A Line in the Sand Musings & Essays on Stagecoaching

Book excerpt: The concluding volume in a three part essay series, Where the Dust Settles, examines the characteristics and use of adobe ‘mud brick’ in the arid US Southwest. Considerations encompass its appropriation rectifying the absence of lumber, its use to fashion residences giving rise to communities serving Gold Rush driven prospectors, its adaptation to cultural expression at Stagecoach service facilities, its survival as architectural remnants into modern times, and its potential to yield significant Historical information. The previous volume II Dusty Trails to Shiny Rails explores the origins and administration of communication technology in the newly acquired American frontier. Volume I, Ancient Footpaths, examines the origins of pre Euro-American networks of Trails & Traces. Cumulatively this essay series provides an entertaining overview of this aspect of American ingenuity. Hybridizing History and Anthropology, using an approach tailored to preservation, analysis focuses on Trail characteristics in prehistoric, historic, and modern times with a final focus on the possible future of these irreplaceable linear artifacts.