When the City of Reno decided at the beginning of this century to create a trench to lower the railroad tracks that ran through its center, archaeologists associated with the ReTRAC (Reno Transportation Rail Access Corridor) project had a unique opportunity to explore the evidence of thousands of years of human history locked beneath downtown’s busy streets. The River and the Railroad traces the people and events that shaped the city, incorporating archaeological findings to add a more tangible physical dimension to the known history. It offers fascinating insights into the lives of many different people from Reno’s past and helps to correct some common misperceptions about the history of the American West.

Mary Ringhoff is an archaeologist and historian with Western Cultural Resource Management, Inc., in Sparks, Nevada. She worked as a staff archaeologist/field supervisor on the ReTRAC construction project.

 

Edward J. Stoner is an archaeologist and senior project manager/laboratory director of Western Cultural Resource Management, Inc., which supervised cultural resource issues on the ReTRAC project.