The construction of the Catalina Highway began at the height of a worldwide economic depression, when a huge portion of the workforce was unemployed and capital funds were hard to come by. Federal prisoners provided most of the labor in the eighteen-year project, which began in 1933 and ended in 1951, spanning the eras of the Great Depression and World War II, periods of sustained national shortages of material and equipment. Convict labor was considered the only affordable means of constructing the road (United States Department of Commerce [USDC] 1951:13). This thesis examines the work and labor correlates represented in the material culture of the road features and the attendant prison camp that was constructed to house the workforce for the Catalina Highway project. The thesis also examines the working and living conditions of the inmates and how the inmates were perceived by the community. The thesis employs the recognized historical and archaeological methods of archival, ethnographic, and archaeological research to achieve its ends.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/292087 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Taylor, Peter Mark |
| Contributors | Reid, J. Jefferson |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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