Most of the research has been focused within the reservoir gross pool zone of 5123 ha, between the elevations of 224 m and 335 m amsl. Both structural features and the artifacts reflect these changes through time. Other sites along Angels and Carson Creeks, the South Fork of the Stanislaus, and directly on the River, were selected because of their potential to yield data about Gold Rush activities, populations, and settlement patterns. Two sites in Mormon Gulch were included in the sample to investigate an area known to have been settled early by an identifiable social group. For each site, a chapter presents data about the environmental setting, previous work, historical research, field work including methods and descriptions of all features, analysis of diagnostic artifacts, and a summary which synthesizes all of the information at the interpretive level.
Appendices present an analysis of all faunal remains and tabulations of other data.
The models examined in relation to data gathered include the Frontier, Victorian, and Dependency. Each is evaluated as it applies to the sites investigated during the Phase X data recovery program, and a new model is advanced which appears to be a better fit of all lines of evidence which have emerged from the multiple research strategies employed. The new construct explains the historical development of a site or region by stressing its dependencies on outside forces, and appears to have distinct advantages for facilitating comparisons among different chronological periods, modes of subsistence, and degrees of dependencies. Nine of the latter are presented as case studies for review of the documentation, cultural materials, and articulation between the field work and research objectives. Each is described in a separate chapter which summarizes the historical background, field and laboratory procedures, artifact assemblages, and concludes with a discussion which evaluates and integrates the available data.