DENVER — Have you been looking for a way to learn more about the archeology of one of the National Park Service’s newest historic sites? Here is a great opportunity to join in from home on a Zoom presentation from Dr. Bonnie Clark, expert in Amache National Historic Site’s garden archeology.
The Zoom program is hosted by the Sacramento Archeology Society, and you can find more information on their website: https://sacarcheology.org/announcements/.
“Finding Solace in the Soil: The Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Colorado’s Japanese American Incarceration Camp” will be presented on Monday, Feb. 13, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. PT.
During World War II, Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and placed into confinement camps throughout the western U.S. This presentation overviews the methods and results of six seasons of landscape archaeology at one of those sites, Amache, located in southeastern Colorado. The site contains an incredibly well-preserved record of how the people incarcerated there transformed a hostile landscape through strategy and skill.
By integrating a program of historical research, community engagement, and intensive garden archaeology, the University of Denver Amache project is expanding the view of what incarceree gardens are, how they were created, and their import, both to those who made them and us today.
Clark is committed to using tangible history – objects, sites, and landscapes — to broaden understanding of our diverse past. She began her career as a professional archaeologist and now serves as a [rofessor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Denver (DU), as well as the curator for archaeology of the DU Museum of Anthropology. She is the author or editor of numerous publications, including “Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners” at Amache and “On the Edge of Purgatory: An Archaeology of Place in Hispanic Colorado.”
Clark leads the DU Amache Project, a community collaboration committed to researching, preserving, and interpreting the physical history of Amache. That work has been highlighted in numerous venues, including Archaeology and American Archaeology magazines.
You can learn more about Amache National Historic Site at www.nps.gov/amch.