National Park. The schoolhouse’s recovered artifacts represent a lively community of homesteaders residing in the North Fork Valley of the Flathead River during the early 20th century. 3,704 individual artifacts in the form of metal, glass, ceramic and faunal remains, tell of life during this time period. The research goals of this thesis have three objectives: 1) the historical record often depicts schoolhouses as serving as public space for the community, the archaeological record can be used to corroborate it as well; 2) the artifacts recovered give insight into cultural attitudes and sentiments that reflect the entire North Fork Valley community, and 3) GIS facilitates a reconstruction of the how the schoolhouse was positioned on the landscape, providing another level of data to explore the role and significance of the schoolhouse, particularly its geographical position in the community. As schoolhouses are seldom investigated in the archaeological realm, I hope to build upon the platform of previous undertakings and contribute Montana’s only schoolhouse excavation to the growing study of the archaeology of institutions.

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© Copyright 2012 ALEXANDER J. KROLL