I Got Friends in Loma Prieta: Stories from the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park

Arianna Heathcote will be discussing her 2019 M.A. research project centered around the historic town of Loma Prieta. The study was an applied anthropology collaboration, with San Jose State University and California State Parks, within the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. This research used archaeological remains of Loma Prieta to add to the academic knowledge concerning working-class experiences in company towns during the Gilded Age (1870-1910). The archaeological mixed-method approach of qualitative and quantitative methods examined themes of paternalism, collective action, and built environment. Heathcote parallels some of these historic themes to modern day. She will also touch on topics for future research, lessons learned, and reflections on the project post-graduate school.

Ari Heathcote spent most of her life in San Jose and a great deal of her off time in Santa Cruz, either on the beach, or hiking in the state parks. She considers her two loves to be the ocean and the forest, and there is no better place to experience both than in Santa Cruz. Heathcote received her M.A. from San Jose State, in 2019. She started off as a lab intern at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2014, and has since worked for multiple cultural resource management firms, Ohlone Family Consulting Services, the US Forest Service, the National Parks Service, and, currently, the Bureau of Land Management. In her present role, Heathcote is part of a team of two Field Archaeologists for the Bureau of Land Management Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office that manages 1.7 million acres of public land.