Abstract:
Cultural resources such as buildings or landscapes degrade, disintegrate,
or disappear when the processes which created and sustained them are
interrupted or discontinued. These processes may respond to interventions
usually intended for artifacts. This hypothesis is tested by applying the Secretary
of the Interior's Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties to processes
which have created and sustained a resource of accepted cultural significance:
The Government Mineral Springs, in the Wind River and Columbia
River watersheds. The preservation principles are examined, and processes
described. Principles are then matched to appropriate processes. These applications
demonstrate that culturally significant artifacts and contexts can be protected
by using modifications of existing tools and methodologies to address
those processes which created and sustain the artifacts and contexts.