Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/08/2025
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
Tuolumne County Library
Categories
Wed., October 8, 2025, at 3:00 p.m.
Tuolumne County Library, Greenley Rd., Sonora
Maybe you saw Christopher Caskey researching at the History
Research Center over the last few years? He was working on his PhD
dissertation, “Building the Wilderness: Power, Water and Recreation in the
Central Sierra Nevada Mountains.”
The dissertation explores the shared history of the Stanislaus River canyon and the Emigrant Wilderness, two preserved spaces that changed the way Americans manage the country’s wilderness.
In both places, the environmental conditions that made them popular destinations for outdoor recreation—and, in turn, made them subjects of wilderness preservation campaigns—existed thanks to human artifice and engineering.
And in both cases, that engineered infrastructure was connected to a single hydroelectric project completed shortly after the turn of the 20th century.
Christopher’s dissertation is the result of his research for a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities at UC Merced. His research took him to various archives in Central California, including the Tuolumne County Historical Society’s Collection at the History Research Center. He will highlight content from his HRC research during his presentation. You don’t want to miss this!
It is free to the public sponsored by the Tuolumne County Historical Society
