Archaeologic report adds texture to prostitution in Sandpoint's early days
This photo was presented in a book chapter about prostitution in Sandpoint.
A omplete syringe typically used for urethral injections.
Mark Warner, a University of Idaho historical archaeologist and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, makes the case that visitors to prostitutes in Sandpoint’s early days were sometimes motivated for reasons a bit more complex than just sex.
In the book “Historical Sex Work”, University of idaho archaeologist and professor Mark Warner makes the case that visitors to prostitutes in Sandpoint’s early days were sometimes motivated for reasons a bit more complex than just sex.
SANDPOINT — An archaeological study of the city's original townsite on Sand Creek is revealing that prostitutes in Sandpoint were more than consolers of the lonely.
The women of the night in the city's infancy were often consulted by men on matters involving impotency and venereal diseases, according to Mark Warner, a historical archaeologist and history professor at the University of Idaho.
The conclusions provide a more nuanced view of sex workers who made their living in the city's brothels in the 1890s, as the Northern Pacific Railroad was being stitched together.
Warner authored a 13-page chapter of a book resulting from archaeological investigations related to the U.S. Highway 95 bypass. The chapter is entitled "Brothels as Alternative Venues for Treatment of 'Private Men's Diseases.'"
Warner said the banks of Sand Creek laid bare a subject cloaked in Victorian-era discretion.
"People are messy and it’s got a body of water right there. It's an easy way to throw it out the back door," Warner said of Sand Creek's banks.
More than 100,000 objects were recovered during the archaeological dig, but 20 stood out in the collection of artifacts. They were douching devices and at least 17 of them were for irrigating rectums.
"Birth control was technically illegal after the 1870s, but douching was seen as a health practice," Warner said.
Douching as a form of birth control and in general was dictated by social strata.
"It deals with douching and who could and who couldn’t," Warner said.
Sex workers were uniquely suited to answer the worrisome inquiries of men, even if patent medicine was in its heyday. Warner said the relics of the industry were found along the creek alongside wedding bands and costume jewelry.
"It’s the trash from people’s lives there — the food remains, the jewelry that was lost, the dishes, the ceramics, the bottles full of alcohol and other patent medicines, the household cleaning products," Warner said.
Warner figures it was easier for men of the era to approach a sex worker with delicate questions than it was a physician or a church elder.
"This is a really small example, but it’s an example of the stories that are told from the things that are left in the ground that people don’t think about," Warner said.
Warner added that Sandpoint was surprisingly worldly for an off-the-beaten-path frontier town.
"One of the interesting things was how globally connected Sandpoint was," said Warner, who counted products from 36 states and a dozen different countries.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com or followed on Twitter @DailyBeeKeith.
