Volunteering at the San Francisco Presidio || PART 1 – The Experience

Posted on January 15, 2023February 21, 2023 by Theo Chiang

I had the opportunity to contribute to archaeological projects at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. Being able to work locally was significant because it allowed me to better imagine what events have taken place in my home region. Also, having spoken to several archaeologists who had worked in the area, I had high hopes for seeing the Presidio for myself and discovering something notable. I ended up staying in San Francisco for hours after my shift was over, talking with archaeologists and exploring the site.

The state of the site is ongoing. The meadow where the archaeological sites are located once housed the American quarters where General Pershing was stationed in the early 1900s. The Archaeology Lab is located at the Presidio in San Francisco. The land here is divided into layers where numerous layers expose many eras of California’s history, all the way down to the ER layer, below which there is no human activity (past 6-7 millenia ago). Though the city of San Francisco was officially founded in 1776 by Spanish explorers, artifacts go as far back as around 6-7 thousand years ago when the first humans inhabited the area. However, artifacts that date between 1850 and the late 1900s are most commonly found, as San Francisco truly became a populated city after the Gold Rush began in 1848. The process here begins in the site where excavation extracts large objects and buckets of sediments containing smaller materials that need to be filtered out. Every aspect of the site is photographed professionally and preserved via photogrammetry. By joining a series of hundreds of photos, a digital, 3d copy of the site is recorded forever. Buckets of sediments are brought up to the lab for sifting, where volunteers filter through for valuable artifacts. Once all artifacts are isolated and sorted, everything goes to the lab for archaeologists to study. I participated in sifting along with several other volunteers.

Many elements of The Presidio’s history resulted in the destruction of the original edifices. The buildings constructed during Spanish occupation were already vulnerable, due to their construction with weak, local adobe. The environment of California was far too moist, and any bricks constructed were unstable compared to superior, more stable bricks produced in New Mexico. In 1914, General Pershing took command of the 8th Brigade at the Presidio of San Francisco with his wife, Helen, and their children. In 1815, General Pershing was called away to Texas for military reasons due to increasing Mexican American Border conflict. Helen, and four children stayed there until tragedy struck years later when they perished in a house fire. Only her son, Warren Pershing, survived the disaster. Since this ordeal, historians have worked to preserve original buildings. Although only a few buildings there have original elements, the rest of the Presidio has been remade in traditional architecture. Two buildings in the Presidio contain their original wall, old foundation, and original roof shingles.

Where one of the Pershing monuments stands, with an American flag, there used to be Pershing’s quarters, but then replaced with meadow, which archaeologists are now excavating. The whole building was Ushaped, and fit under the parking lot around the site.

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I had the opportunity to contribute to archaeological projects at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. Being able to work locally was significant because it allowed me to better imagine what events have taken place in my home region. Also, having spoken to several archaeologists who had worked in the area, I had high hopes […]