Reno, Nevada began in 1868 as railroad town between the Truckee River and the transcontinental railroad. The ever expanding main line of the old Central Pacific has bisected the city ever since, posing more and more problems for traffic, public safety, and aesthetics in the growing city. After years of public debate, Reno decided to relocate the tracks into a large, partially covered 54-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep trench for two miles through the center of town. As a publicly funded project, archaeological investigations were required as the trench was dug, a project that lasted from 2001 to 2005. This is the story of that massive dig, carried out by the contract firm of Western Cultural Resources Management, Inc. (WCRM) It was perhaps the largest archaeological excavation project ever undertaken in a Western city.
The archaeologists found 5,000 years of continuous habitation in 83 sites. Early pre-historic sites tell of the people who subsisted here. When the railroad came, so too came the town of Reno; the excavations document the growth of the city and the development of its infrastructure and its residents, including the Chinese who built the railroad, African-Americans, and Europeans of many nationalities.
Big contract digs produce big, tedious reports. In this case two of the WCRM investigators, Mary Ringhoff and Edward Stoner, have also produced an energetic, informative story of the excavations and their findings. The River and the Railroad is a fascinating case study of an important episode in American history.
