Rachel Quist

Background

About Rachel Quist

I am the Cultural Resource Manger (CRM) and Native American Coordinator for the U.S. Army Garrison Dugway Proving Ground, in Tooele County, Utah. My primarily duty as CRM is to ensure daily regulatory compliance with all pertinent cultural resource laws and regulations while simultaneously providing mission critical support to Dugway’s chemical and biological testing and training mission. As Dugway’s CRM, I have championed a number of unique projects. I am an advocate of public history and, as such, I have initiated creative mitigation approaches for historic buildings and have created two interactive websites of nationally significant historic properties, the concept of which has been duplicated at other installations within the US Army. In an effort to support military readiness and pre-deployment training of special operations units, I negotiated parameters for allowing low-impact military training on specific NRHP eligible historic mining sites that simulate the current combat environment, a process which was featured in the Department of Defense Best Practices in Cultural Resources Management publication. In addition, I have initiated a multi-year oral history project documenting Dugway’s WWII and Cold War history. In addition to Utah's military past, I am particularly interested in geomorphology of the Bonneville Basin, Terminal Pleistocene archaeology, lithic technology, historic transportation routes of the West, and the history of Salt Lake City. When not occupied in Utah’s West Desert, I can been seen working on my very small urban homestead with my family in downtown Salt Lake City. I also enjoy researching and writing about Salt Lake’s obscure history.