Paper short abstract:

This paper explores place-making in two towns that emerged from a 19th century Alsatian migration to Texas. Drawing from archaeology and linguistic anthropology, I examine how migrants and descendants have built ideas of and relationships to historic migration into the landscape across generations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores a 19th century Alsatian migration to Texas and the places that emerged from that migration. In particular, this research focuses on two Alsatian-Texan towns to the west of San Antonio, both of which originated from the same Alsatian migration but have made divergent decisions regarding their landscape and approaches to place-making through time. Both towns have inscribed identity and migration into their physical landscape in subtle and overt ways - but of course, places never simply exist as physical locations or points on a map. They also occur through the creation and maintenance of historical imaginaries, daily practice and tradition, and narrative choices about individual and community identity. Drawing on approaches from historical archaeology and linguistic anthropology, I examine spatial and material choices made by Alsatian migrants and their descendants, as well as other migrants who joined the communities through time. Examples of these decisions on the landscape - the ruins of an abandoned townsite, the construction and reconstruction of an American railroad town, a relocated Alsatian townhouse, and an archaeological-site-turned-heritage-museum - illustrate how both towns have built ideas of and relationships to their historic migration into place through time. They also show, in tandem with oral histories and contemporary heritage practices, how these places navigate perceived and real connections between Texas and an Alsatian "homeland" across generations.