| The Paradise Valley Folklife Project was organized by the American Folklife Center and was undertaken from 1978 through 1982. The Valley was a cattle-ranching region in which miners and farmers (among others) had lived and worked through the nineteenth century. The project involved the combined efforts of historians, folklorists, ethnographers, ethnomusicologists and archaeologists. James Deetz, then director of the Lowie Museum at the University of California at Berkeley, led a group of historical archaeologists in conducting a survey of the Valley's former community of Chinese-Americans and two other sites located on a local ranch. Detailed accounts and exhibitions of this project are available from the American Memory Project. |
| Jim Deetz, with his banjo, and Howard W. "Rusty" Marshall, Director of the Paradise Valley project, on site in Winnemucca in 1979. While Jim headed up the archaeological investigations, Rusty Marshall conducted extensive research on material culture, especially vernacular architecture, concentrating on the work of stonemason builders who had immigrated from Italy and who built many of the ranch buildings in the area. This photograph was taken by Eugene Prince. |
| Jim Deetz, with Jamey Deetz, Keith Cunningham, Lynn Eisenmann, Ken Buckingham, and Karen Buckingham, excavate a feature at a site within the location of a former community of Chinese-American residents. This photograph was taken in October, 1979, by Eugene Prince, and is available from the American Memory Project archives. |