Capilano University Archaeology Field School 2010

Day 33: Last Day of the Field School

2010-06-25T10:35:00.001-07:00

Today, Friday, the crazy class (pictured below) had their last round table meeting discussing the end results of the individual projects. They also handed in their field notebooks, a self evaluation, a peer evaluation, their final exam, and their reports.

Here's a quick update!

Nadia:
Nadia successfully found information on almost 20 different artifacts through contacting manufacturers, diagnostics, and research.
The main artifact to point out was the colgate toothpaste tube. Colgate gave us an updated date range for the manufacturing period of 1908 - 1920. It was actually one of the first toothpastes ever produced in a tube.
Also, the updated date range for the orange crush bottle is from 1923 to 1940.

Sonya:
Sonya documented just over 150 artifacts this year in her beautifully bound catalog. She included all of the diagnostic details, including measurements, photos, and the location where they were found.

Max:
Max collected data on the rock chair, which was composed of 19 pieces of granite cut stone. He was not asked to interpret the structure, but to compile data and sketches.

Sean:
Sean went through each level bag found this year, looking for misfiled artifacts, and unnoticed context. Although he mostly went through mounds of glass or metal shards, he did find three artifacts: 3 boot clasps, a broken brown bottle that was able to be reconstructed, and a can opening key.

Suzannah:
Suzannah excavated the Hillside Cabin, aka Moss Vegas. Within the area a stove damper (perhaps from around 1917 - 1950 when it was manufactured) was found, along with a door hinge, and a McClary lid. According to Carl Sparks, who visited us on June 7th, it could have been a stove or garbage can because McClary manufactured both. There was also the large rock formation which perhaps was used to level the cabin. The cabin seems to have fallen east, downhill, because that is where we found more large rocks and a large amount of window glass.

Simon:
Simon was to find the total minimum number of bottles in the McKenzie Creek site. Recently he had adopted an additional project with Spencer which included attempting to find more diagnostics on the tin cans through different methods (some more triumphant than others). They have been successful with the can project, and have decided to work on it over the summer together with Andrea on their own time.

Brittany:
Brittany went over all previously collected artifacts (not including this years), to compile and correct any information, with the main objective being the creation of consistency in the description of artifacts for the whole region. Physically there were 884 artifacts in the field school's collection, but over 2000 have been recorded.

Bora:
Bora surveyed the northern part of the western hillside, and produced a map which documented the features and artifacts that he found (including a piece of a shell).

Paul:
Paul was to research into the wooden planks near the Japanese bathhouse. He mostly collected data. He found 3 different kinds/sizes of nails, grouped in 3 different areas, and he speculated as to why that was. He also found several bent nails bent to 90 degree angles, which caused him to think: when the loggers nailed into a board and accidentally caused the nail to bend slightly, they got frustrated and ended up just hammering the nail to be parallel (90 degrees) with the object.
Overall, the planks didn't have the same structure as the nearby road, and they were so unusually close to the bathhouse, with no artifacts found nearby indicated that it was a cabin.
It is a possibility that perhaps it was one giant feature with the bathhouse, but the Japanese hadn't built anything like that in the past so it seems unlikely.
The Burnaby Heritage/Village Museum has a reconstructed Japanese bathhouse from the 1920's that we compared ours to, which helps suggest that one giant feature is also unusual.
Another possibility is a theory of Spencer's, where he suggests that the feature was a mess hall with a canvas cover, which would explain the planks and the lack of roof.

Anja:
Anja studied 2 depressions, with a third added to her plate later on. For the third depression, found inside were a strange collection of artifacts: buttons, a metal handle, and ceramics, and found 4 or 5 metal files. Anja looked into the shape and size of the files, which were classified as machine files used for scroll or ban saws that create curves in metal or wood.

Rikki:
Rikki did the soil samples for the "Japanese Garden" and the "Japanese Rockery". She created a huge quantity of micrographs, and collected raw data which was beneficial for making bar-graphs. The graphs helped her come to a three conclusions:
1-The Japanese Garden probably wasn't a garden according to her evidence, and there are no concrete evidence suggesting what it was.
2-The Japanese Rockery appears to have been used for a garden, based on the amount of shell and bone found (they are used to increase the pH of the soil).
3-Charcoal was found at every level she did tests on, in every area including the controls.
4-Rikki's pollen analysis/comparison was unsuccessful, because she found no pollen in her samples to compare to her control.

Andrea:
Andrea made a portfolio containing clear and detailed photographs of several artifacts, and had lots of fun figuring out different ways to capture different kinds of materials. For example, glass bottles were great items to photograph with a black background.

Verena:
Verena made fantastic illustrations of 14 artifacts, which were all included in the final report. The detail required for the drawings turned out to be more time consuming than expected. Verena also helped draw maps for the final report, and they looked amazing!

Andy:
Andy had prepared, compiled, and organized the final report under direction from Bob, which is now available through Bob (and you can leave a message on this blog, or email Bob if you are interested in a copy). The report is extremely informative and concise.

Near the end of the day Rikki presented Bob with a beautiful bowl (pictured below) that she made in her pottery class, which documents the names of the students in the class, Bob's name, and the year of the field school. Bob will include it in the Archaeology display in Capilano University! (Good job Rikki! Bob got misty eyed!)

By the way, a few of the field schoolers ended up successfully convincing Bob to go to the pub with them for a beer. Success! Pictured below is proof!

Thank you everyone for making the field school so much fun! The Seymour Valley Archaeology Project has now come to an end, and this is my last blog entry. I am fortunate that I had the opportunity to participate in this fantastic program, and that I had so much fun (rain, hail, or shine) working with a very extroverted, eclectic, and cheesy group of people.

Have a fantastic summer!

xoxox
-Jessica Clayton

Day 32: Final Exam, Final Field Day

2010-06-24T23:07:00.001-07:00

*Sniff*

Yes, it's true. Today, Thursday, was the last day in the field, and the day that the final exam was written. Tomorrow is the last official day of the field school, which will take place in the lab.

Here's what happened with the final exam!

The students were split up into four different groups, and each group was given an assigned site which was, as discussed before, the area that the student uses to fill out the British Columbian Archaeological Site Inventory form (sections 1 - 5, and 7) *downloadable here*.

After the groups find their sites together, it was up to each individual student to collect their data, and complete their form (which includes, among other things, determining map references, describing the location, and drawing a map to scale.)

The groups & assignments were as follows:

Suzannah, Sean, Max, Nadia: The Hastings/Sparks Site. The feature to be described is the concrete feature that Bob had shown us on the first day in the field. The boundaries and access needed to be described too.

Brittany, Bora, Rikki, Anja, and Verena: The water tunnel and collapsed bridge feature need to be described, in addition to access and boundaries. (Pictured below are Rikki, Verena, and Anja scuttling off to their site.)

Paul, Sonya, Simon, Jessi: The Hastings Seymour Camp. The feature to be described was the rock/brick/concrete conglomerate on the slope of the site. The boundaries and access needed to be described as well.

Here is a photo of my group around our "rock/brick/concrete conglomerate", taking our individual measurements of the feature.

In our site, we also saw this water tank (pictured below).

For the part of the inventory form describing the access to the site, and the direction that the feature faced, (also for the map when documenting the direction that other features are related to each other) we got to use our handy dandy compasses (see below).

After getting all of the required information, the exams could be completed at home, or at the school depending on the student's desire. They are due tomorrow at 9:30 am, which is when the last day starts.

Perhaps the archaeologists will celebrate an exciting, educational, and fun field school, that went by far too quickly, with a beer at the pub with the best Bob ever!

Over and out until tomorrow!

Day 31: Picture Day!

2010-06-23T09:44:00.001-07:00

Hurray!

The lab was attacked with much vigor, and now it is sparkly and organized! The inventory is accounted for, the display case for the field school as been set up, and the artifacts have been put away in to nicely labeled boxes into the anthropology lab. You can just feel Rikki's energy in the picture below!

For the rest of the day, the students continued to do some exam preparation, or report writing until our dear Ken Barbour came to take a class photo for us. Hopefully the photo will be a success, but we won't find out until he gives us our copy later on.

Below is a picture of the gang, taken by Bob, that turned out pretty well! Sadly, Sonya and Andy were unable to make it today, so temporary replacements were hand crafted by the other students. Andy and Sonya were with us in spirit and paper.

Tomorrow is the big final exam day, worth 25% of the final grade. Since the students have been given lots of time to prepare, the overall expectations of the exam results are very positive. Now the only real worry is the forecasted rain on Thursday, and having to part with our group and instructor on Friday...

I promised myself I wouldn't cry...

To cheer you up (but mostly myself), here are some more happy photos from today!

Verena & Anja:

Max, Simon, Bora, and Sean:

See you tomorrow with an update on how the final exam was administered, perceived, and tackled!

Day 30: So Clean!

2010-06-22T10:09:00.001-07:00

Happy Tuesday!
Paul (pictured below), what was it that the field schoolers did today in the lab?
"We got to make it So Clean!"

Yes, today the students continued the objective of having the lab nice and sparkling by Wednesday afternoon.

Suzannah (pictured below) and myself worked on creating an inventory list of all the archaeology supplies in the lab, with some help from Verena, Paul, and Sean along the way.

Sonya continued working on her project by collecting and providing diagnostics for her supreme list of artifacts found this year.

Sean and Paul in the picture below were making boxes for Sonya and Brittany to use, but they were the handy men in the lab today. The women needed boxes to put artifacts in for storage.

Simon and Spencer continued their science experiments of can cleaning. This sign was found on the lab table.

Later on in the day Ken Barbour stopped on by to take some group photos, where Suzannah, Paul, Sean, Simon, Anja, Andrea, and myself participated. It will be interesting to see how the photos turned out, considering how cheesy that group is! He'll be back tomorrow morning to take a class photo as well.

Finally, I will leave you to ponder an event that occured this morning. Brittany found a cake (pictured below) that at the time only had once piece missing. It was in an empty room in another building on the Capilano University campus, and it had a sign on it saying "help yourself". Naturally she brought it to the continuously hungry archaeologists.

How long does it take poison to kick in?

See you tomorrow, if we live!

Day 29: Optional Monday Lab

2010-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hey-o! Today Andrea, Simon, and Spencer were working in the lab this Monday, since it was optional.

Andrea was working away on her report.

And Simon was attacking cans with Spencer again, like mad scientists!

Below is a photo showing a before and after photo of a can that the dynamic duo had been working on. The progress that Simon and Spencer had made is very impressive! The structural integrity of the can even increased once the rust had been removed.

Tomorrow the field school will collect in the lab and if they aren't working on their projects, there are some other projects that need to be completed this Wednesday. Below are photos of the assignments on the board. Most of it revolves around organizing artifacts and the equipment, and putting things into storage.

After Simon, Andrea, and Spencer were done working away for the day, they came down to see my (Jessica's) convocation/graduation ceremony! (Thanks guys!) I am shamelessly including a photo for my family to see!

SPLASH: BC Family Fishing Day and Watershed Tours Kick-Off

2010-06-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

SPLASH: BC Family Fishing Day and Watershed Tours Kick-Off was today at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

Each year there are usually a few thousand visitors who visit the several exhibits, including our archaeology display, the Water-Wise exhibit, the Seymour Salmonid Society, the Freshwater Fisheries of BC, the North Shore Bear Aware, Orphaned Wildlife, etc. Of course, there were also the watershed bus tours, and a barbecue.

From the field school, Verena, Spencer, Andrea, Brittany, and Bora helped out. Spencer, Andrea, and Brittany are picture below at the booth with the artifacts that Bob chose on Friday.

Our dear Anja (pictured below) was there in costume as 'Salty the Seagull', representing another group. Cute!

So far, the event was a hit!

Just a quick reminder: There is no field school on Monday, but we will be back and ready for action again on Tuesday! See you then.

Day 28: Optional Laboratory Extravaganza

2010-06-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

Suzannah, Anja, Bora, Nadia, Paul, Simon, and Spencer flooded the lab on Friday with an electic assortment of music, while they worked away on their projects & project reports, or prepared for the final exam with help from Bob.

Spencer and Simon were using various tin can cleaning & restoring techniques, including one electrolysis experiment to remove rust. In the picture below they are using a car battery charger to send electricity to a tin can, which then causes the rust to transfer to the steel trowel. The process appears to be working. As Bob said, "They could hardly CAN-tain their enthusiasm." Zing!

When Bob wasn't helping the students, he was preparing for a public event that will be held on Sunday (Father's Day) at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, by packing a few large containers of artifacts, pamphlets, posters, among other things. Below is a picture of a few artifacts that will be used.

And just for fun, pictured below are some fossils that were not found in the field. Bob had recently received these fossil casts, and is very excited about them!

One other thing that happened in the lab, was a surprise visit from our dear Ken Barbour. Ken visited us on June 3rd and works for the Capilano Communications and Marketing department. He will be using a photo that he took on his day in the field with us in the 'Capilano University View Book'. We will be getting another visit on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Happy Father's day!

Day 27: Tool Making & Fencing! Together at Last?

2010-06-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

The students continued on their merry way today, in the lab. The crazy gang was very "hands on" this afternoon...

No one was in the field except for Suzannah and Max (dramatically pictured below), who trekked off to find, among other things, more parts to the vinyl record found on Tuesday. Success! But, they came back at the end of the day in a bit of an awkward state. They had forgotten to take their tools with them, so they made their own! Suzannah is holding her hand made trowel, and Max is holding another portion of the record he uncovered. These two also dealt with a cornucopia of boulders, that Suzannah says "we successfully moved with only the aid of our minds, the tools we made from rocks, and shear strength." Underneath these bountiful boulders, they had found:
- a twisted metal container, with orange paint on it
- a thin metal handle
- a glass jar bottom
- a section of a broken ceramic plate
- more cardboard (found near the record, making us think it was the case for it)
- and lots of bottle caps with diagnostics on them!

Former field schooler Christie Leung had joined us in the lab today, to help work on projects. Thanks Christie!

Speaking of former field schoolers... Spencer taught us a very valuable lesson today (during the lunch break), on how to solve an argument with an archaeologist... Sure, most archaeologists would agree that you would just buy your colleague a beer, but Spencer declared that it is through fencing! Pictured below is one of the matches he had with Simon.

The groupies (pictured below), watching from inside the lab, were caught red-handed as they swooned over the undefeated champion.

An update on what Rikki (pictured below) was doing in the lab for her project is her soil samples.

Last week she was able to separate the moss and junk from the soil, and this week she continues to go through her checklist for materials found in her controls, in order to compare them to the Japanese rockery and garden. If there is a large difference between the controls and McKenzie Creek sites, then this might help us determine what the rockery was used for, and if a garden was previously in the area.

Her work station is set up in a very impressive way! Rikki brought her microscope from home, and the handy dandy machine of science actually has a camera that you can hook up to the microscope lens, and then into the computer. This way Rikki is able to provide Bob with detailed photos of soil, which proves if there were objects like shells or seeds present in it.

Our sweet Nadia (pictured below) spent the day researching the orange crush glass bottle we found. When she find out more information, I'll be sure to share it with you on the blog!

The saucy Verena (below) continued her magnificently thorough drawings.

Here is her sketch of a metal top to a Japanese beer or sake bottle, compared to the original. Impressive!

And naturally, the darling Andrea continued taking her photos of the artifacts.

Continuing yesterdays story, here is an update from Sean, Brittany, and Sonja's adventure. They had gone into the field yesterday to do some surveying, in an area that Bob had never checked out before. They think that a homeless person, or some campers, had been in the area within the last 10 years because they found a relatively new pot & pan near a recent cooking fire. They had also found some newer pieces of wood with nails embedded into them along a very steep slope off of the trail they were surveying along, as well as some wooden features that looked like they were used for stairs.

Today went by very quickly, but since tomorrow is another optional lab day students do have the option to work at home or in the lab on their projects.

On Monday there is no class scheduled, but the school will be running again on Tuesday the 22nd. Have a great weekend (don't forget that it is Fathers day on Sunday), and see you next week!

Day 26: Maps, Records, and Buttons! Oh My!

2010-06-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

The field school was split up into two groups again today, except the lab kids from yesterday were in the field, and the fieldlings were in the lab.

Sean, Brittany, and Sonya were out in the field surveying a bike trail that was never surveyed by Bob before. The bike trails often seem to go through trails that had already been formed, so it is possible that the bike trail that this group was going through had once been used for access to the cabin. Tomorrow we will hopefully have an update of what, if anything, they found in the area.

Most of the other students were in the lab, where two very exciting things happened. First, we received an exiting package in the mail from Steve Carter on behalf of Carhartt! Carhartt manufactured work gear and garments (eg: overalls) and the people who used the products were often in the logging, railroad, mining, and agriculture industries. The package contained lots of goodies, including the work bibs/handkerchiefs that Nadia, Anja, Paul, and Suzannah are modeling for us in the picture below.

On Day 11 of the field school we had found a Carhartt button (click here for the picture of our button), and Andrea was doing research and ended up emailing Steve for some information, and boy did he help narrow down a time period for us. This particular style of button had a patent on it in 1913, and was used until 1932 for bibs! Below are pictures of the two kinds of buttons that he had sent us.

We did not find the heart shaped button (pictured below) on the site, however, now we have an untarnished version to compare to if we do find one. This button was used for jackets and coats from 1900 until 1930.

Steve also included the Carhartt Universal Account Book for Farmers booklet (pictured below). The booklet was interesting to go through because it included some information on the history of Carhartts, and the promise from the President to his customers to continue to provide quality products. Thanks Steve for all of your help!

The second exciting thing to have happen today revolved around the vinyl record that Max had found yesterday. Our dear Suzannah contacted her father (Roy) who works in the music industry and is very keen on solving mysteries such as ours: Who manufactured the record? What kind of music was on it? When was it produced?

Roy told us that in order for us to find out this information we must have the "record number" and the "matrix number", which are usually found on the deadwax of the record (the rim). We looked at the deadwax and found the record number embossed in it, however we could not find the matrix number.

By using the record number we had found, Roy found a matching album that had the same record number. It was on a DECCA label by the artist "Roman GOSZ and his Orchestra"! Side A had the "Brokenheart Polka" on it, and Side B had "Autumn Rose Laenver" on it, and it was recorded in 1939. We cannot confirm that this is the exact same record, without the matrix number, however this is very very intriguing and fantastic news because of the possible lead Roy provided.

Suzannah will be heading back with Max tomorrow to the area where he found the record, hopefully to find the missing pieces and therefore more diagnostic information.

There were other things going on in the lab today too. Bora (pictured below) was given the task of gluing broken bottles together. It was a very frustrating puzzle, but Bora is very good at it!

Spencer (pictured below) worked with his handy assistant Simon today (the second picture below) on the acid baths used to scrub away all of that pesky rust. It was just as successful as yesterday, and we are very happy that this method of Spencer's works! He was given the idea to use the gentle citric acid bath from a bunch of beer can collectors who work with cans that are closer to pristine than our cans.

Finally, most everyone else worked on their projects, like Anja (pictured below), or Verena who continued her detailed drawings, and Andrea who worked on her fantastic photographs.

If the students weren't working on the projects, or helping others, they were working on filling out their Archaeological Site Inventory Form for the Martin/McKay site assignment from Monday, or on Tuesdays assignment of drawing maps. (Pictured below is Max checking out his map)

A quick sketch of "the point" site where team Super-fantastic worked yesterday is pictured below. They did the sketch because they wanted to get a good idea of where the objects were located in relation to others, before drawing it to scale.

Thursday will be another day in the lab! More to come!

Day 25: Exam Map Prep Take Two!

2010-06-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today the two teams carried on a variation of their tasks from yesterday. Team Awesome surveyed and mapped the west side of Fisherman's trail, while Team Super-fantastic surveyed and mapped the area south of "the point".

Team Super-fantastic adventured into the rain forest (pictured below), continuing in the strategic formation used to find any archaeological features. It was a bit tough maneuvering through the plant life and shrubs, but Paul came to the rescue. Can you see the trees attempting to consume him in the picture below?

One of the goals of surveying south of the point was to document the locations of some of the cabins in the area, along with a large concrete pillar that was originally used for a pulley system to transport materials across they Seymour River. Max found it early in the morning!

Max was a champion today. He found window glass (pictured below), which indicates the location of a cabin in the area.

Max also uncovered an old record (see below), with a portion of the label or case! A record! That's just crazy! It was hidden under a tree stump, and originally he had overturned a very small portion of the record, and then saw that there was more of the "strange material" underneath its pine needle bed. Even though the record was not an archaeological feature, it is still useful to document because if the record has any diagnostic properties, we might be able to designate a time to the site.

Near the area with the window glass, record, and pillar, there was also a very large metal pipe running into the water. It may have been used to bring water to a cabin. There was also a similar sized pipe about 30 meters from this area.

Two very large well-shaped depressions were also found (right next to each other, and near two large piles of bricks). Paul (pictured below) was able to show us that the hole was quite deep. It would be interesting to survey this small area in the future, because of the high concentration of artifacts and features found.

Two beds (pictured below)were also found today: one was north of the point, and the other was south of the point. The metal framework and the springs were clustered together nicely, but the bed must have been very small.

Both teams (pictured below) enjoyed a pleasant lunch together in the sun.

During this whole adventure, Spencer (Tin Can Guy) was in the lab with Sonya, Sean, Brittany, and Andrea.

Spencer did some citric acid cleaning today with a few tobacco style tin boxes. The acid bath has had a few effects on the cans! The first is that once the rust has been removed, diagnostic information (previously unseen) on the labels became available. The second is that the absence of the rust seems to restore the metals pliability.

A great example that Spencer provided is the tobacco tin previously seen on Day 12's blog post. Spencer put this tin through one round of citric acid cleaning, and the difference (compared to here) is amazing! The colours are much more vibrant, and has made reading the label much easier with the improved clarity. Spencer is hoping that more will be visible after this can's second soaking tomorrow.

Tomorrow the students in the field will swap roles with those in the lab so that everyone gets a chance to have some fresh air. See you then!

Day 24: Surveying & Test Run

2010-06-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Another glorious morning welcomed the field students into the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Today the students were split into 2 groups of seven (one student was unable to come in today), and were given instructions to perform some surveying, and then to practice filling out the Site Inventory Form.

Pictured below are Nadia, Verena, and Simon

Pictured below are Brittany, Paul, and Max

Team Awesome: Verena, Nadia, Simon, Suzannah, Sean, Rikki, and Bora.
Team Super-fantastic (pictured below): Andy, Max, Anja, Paul, Brittany, Sonya, and Jessica/myself (not pictured).

Today team super-fantastic was instructed to go to "the point" (an area with picnic tables, on the Seymour River), and "comb the forest" which meant walking in formation, a certain distance apart, looking for features. The objective was to find a concrete pond that was somewhere inbetween "the point" and "Fowlers" where there is an archway (pictured below) and several posts.

Oh look! The pond was found! In the picture below, Anja is standing in the pond, and you can see it's concrete perimeter.

And below you can see Max, Andy, Brittany and Paul excitedly pointing at a very heavy portion of the perimeter, within the pond! Good job!

Instead of bringing a tape measure, students were encouraged to find out the length of their pace, and then use their pace and meter conversion rates for documenting the location of sites and distances. The student would walk a 30 meter distance three times, and take the average length of their pace. This proved handy for the second task of the day.

For task # 2, the students from each group were directed towards the Martin/McKay site and were supposed to document the area. In other words, they were to pace to the well in the area (pictured below), which was used as the focal point for the maps that were to be drawn for the Archaeological Inventory Form. The students then were to designate the perimeters of the area, by pacing in each direction (north, south, east, west) looking for features, and when no more features were found, that would be the border for the map.

The rest of the form could be filled out from home, if the student desired to do it there. After last Thursdays class, the student is expected to know how to find out the elevation, location, access, latitude & longitude, etc. for this site.

Tomorrow Sonya, Sean, Andrea, and Brittany will be in the lab, working away in the nice dry room, while the rest of the gang will be getting more exercise in as they to continue surveying and mapping. More updates tomorrow!

Day 23: Optional Lab

2010-06-14T18:14:00.001-07:00

There are lots of students dedicated to their projects. On Friday, the optional lab day, Bora and Paul (pictured below) worked very hard cleaning the very mucky field equipment.

Andrea, Anja, Rikki, and Verena also participated in lab related activities! Go team! After being in this program, people become committed to their assignments, and the overall school objectives!

Day 22: We Be Jammin'

2010-06-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today the field schoolians were in the lab, and went over how to fill out the British Columbia Archaeological Site Inventory Form in preperation for the exam in two weeks. A quick reminder: the exam requires each individual to go to a site designated by Bob, and then collect information on the site, and the student will be marked on the accuracy and completeness of their Archaeological Site Inventory Form. We went over what quality of work the student is to provide, how to draw maps, how to describe the location and access to the location, and how to find field coordinates. The first trial run will be on Monday.

After discussing the exam, and and after having the round-table status updates, people started working on their projects.

Verena (pictured below) continued working on her project of illustrations. She is to provide 15 - 25 high quality to scale drawings. Her drawings are so good, and amazingly accurate! (She uses a caliper, and a magnifying glass as her assistants.)

Here's an example (and keep in mind that my photo of the artifact is horrid), of her drawing of the inside of a lighter.

Here is my horrid photo of the same object. Her drawings are clear and pristine, which makes it perfect to document any minute details.

This sketch is of the chimney damper that Andy had found in the hillside cabin on June 1st 2010. For a picture of Andy holding it, click here.

Here is another image! Verena was able to do this drawing in about an hour, and she had spent the rest of the time (4 hours) working on the following image which details the bottom of the bottle.

Simon continued working on his "minimum bottle" project and completed his quest through this years artifact inventory, and will soon go through the level bags and all the bottles previously recorded. Simon played music for us today, which is why we be jammin'. The lab had a relaxed but productive atmosphere today.

The report master, Andy, was able to start putting together some information. His job is to assemble, format, and proofread all of the documentation that Bob hands to him.

Nadia continued her research, and she had some news for us with Colgate. The toothpaste bottle found in a previous school year has official dates of production: they are between 1857 and 1928. This is different from information collected on the tube in the past, because a former student had thought that it started production in 1928, which was one of the many reasons that Bob had thought that Japanese continued to live in the logging camp after the 1920's.

The lid says "Colgate & Co. New York".

Photo of the front:

Photo of the back:

Andrea also did some research on the Vaseline bottle that she found in her unit on Wednesday. Preliminary research shows that this particular bottle design was produced between 1925 & 1933. This information really helps support Bob's hypothesis! Andrea is still waiting to hear back from Vaseline to confirm her research.

Close up!

Andrea also found out that Vaseline, discovered by Robert Chesebrough, had merged with Ponds in 1955, and were renamed "Chesebrough-Ponds", which was purchased by Unilever in 1987. Speaking of Ponds jars... below is a photo of the several found on site!

Just for fun, here is a picture of Bob (with Brittany) hunting around for the missing hose-head which was needed to wash off the field equipment.

The lab day tomorrow is optional, so over and out until Monday when the class will be in the field surveying!

Day 21: Backfilling!

2010-06-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

The students were split up today! Some worked in the rainy field, and others worked in the lab. Yes, the fieldlings managed to erase almost every trace of the school's presence, which means they did an excellent job and worked very hard.

Andrea and Nadia continued to excavate throughout the entire day, with Simon and Max who were elected to be their sifting slaves, because they kept finding funky things like a vasaline jar with a lid, bottles, a leather boot, and cans. The tree that the ladies were excavating around seemed to contain a never ending supply of artifacts around the roots on the east side. Around 100, in addition to the items that were put in level bags (non-diagnostic metal, glass, leather, etc.). Bob was wondering why this could be, and thinks it is a possibility that the tree grew where a cabin wall had been, with the west side of the tree being on the outside of the cabin, and the east side being the inside of the cabin. Pictured below are the super excited Nadia and Andrea, next to the seemingly skeptical Paul.

The other fieldlings (Paul, Simon, Anja, Verena, Andy, and Bora) after backfilling, adventured off into every direction to remove the flagging tape from the artifacts and features near the McKenzie Creek site. Bora is pictured below, replacing a rock in it's unit.

Paul, Andy, and Anja took down the shelters and did most of the loading of the truck with equipment and supplies. Bob (pictured below) needed to make two trips to return all of the impedimenta back to the University.

It sounds to me like these hard workers might have to have a beer at the pub down the street on Friday, to marvel at the accomplishments of this week.

In the lab today were Sonya, Paul, Brittany, Rikki, Spencer, and myself.

Sonya (pictured below, and in a bit of a shock) kept up the good work of organizing all of the artifacts! She had to go through each form filled out, make sure that the information provided was accurate and consistent (eg: with measurements, descriptions, etc.), enter it onto her computer, tag the artifacts, and then put them in the case behind her until a more permanent location can be found.

Spencer (below) came to the lab today to help out Sonya and Brittany, and to look in the archives to satisfy his curiosity over several items found.

One of the items that he was looking into (pictured below) is a handle for a stove lid, and it has a very nice floral pattern around it.

Spencer saw that this handle resembles the one found in the 1917 Woodward Department Store Ltd. catalog (seen below), in the bottom left of the picture.

Brittany (below) focused on her project today too. She continues to go through the archives of the artifacts found in previous years, to amend any false information, and to provide as many facts where details are missing.

Rikki's interesting soil samples continue. She took soil samples from the Japanese rockery, the Japanese garden, and a few control areas last week and this week.

Today she worked on filtering the soil using a 4mm sifter, and a 0.8mm sifter, to rid herself of that pesky moss and other bits.

Afterward she inspected the soil for materials, such as shells which would be used to raise the pH of the gardens, using her microscope. Rikki thinks that if shell pieces are found in her control samples, then this might have a few explanations: perhaps the entire section from the rockery to the garden was indeed used as a garden (instead of just those two areas), or perhaps there was no garden at all.

See below for a microscopic photo! It looks like some shell bits are found in there...

Today Sean continued attacking his plethora of level bags (click here for last weeks explanation) with help from yours truly (me). Pictured below are some of the level bags which are now organized only by unit (and no longer by depth below surface in addition to unit).

Sean took those bags and separated different materials. After separating materials, he would then separate those materials into classes.
For example, in the picture below is all of the metal found in a particular unit's level bags. The metal was separated into nails, wire, can bases, can sides, and metal bits. The metal bits were further separated into sizes of >3cm, >2cm, and >1cm.

Sean then fills out a sheet for each unit, which requires him to weigh and count each of these materials. Eg: All aqua glass shards collected would be weighed, and then all clear glass shards, and so on. When he is finished he will have a classy document which shows how much, and what came from, certain excavation units to provide some context behind any artifacts also found in the same area.

Go team! Tomorrow will be a lab day for the entire class to clean equipment, work on projects, research artifacts, and learn about surveying and recording techniques for the exam. See you then!

Day 20: Final Excavation Date (but the school will go on!)

2010-06-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful! And it was the last excavation day so the students were motivated, and in a hurry to get their units finished off while they could. People have become very attached to their units, or as Bob would say "become one with their unit". That essentially means that the hard working excavator can't even be teared away for lunch.

Sonya, Verena, and Andrea finished unearthing a tree in the process (as seen below) in their individual units. Don't worry about the tree though, since everything that was removed will be backfilled (filled back in) tomorrow. These ladies did a wonderful job exposing and getting under the roots (where artifacts are often found).

Bora (pictured below in his unit) also continued on with his excavating, and just when he thought the unit was sterile he uncovered a vent piece for a stove, which was quite a surprise.

Anja and Paul have also finished up their excavating of the wooden boards. In the picture below you can see how well they exposed the boards. In this same area they found two large pieces to a metal pipe (2nd picture below)!

Max has finished up everything to do with his project on the mystery chair (pictured below), and the small fire pit (2nd picture below), that was placed overlooking a ravine. He was concerned with the dimensions, drawings, and photographs of the chair.

The Hillside cabin (Moss Vegas) had many adventures in it today. First, the south unit's excavation was completed yesterday, so today the north unit was tackled by Suzannah, Andy, Sean, Jessi (myself), Spencer, and later to be joined by Simon and Max. After not finding anything other than nails and metal bits, and because of the rush to finish the area off, we started excavating to the east of the cabin where the original window glass had been found. Boy, did it pay off! Spencer, under the direction of Suzannah, had found MORE window glass! (See the picture below).

I was also very excited, because next to Spencer I found my first official artifact (that wasn't a piece of a can), which was a hinge and a hinge-joint for a door! It was made up of very heavy and thick layered metal.

Some things that also kept showing up were nails that were frequently bent to have 90 degree angles (pictured below). Bob postulates that the nails were hammered into an object, accidentally bent, and instead of removing the nail and inserting a straight one, the carpenter would just hit it until it was flat (making the angle).

(Below is a picture of the hillside cabin looking west, with Anja, Bob, Suzannah and Sean.)

One of the other things that the field school participants did was practice using bear spray with the proper safety techniques outlined by Bob on the first day of class, in addition to a refresher today in the field. The bear spray that we used had already expired, and Bob thought it would be handy for the students to get some hands-on lessons, should an emergency arise where it is necessary to use. There have been bears spotted near the excavation area. There are a few interesting things about the spray that are almost unexpected. First, the spray shoots out in a cone formation and then dissipates, and is pretty much only useful if the bear is directly in front of you. It isn't recommended to use it against the wind, because it is very powerful against the senses, as well as when it shoots out of the can because it is under very high pressure. Sean is using it in the picture below.

Yes, today a lot was accomplished with almost everyone completing their tasks as scheduled. Tomorrow the students will either be in the lab working on their projects, or in the field breaking camp (as mentioned earlier). Next week the students will be going through excavation withdrawals, but don't worry! The field school will continue on until the 25th of June, with lots of survey work in the field, and more lab work. I'll keep you posted!

Day 19: More Delightful Visitors!

2010-06-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Fresh sprinkles welcomed the tough field school students, who fear no rain, this shiny morning. As nature welcomed the field school, the field school welcomed two very important visitors. The first being the archaeologist, Alvaro Higueras! Alvaro, pictured below in the orange jacket, checked out the site and observed the students while they worked away.

The second visitor to the field school was Mr. Carl Sparks (pictured below) who was, very interestingly, a former resident within the Lower Seymour Valley! We wanted to know about the past of the valley, and Carl was our ticket in! Carl lived near our site from 1928 until 1938, and his father was the caretaker of the watershed.

Bob showed Carl our excavation site, and then Carl showed Bob one of his former (and overgrown) residences in the reserve. Although Carl remembers people discussing the Japanese logging camps when he was a boy, he wasn't aware of the McKenzie creek site when lived in the area. Carl has so far introduced Bob to two additional residences of his in the past, and today was the third (so, 3 in total). Pictured below are two photos of Carl: he is holding a photo of his house, taken in the exact same spot over 80 years ago! Today the only remnant of the whole area is one of the large posts from the archway, which is now leaning over among some trees.

All of this excitement is barely bearable, but wait... there's more! Pictured below is a fully intact, super-cool, mini dark-blue bottle that Andrea found today!

Tomorrow we will continue the entertainment!

Day 18: Lab Rats

2010-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ah Friday, the last day of the week. The students were in the lab, not feeling like rats, but more like something has been accomplished and studious, after doing a review of this week, and after discussing the status of the individual projects.

We also went over surveying techniques and how to properly fill out inventory forms so that everyone's work remains consistent. One of the topics that came up, that will be hammered out this weekend, is that there are two names floating around for ball and yoke bottle stoppers composed of metal and ceramic. We have a laminated poster from the URS Corporation Archaeology Laboratory (pictured below), and they call the stoppers either a "lightening stopper" or a "lighting stopper", so Verena will be looking into what the more uniform term is.

Bob brought up something of interest that might help explain to students why some metal wire was found on site. Often loggers would use a bottle, with wire attached to it, and hang it up in the tree they are working on (the bottle is pictured below). The bottle would have been filled with oil, and used as a lubricant while sawing.

Something that will be looked into next week, by Rikki, is the bone pieces found near the ofuro and the garden (which are next to each other). Originally it was thought that these bone fragments were used to increase the pH of the garden area, but now an alternate theory has been brought forward. Calcium deposits are made if bones burned in a fire (that is hot enough), leaving behind white, small fragments, that are very hard. The bone particles could have been evidence that the inhabitants of the logging camp were burning their food garbage under the ofuro, which would help fuel the fire under the ofuro (the japanese bathhouse), and prevent the attraction of animals to the site. Another interesting thing is that these bone pieces could be an indication of diet.

Next week the students will be finishing up the excavation, because it is the possible last week to do so. The camp will start to be broken down on Wednesday (taking down the tents, removing flagging tape, cleaning screens & other objects for storage), as well as starting to backfill the excavation units. Thursday and Friday will be held in the lab, with the possibility of students preparing for the final exam.

The final exam sounds really fun! Essentially, students must complete an archaeology site inventory form, which is a form that archaeologists produce when they find a site and register it with the provincial government. The form requires information that includes a scale drawing on a map that includes certain features, the precise access to site, the latitude and longitude, the altitude (through reading contour lines), and a description of what was found.

Bob has mentioned that students learn a lot when they work together, so his rough plan is to get the students to do a practice exam in about 3 to 4 groups, and then in the final week they will be broken into different and smaller groups again. They will go to a specific area, and pretend they are the first people to access this site. If the small groups have consistent facts and ovservations, then it is more accurate, because more things are collectively noticed. Then, on the last day, the actual exam is done individually. It sounds like a fun challenge!

Well, that was it for this week. Monday will be spent in the field! Have a great weekend.

Day 17: We Can See Clearly, Now the Rain is Gone

2010-06-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, the rain that was predicted never came, and instead the field school participants were met with glorous beams of light that broke through the forest ceiling.

It was interesting though, because the dried up creeks became active with life! Bob saw the streams and informed us that he had never seen them flow with water before. Finally the man made bridge has a purpose!

Because of the added warmth, sifting was easier for everyone which allowed the day to be more productive. In the photo below you can see the main dig site in the eastern part of the camp. Please note all the roots that have been exposed, and the amount of sediments removed from the excavation units. It is amazing, that after going below 20 centimeters below the surface, artifacts are still being found in units (some of these units were even thought to have been sterile last week). The ability of the forest floor to absorb, move, break down, and warp artifacts is a complex and amazing process that deserves more attention than a mere mentioning in this blog (but alas, I am unable to do so). Please compare the picture below to May 19ths photo here to see the difference that one week and almost one hundred artifacts can make (even though the two photos were taken at different angles).

All of the sediment that was screened will have to go back into the site, once all of the units have been declared sterile. This process is called "backfilling", and is a task likely to be designated next week to some hearty volunteers.

You can also make a fun comparison of the Hillside Cabin area's progress. Below is a picture taken today, of the east view, and here is a picture from June 1st's blog entry. More planks have been exposed, and several metal nails and metal bits have been found, even underneath the ever persistent tree roots.

Speaking of the Hillside Cabin (Viva Moss Vegas!), Suzannah was able to find out more about the lid, discovered in that area, that I declared in yesterdays blog as a trash can top. She was able to make out more writing on the lid (pictured below), by finding more pieces of it while screening. Now we have reason to believe that the lid says "McCLARY'S", which is probably the "McClary Manufacturing Company" that makes wood stoves, and it is referenced in a fun little article here. McClary's later joined forces with 5 other companies to become "General Steel Wares Limited". Suzannah also found a piece belonging to the lid that had the number 3 written on it, which McClary's put on some of their products. So the lid, probably isn't a garbage can lid after all.

Okay! Yes, the Hillside Cabin has been my focus this week, but look: we had another visitor today! Ken Barbour from Capilano University's Communications and Marketing department stopped by for a couple of hours to visit the site.

Barbour was very interested in what we were doing. He got the ol' grand tour while he took photos for the school, and he also got to meet our darling Sebastian (pictured below), who was an adorable, but injured, rabbit.

The funniest thing that happened on site today was probably Max's afternoon assignment. Bob was saying that when the Metro Vancouver had introduced him to the site seven years ago, they had found it because someone had been going around collecting artifacts, and placing them on top of these large tree stumps. The tree stumps are often hollow on the inside, so Max's job was go around on top of these stumps with a 5 foot pole to see if any artifacts had fallen inside the decaying hollow centre (pictured below). Even though the artifacts would have been taken out of context, the people who were hunting for them probably only hid the ones of value, so it is still ideal to find them and document them.

The other digging areas were also well underway. Paul, helped by Simon, excavated under the wooden beams (picture below), and Rikki was back in the field today (instead of the lab), while she performed her control samples (to compare with the other samples from the garden sites).

Ah yes, the sunny day in the field will be followed by the Lab Day, which is taking place tomorrow. In the lab we will be going over everyones accomplishments from this week, including any interesting facts and artifacts found, in addition to status updates on the individual projects. We will also have the pleasure of another visit from Ken! Until tomorrow!

Day 16: Cabin Fever

2010-06-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

Another adventurous time unfolded today at the hillside cabin (aka Moss Vegas). Together Suzannah, Andy, and myself continued excavating the southern unit with enthusiasm, and music. As of yet, there has been no sign of cabin fever. How could there, with so many events unfolding?

The most exciting thing to mention was that Suzannah's metal basin, discussed in yesterdays blog, was indeed confirmed to have been a trash can lid! (Pictured below with it's handle)

The text on found on the lid, "McG" or "McC", can be read and will hopefully prove to be useful in identifying the manufacturer and the year of production.

This afternoon I excavated the southern border of the southern unit to uncover many roots, while Andy and Suzannah dug around the eastern border. The eastern border, where the garbage lid was found, is where a rock feature was uncovered (pictured below). The best theory we have, for the existence of the rock feature, is that it was used to support the cabin because it would have been easier and faster to create, than to level out a solid foundation. Just on the surface of the feature, these two metal sheets with rimmed edges were found. (pictured below). We are not yet sure what these are for.

Two other artifacts that Suzannah uncovered were a piece of glass that seems to have been warped, possibly by a fire in the area, as well as a very straight and young looking nail.

Throughout the southern unit, two types of nails have been uncovered: thick nails about 3.5 inches long, and thin nails about 2.5 inches long. A theory behind the various sizes of nails is that the smaller nails would have been used for the roof of the cabin, and the larger nails were used for the foundation of the cabin. We also have found several clumps of metal shards in the eastern part of the site... could it be that the cabin had a metal roof?

What happens in Moss Vegas, doesn't stay in Moss Vegas, and the level bags filled with nails and metal shards, as well as the artifacts were carted off to the laboratory to be seen once again on Friday.

There was also damp and misty weather today, making "sifting in the rain" a bit of a challenge, but Nadia, Andrea, and Anja managed to do so just fine!

The rest of the archaeologists were keeping busy and out of trouble working in the lab, or excavating on the east side of the McKenzie Creek site. Pictured below are Paul, Simon, Max, and Bora washing their hands away in the collected pools of water in our tent before lunch.

Tomorrow the class meets once again to continue the dig, and possibly a visitor from Capilano University. See you tomorrow!

Day 15: The Chronicles of the Hillside Cabin

2010-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today this blog will chronicle the adventures of the Hillside Cabin at the McKenzie Creek site. Suzannah, who's project is to excavate the Hillside Cabin and produce a detailed report, directed Andy and myself (Jessi) to do her bidding. Ah, the life of an underling.

The hillside cabin is on the west side of the field school excavation site and is, as you might have guessed, on a hill. Before we started our work at the cabin site, Bob Muckle showed us something of interest. (See picture below).

A few years ago Muckle had some students excavate in a small area downhill to the cabin. The weather was sprinkling today, and Muckle is an avid believer that the best excavation finds are often in the rain, because shiny objects are more noticeable, things seem to be washed off, or brought up to the surface somehow. In this old excavation area he spotted a Ponds jar, some glass, and a piece of a brown jug. Perhaps these artifacts found their way down the hill from the cabin. In the picture below, Muckle & Co. are standing to the right of the old excavation area.

There was something strange about the old excavation site though... there was a cedar tree that was cut down, and for some reason the people who chopped down the tree never moved it. In the picture below, the horizontal log has the blunt end where it was chopped, on the right.

After Muckle showed us this, we went up to the cabin with a few goals to complete today. The first thing we did was bring all of the needed supplies up to the cabin area! We took over a tree stump that is now lovingly referred to as "the locker" (pictured below).

We then proceeded to document the artifacts previously found on the surface in the area. E.g., Various sizes of nails, and a bottle stopper (which I am pointing at below).

The other major artifact that had to be documented was the three large shards of window glass found just downhill from the cabin next to a creek. In the picture below Suzannah is pointing to the glass.
A close up:

The next job to be completed was the setting up of the excavation units over the cabin frame. I left this task up to the official excavation unit setter-uppers. Suzannah and Andy ended up forming two units over the the cabin: the south unit, and the north unit.

As these two were working away, I adventured around the area to document the site so Suzannah would have photos to refer to, for her project, before we started digging. In the picture below, Suzannah is standing in the cabin, and the red flagging tape near the ferns in the photo is where the window glass, and some nails were discovered.

Below is a picture of the Cabin's East view.

West view:
North View:

South View:

Muckle directed the three of us to start excavating the south unit, because this is were he had found stove parts in the past, and there are probably more hiding in the same area. Of course, within the first half hour of excavating the surface level Andy found a stove piece! Naturally, my camera battery died, but Bob was kind enough to take some photos. Pictured below is the circular piece, which had a lot of diagnostic information on it: text! On the back it says "reversible", and on the front it says "Stover Mfg Eng Co. Freeport Illinois". Here is a link to a short Wikipedia article on them here.

Suzannah found what appears to be a metal basin, or perhaps even a garbage can lid, also on the surface level of the south unit. The artifact is very shallow, but with a large diameter. See the picture below!

Overall, a great success! We haven't even started the first level yet, and already two major artifacts were uncovered. The adventure continues tomorrow.

Day 14: Bottle Breakdown

2010-05-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Lab Day! The weekend is over, and the gang collected today in the laboratory which was really nice. Not that it matters, but it was raining so some people were pretty happy about staying inside. (Pretty please, don't tell Bob I said that!)

Today people worked on their projects in the warm classroom, and for those who can only do their work in the field, they assisted the others.

Nadia had some help with her researching of artifacts, which is going pretty well! (See her smiling below)

Tin Can Guy also had some help -- picking up glass pieces from the fluted/tapered catsup glass bottle he knocked over, ever so gracefully, this morning (see picture below for a frustrated face). Thankfully, after the bottle breakdown, Nadia was able to use her keen memory to help her find information on the bottle based on its diagnostics. Nadia found the site, linked to above, that provides an excellent and accurate sketch of the "catsup bottle" (on the right) that is identical to the one uncovered by the fieldschool. Because the bottle was documented in the 1922 bottle catalogue, but we don't when it began or ceased production yet.

Buttons (aka Sean) has the very important and seemingly tedious task, if it weren't for all the awesome people helping him, of organizing all the level bags. The level bags contain all of the items found that are not considered to be artifacts, but are still good for collecting information to document the context of the dig site, for example: glass shards, tin can bits, seeds, etc. Sean sorts the bags into two categories (in the future there will be more): surface level, and sub-surface level. He then opens the bags, cleans the objects, double checks for any artifacts that could have been level bagged in error, separates any relevant pieces (eg: tin can lids for minimum number of tin cans found on site), and finally he will separate all of the dried off pieces into categories (eg: leather bits, glass shards, metal shards, etc.). Seans helpers are photographed below! (Suzannah, Max, Verena, and Bora)

Anja's project is to create a report on the two depressions found at our McKenzie Creek site. In the past other students had excavated and produced a project for the "depression near the ofuro", but the physical copies have gone missing. So, instead of giving up, Anja has gone to the handy dandy students field notebooks!

Some of the legendary Muckle Field Notebook Laws are to create detailed daily entries that contain information such as:
-the unit coordinates where you are excavating
-the depth below surface
-sketches of artifacts found
-description of the survey method used
and very importantly, especially in Anja's case, any artifacts found (and their artifact numbers)

Anja will figure out, through the fieldnotes, what artifacts were collected near the depressions by the students who created the lost report, along with any other significant details. The second depression is the "outhouse depression", and there was never a project assigned on it in the past, but the area was excavated, so Anja went to the two students field notebooks who dug in that area to see what other information can be gathered. Essentially, Anja is trying to create an itemized list of artifacts from these two areas. (Anja, pictured below was too blurry in my other photo of her, so I am posting this one!)

The day zoomed by again, and we will be back in the field until Friday. Until tomorrow!

Day 13: The Adventure Continues

2010-05-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a very different kind of day! Firstly, it was sunny all day without a droplet of rain. Secondly, it all started off with a visit from BroadBand Network Three's (BBN3) Sarah Berman. Sarah (pictured below in the blurry photo) is a video journalist from BBN3's Vancouver sector, and she spent the day at our McKenzie Creek camp videoing, interviewing, and getting the classic tour and background information of the excavation site and the program. The video is not yet on the website, but we hope that it will be soon! This program seems to be getting a lot of good feedback and reviews from our visitors, which is very heartening.

As Sarah was working with Bob, the students almost fell back into their routine. Most of the excavation units, after numerous artifacts being documented, are now sterile. Andy and Suzannah, the now professional excavation unit setter-uppers, fell back into their roles and set up more units immediatly to the west of the sterile units. Some of these new units were already assigned by the end of the morning, which is good because time is flying by and we must catch up to it! Suzannah and Andy also set up some units near Paul's wooden plank area so that he can start excavating in an orderly fashion (see below).

Paul spent the day working on his project too. He had decided to measure the length and width of the boards near the ofuro in order to compare it to the wooden planks that make up the road a few meters nearby. Paul is doing this in order to rule out the possibility that his potential structure is not just a pile of logs meant for the road. The picture below is of some of the planks from the road that Paul has measured.

While the rest of us were excavating, our dear Sonya worked in the lab today with former field school student Christie Leung (a laboratory star) who volunteered to help out (see picture below). Sonya worked on her project in the lab by completing paperwork and itemizing artifacts. Her project is to compile all of the information on artifacts found from the submitted artifact forms.

Another exciting event seems to be the distribution of nicknames. Sean is now referred to as "Buttons", due to his uncanny ability to find bottles. Just kidding, he is a magnet for buttons. Suzannah, according to me, is now "Goomba", and Andy has been dubbed "Mr. Clean", for his bizarre ability to stay clean no matter the weather, and his ability to wear white shoes in the mud, for the last three weeks, without getting so much as a speck of dirt on them. In the picture below you can see (from left to right) Mr. Clean, Buttons, Verena, the back of Simon, the side of Andrea, and Tin Can Guy.

After the work was done, the gang went home, and then some went to... Karaoke Night! All organized by Buttons (Sean), who is always singing away to songs that he alters to be archaeologically related, while we work. Yes, the students are bonding, and what better way to do so than by singing horribly, and loudly to classic tunes such as "It's Not Unusual"? The social aspect of this field school is another fabulous reason to sign up for the program. Below are Goomba, Buttons, and Paul.

This week is now complete because Friday's laboratory session has been canceled, and will instead be held on Monday, so we will see you then!

Over and out!

Day 12: Can You Dig It?

2010-05-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

This morning was dewy fresh with a hint of sunlight to brighten up the darkest greens, and the soil was moist making it easy to collect for those students still excavating. Sonya, Andrea, Sean, Verena, and Spencer continued on with the digging, finding, and documenting, later to be joined again by Rikki after she finished collecting her soil samples for the day. In this hearty group, Sonya dug until the soil in her unit was sterile (Ie: no more artifacts to be found in it) before she could move on to another unit. Andrea continued to make some interesting recoveries including two batteries (one of which said "Mazda" on it), and a cigarette box with a label on it (seen below).

During lunch the field school was once again greeted by smiling visitors! Lucky! (See the paparazzi picture below). Our distinguished guests included instructors and graduates from Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. Dr. Doug Ross lectures at UBC, and SFU. Two of our visitoris, Rich Hutchings and Marina La Salle, are working on their Ph.D's at UBC. Ian Sellers, Jon Sheppard, and Craig Rust also joined us and they are graduate students in Archaeology at SFU.

After lunch Andy, Bora, Suzannah, and Brittany ventured off into the west slope once again (pictured below).

Bora was continuing his surveying, and his assistant was Brittany. Today on the hillside embedded in round and new-ish logs Bora and Brittay found two nails that looked young relative to the ones on the hillside cabin. Suzannah and Andy left their cabin area in order to help Bora and Brittany for a few moments to use the trusty (and not rusty) metal detector to see if there were any other nails in the immediate area, but none were found. Suzzanah is the metal detecting maniac (pictured below).

Another strange thing in the area where the nails were found is the short tree stump found in the picture below, with the board notch cut into it. These sorts of notches were typically cut in large tree stumps about 6 feet high, in order to make the cutting of the tree easier for loggers. This group of four were left wondering why such a small stump would have a notch cut into it when this particular tree could have easily been cut without one. If it wasn't a board notch, what was it for?

Simon and Max were taking a day off from Max's project of investigating the mystery chair, and instead were focusing on Simon's project of determining the minimum number of bottles found on the McKenzie Creek site. Simon says that the minimum number of bottles is determined by counting the bottle necks. Since there are so many glass fragments found throughout the site, counting the unique neck shape should make it easier. These two are pictured below (but they wouldn't do a funny pose).

Perhaps you will find this interesting: The picture below is of the warped glass piece that Paul found near his wooden planks. What could have misshaped this glass so much? Fire? Lightening?

After today, it seems as if more questions were asked in the field school than were answered. Some might find this frustrating, but not these students! This troop is encouraged to learn through questioning :)

Day 11: Good Weather, Good Fun, Good Finds

2010-05-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

After not having school yesterday, because of the Victoria Day May long weekend, the field school troop was eager, excited, and pumped up to start again today!

The weather? It was in their favour.
The uncovered artifacts? There were almost too many. (Keyword: "almost", there can never be too many.)
The pleasure of visitors? Naturally.
Nature? Three deer, one squirrel, and the typical number of crazy robins (who always seem to cross the street with the worst timing).
Time? Too fast!

The visitors that the school had today were the lovely Kaylen Riedlinger, and her brother Jeff Riedlinger. Kaylen is from the 2009 field school alumnus (and therefore went to Capilano University) and a shining star in the laboratory, who has so kindly offered to help out a little bit again this year. Jeff also went to Capilano University, and is currently the bass guitarist for the band Sam Bradley. Kaylen and Jeff came for a tour this afternoon, lead by Bob, which was perfect because the light sprinkle of rain had at that point become a distant memory.

Now, you are probably thinking "What on Earth is Jessica talking about? What artifacts were uncovered?" Well, dear reader, yes, we did hit the jackpot last week in almost every excavation unit, but most specifically Bora and Paul's plot. Today the school, once again, had the pleasure of Tin Can Guy's (aka Spencer Kitson. See last Thursday's entry.) presence, and he took over excavating the jackpot unit whilst Bora and Paul worked on their individual projects.

Tin Can Guy found some pretty important artifacts. The first was a can with a paper label attached! This paper label seems to be significant, as Spencer had said that it was the first can found to have one attached in the Seymour Valley. The can (pictured below) is thought to have contained dehydrated milk, and it has French and English writing on it that will hopefully be beneficial for diagnostic purposes.
Front of Can:

Back of Can:

The second was a coverall/overall button (pictured below) found in an old tobacco container. The writing on the button says "Carhartts Overalls & Gloves" with an indent of a heart and what appears to be a picture of a train. Hopefully the name of the company will provide some clue as to how old this artifact is. *EDIT: Special thanks to Tad McIlwraith for finding the wikipedia site on Carhartts! Yes, what I had originally misread as "Carsartts" was falsified upon further inspection of the photos with the handy zoom option.*

The third discovery of Tin Can Guy's that will be mentioned is a fully intact sealed bottle (pictured below), that appears to have been warped, and contains a mystery liquid. When the bottle was lightly jiggled there were many small bubbles that made it seem as if it were carbonated. Carbonation is very unlikely, and it probably just contains muddy rain water that seeped in.

Aside from Spencer's adventures, there were other artifacts found today. Nadia found 3.87 bottles (this blog is counting the bottle fragments as .87). See the picture below! The clear bottle that Nadia found has very odd markings that are presumed to have indicated the liquid level in the bottle. She also found a can-opening piece: the key. Verena, after working around so many deeply rooted roots, found pieces to what Bob thinks is a medicine bottle.

Can Opener Piece:

As all of these lovely forest-mates are uncovering things left, right and centre, yours truly discovered a family of deer investigating the area near the dig site. Perhaps some of you folks from far away would like a picture, so check out the one below of the mother and her fawn.

Other activities that happened today included Simon and Max adventuring off to investigate the mystery chair. Bora did some hillside surveying with Sean who found some window glass, while Suzannah and Andy examined the hillside cabin. Anja worked hard looking into the mystery depression, and then assisted Paul with the uncovering of his mystery wooden plank structure (pictured below).

Rikki worked on collecting her soil samples in the potential garden plot (see picture below).

Brittaney, Nadia, Andrea, Verena, Sonya, and Spencer worked mainly at the excavation area from last week. I also excavated in my unit, in between running around documenting artifacts, filling out paper work, hunting deer, and getting the inside story of what everyone else was up to. (Shamelessly, I have included a picture of myself while running from the tent to my unit! I found a can!)

Today went by so fast, and many of the students had mentioned, when it was time to leave, that they felt as if they had just arrived. What a fantastic day!

Day 10: Lab it Up!

2010-05-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! Today, the studious students spent the two hours in the lab, as if they were children given a shiny loonie to spend in a candy store. Everything was gobbled up quickly, and with smiles.

Today we discussed various topics: the individual projects, history of the excavation site, artifacts found throughout the week, what we are trying to accomplish this year, and next weeks schedule. (See a picture below of some of the artifacts found in previous years.)

Here is a quick little list of who is doing what for the individual projects:
Verena - Detailed illustrations to scale of key artifacts. She will be submitting a portfolio of her line drawings.
Andrea - Photography of key artifacts, and some photos of excavation sites. She will be submitting a disk of clear, crisp, and detail oriented photographs.
Sean - Level bags analysis. He will be sorting, weighing, and counting the submitted finds in the level bags, as he takes over the lab.
Nadia - She will be providing a detailed analysis on any artifacts that Bob gives her, focusing on dates of artifacts. This involves researching companies, company histories, designs, patents and the estimated ages of artifacts found.
Suzannah - Focussing on excavating the cabin on the hillside, and nearby areas, and providing detailed drawings, and photos of different angles.
Paul - Research into wooden features found on site, specifically planks by the bathhouse to see if there was a structure there. He will be submitting photos and illustrations to scale, and in overall relation to the nearby ofuro (the Japanese bathhouse).
Anja - Researching one of the two depressions, but she shows more interest with the curious depression near the ofuro (opposed to the depression that was thought to have been an outhouse that contained perfectly preserved bottles in it).
Max - He will be researching the mystery chair, fire pit and foot stool with less focus on the age of the chair, but more on the measurements, line drawings, and photos that he will be submitting.
Andy - He is in charge of the overall report preparation.
Rikki - Submitting a report on soil samples, after researching what was done in the area before. For example, the area thought to have been a garden. This involves Rikki doing soil samples from a few areas, near the gardens/rockery, and producing comparison samples to the rest of the area. She will also be seeing what seeds and pollen the plant life indigenous to the area produce for comparison to the previously collected seeds and pollen found in garden area.
Simon - His priority is to figure out the minimum # of bottles found at the site, then categorize them (eg: by colour, shape, manufacturer), and identify bottles. Simon would like to work more specifically with beer bottles and hopes to find a range of dates of when they might have been produced. With this information Bob would like to do a comparison to figure out how many bottles were used for things like medicine, beer, food, creams, etc.
Brittany - She is incharge of all of the inventory, and correction of previous documented artifacts, for the last 11 years.
Bora - He will be surveying the western slope, higher up than the hillside cabin in order to look for evidence of cultural activity over the last 100 years. Bora's report will consist of a list of what he found, and where he found it.
Sonya - Her report will consist of all the info on artifacts found from the submitted artifact forms, drawings, photos, and descriptions.
Jessi - Continue to work on the blog, and submit a summary report.

These projects are all very engaging, and will all be very detailed, and Bob is the master who is organizing it all! Although everyone has a project that will require them to work on it during school hours, the majority of the class will still be excavating daily.

Before you leave this blog to enjoy your weekend, there were a few more artifacts found this week worth mentioning. First off, the lovely Nadia unearthed some fabric and a button! Also, Simon found a Pons hand cream bottle, and what is probably a Heinz bottle was also discovered. Heinz bottles are a common find on the reserve, mostly because the company was already well established in the 1800's.

Okay, over and out until Tuesday, because Monday May 24th is Victoria day, a statutory holiday for some of the Canadian provinces. Have a great weekend.

Day 9: All Hail Archaeology!

2010-05-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

All Hail Archaeology! Or, at least that was what Mother Nature thought today. After a mystical and sunny start, some time around 11:30am it started to hail on the field school students (a few times). Have no fear though, because the students were prepared and are tough! They worked through the hail, because of the dedication to learn, and the excitement of the days unearthings. (The picture below is blurry from my panic to document the excitement.)

Today was very engaging. We had another visitor, who is lovingly referred to as "Tin Can Guy" by the field-schoolers, and as Spencer Kitson by normal people. Tin Can Guy is a former student who participated in the field school of 2007, and became attached to his project on tin cans. He has subsequently turned into the go-to-guy on cans (see picture below). Spencer lent us his expertise today, when we asked him to inspect the unusually shaped cans in Paul and Bora's plot (mentioned yesterday).

The unusual cans were rectangular in shape (see picture below), and are now suspected to have contained a spam-like meat within them. This possible explanation of the contents, in addition to another very curious metal can that Spencer thinks was for beer and began production c. 1935, will hopefully help us determine or narrow-down the date of when these were deposited and how long the camp was used for. These cans are the first of their kind to have been discovered on the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, which may help strengthen Bob Muckle's hypothesis that there were Japanese inhabitants between 1920's and the 1940's Japanese internment. More research will be done to find out specific dates, contents, etc., and you will be kept posted!

A few other entertaining events occurred including documenting and the removal of all the intact glass bottles, tin cans, and boot artifacts before the long weekend. Anja was super excited with her bottle.

The students also continued to find more artifacts today, for example Rikki and Verena (pictured below) found some more pieces to a battery in their heavily rooted plot.

Yes, this was the last field day for this week, and we only have three field days next week because of the long weekend. (Brittany looks shocked at the thought, in the photo below).

Day 8: Dig, dig, dig!

2010-05-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today the field school had an unexpected twist: our first visitor! Tad McIlwraith, an instructor at Douglas College, is a cultural anthropologist with an amazing blog (check it out here). This morning he was shown around the excavation site by Bob Muckle, who also gave him some information on the program (students, projects, why we were excavating in that area, etc.). Hopefully we will continue to have such pleasant visitors! (See paparazzi picture below)

With the day being bright, sunny, and warm, the soil was ever so easy to sift through, but that could also be because the mossy surface layer was completed the day before. While screening through the sediments, many students found the basic glass pieces and what appears to be a metal pipe.

When not sifting, multiple excavation units were discovered to be holding precious artifacts. Paul and Bora's unit contained more than the 1 pair of leather boots found yesterday, but several more today, in addition to their intact glass bottles and cans. They hit the mother-load, and all within a 2 x 2 meter square! (See picture below). Also, the Suzannah and Max pair seem to have collected several parts to a battery, what might be a man-made rock formation, and a sheet of metal on their plot. What could it be?

The day went by quickly, as did the week, with only tomorrow left as the last field day (Friday's are always lab days). I am told that time flies when you are having fun, and apparently so.

Day 7: Start Digging!

2010-05-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

The rain came down today, and only on the 7th day of the program which is surprisingly late considering the Seymour Conservation Reserve is in the rain shadowed North Shore mountains. Nevertheless, the students were ready to get started.

This morning was exciting because the students got to start digging! The eight sections in the excavation grid were assigned to 7 pairs of people (except for Brittaney, the 15th student who had a unit all to herself).

The students dug in different layers, starting with the surface layer, and then going on down to the 0 - 10 cm dbd (depth below pit datum). The surface layer consisted mostly of moss, and the layer below was mostly decomposing logs, tree roots, charcoal, and some truffles. After the surface layer is collected, it is taken in buckets to be sifted through to make sure that no artifacts were missed (see picture below of Brittaney filtering away), though the moss made this challenging. This was much more easily done with the second layer. The biggest find today was by Bora and Paul, who found two leather boots in their unit, and most of the other students found small pieces of glass. This was the only assignment today, and it will be continued on tomorrow.

PS: A special thank you to the Northwest Coast Archaeology blog for mentioning our site. The NCA blog, written by Quentin Mackie, is a very interesting and in-depth. Check it out here!

Day 6: Archaeologists at Work!

2010-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

This bright and sunny Monday morning the wild herd was sectioned off into smaller groups and given several tasks to work on.

One of these tasks included surveying the land south of the camp for artifacts and unnatural terrain (like large depressions, or unusual rock formations). The method used for surveying involved the four members of one group to stand 5 meters apart, and walk in parallel lines through one particular area. They were combing the forest, and it worked! Sean might have happened upon some sort of foundation, Andrea found an aqua (as in blue, not necessarily for water) bottle completely intact, Jessica (that's me) recovered a very large unnatural depression, and Simon might have discovered a small bridge. Pictured below is an image of the depression, that seems to have a rock lined wall, and (although it is difficult to see in this particular photo) a decaying wooden beam is going across the surface along the left hand side. Curious.

Another task was handed to a crafty pair (Paul and Rikki) and their job was the fashioning of benches for the gang to all sit on during the morning and afternoon meetings. Don't they look proud?

Andy and Suzannah were in charge of setting up the first excavation units. This involved sectioning the excavation site into 2 meter quadrants, and this took place in the northern part of the site. Since a portion of this site was used in the field school a few years earlier, they had to look in areas already excavated to locate the older quadrants to keep the same grid system.

While inspecting the excavation units after surface clearing, Bob Muckle found this years first documented artifacts! Exciting! With the first object, Muckle had originally thought that it looked (from afar) like it might have been part of a bullet casing, but after going over it, he now suspects that it is the core from a small battery (pictured below). He had also uncovered a washer, and what appears to be a thin metal foil seal, possibly for a bottle (think about the top of a champagne bottle).

Later on Muckle also found something of heavy interest, using a special technique. The trees in the area of our site are all second or third growth, which essentially means that the trees came after the logging camps. Bob had pointed out to the herd that one fun way to look for hints from the past, artifacts, or (in my opinion) buried treasure, is by looking in the hole produced at the base of uprooted trees. Bob was demonstrating this, and coincidentally found a fully intact clear/transparent bottle. What are the chances of that?! (Below is a picture of the uprooted tree base.)

Well, Mr. Muckle went in for a closer look. Pictured below is the stunning artifact. A Bud Light Lime bottle, estimated to have arrived there some time between 2009 and... yesterday night!

The rest of the gaggle participated in either more surveying on the east side of the camp, or else they helped out with clearing more brush, logs, and other obstacles that might get in the way from identifying features. Oh they were working so hard! Brittany excitedly showed me one of their finds today, pictured below. It's a leather boot!

At the end of every field day, each student has to have their Field Notebook entries completed. Here is another picture of Rikki, sitting so proudly, while filling out her notebook on the custom made bench that she and Paul put together.

May 16th Public Event at Lynn Headwaters Regional Park

2010-05-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, May 16th the project had a display in the annual summer kick-off public event in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park. The display attracted hundreds of people, many who left with a better understanding of archaeology and how it contributes to a better understanding of local history.

There were several displays by various organizations at the event. The archaeology project shared display space with others interested in history under the large white awning.

Field school alumnus Kaylen Riedlinger explains the project to interested youth in the picture below.

The public had a chance to read about the project, see and touch collected artifacts, and discuss the project with the project director and student volunteers.

Day 5: First Official Lab Day

2010-05-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

Day 5 was the first official lab day for the Field School. Everyone gathers at the lab every Friday, and whenever Bob deems appropriate for projects, meetings, etc.

The main subject discussed was the individual project topics for the students, and how each student will be marked (because every topic is different, with different requirements). The projects were distributed, and each student was happy with their assignment because they were involved in the decision process.

It was interesting to hear Bob say that every field school is different in how they manage assignments, grading techniques, etc.

The first week is now completed, with six left to go. It went by really fast!

Day 4: Setting up Camp and Clearing Debris

2010-05-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

The party of 13 students started bright and early this morning at one of the main excavation sites of this summer. The job today was to build our little camp, and to clear the area of debris (large branches, logs, etc.). The other two students were working hard at a different excavation site to clear out some material from previous years to bring back to the rest of the group.

The first order of business was to erect two shelters for the precious equipment! This task turned into something of a team building exercise filled with trial and error.

Following the successful completion of the tents, the students split into different groups to accomplish their next mission. One group worked on building a stairway for easy entry to our tents. (They are cheesily posing below in front of their masterpiece).

The next two groups worked on clearing a very large area of its refuse in order to get a better look at the land.

Next week, the land will be scoured for markings such as depressions and rock formations, in order to get a better idea of what the land was used for in the past. Below is a picture of one student who discovered a depression (which may or may not be something of significance), and look at how excited she is. Thumbs up!

The final group was at a different site, and their job was to find and clear the area where a cabin was uncovered by the field school two years ago. Originally, eight years ago, a student from the field school had found a piece of window glass, and two years ago they discovered the source! Pictured below is one person from the lucky group, standing in the foundation of the small cabin.

The first week within the excavation site is now finished, and the students will be returning on Monday to energetically take on the next task!

Day 3: Tour of the Reserve Continues

2010-05-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

The adventure continued this morning, for the field school, as the energetic students hiked around the reserve to visit three excavation sites. The dig sites were areas that had been excavated by the field school in previous years, and will be the major base of operations for this year as well.

Bob Muckle revealed and explained the hypotheses behind major landscape depressions, seemingly hidden (to the untrained eye) logging roads, and man made structures.

At the first location visited, the students were shown the best preserved wooden logging road in the park, which is thought to have been used by horses to transport logs. The log road was kept relatively level, because a road too steep would cause problems for the horses. For example, if horses were transporting a load down the wooden road that was slanted downhill, the load could come out of control, and if it was slanted uphill, the steep incline would prove to be too difficult for the horses. In order to keep the road level, the foundation would be supported by trunks (pictured below), which were often embedded with objects like nails and glass bottles.

Several saws were found at the various sites, but this particular one (pictured below) was warped and surrounded by a maple tree. After taking in the context of the surroundings, it was revealed to the students that a fire had caused the saw to become warped. This hypothesis was supported by the fact that maple trees are often the first type of trees to grow in an area after it has been burned, and throughout the area charcoal and other warped metals were found.

Broken glass bottles were a common acquisition at the sites in previous years, and many of these have been documented already.

At each logging camp a familiar discovery was a wood burning stove or oven. The one pictured below had stumped some former students of Muckle's in the past because the student who helped recover the stove had read an engraving on the side saying "To Jake". After pondering upon this curious inscription, it was realized that the "J" had incorrectly been read, and the whole etching had actually said "To Bake", commonly found on ovens.

Another strange unearthing was the picture of the battery core seen below. The core was found near the old horse stables at one of the sites.

During the lunch break, the students marveled at how beautiful the view is at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. How fortunate for them to be able to participate in this educational (and healthy) program!

Imagine being in the middle of a massive park, and stumbling upon a chair looking out over a ravine, with a foot rest and a stove to its side. Pictured below is a chair that the troop were shown today, and it was only discovered about eight years ago. Who made the chair, and when it was made is uncertain, but the creator obviously must have enjoyed the view.

Near midday Muckle showed the students a very strange hole in the ground. The hole was filled with water had no entrance, or exit, and as of yet no pipes. There were vertical boards lining the hole, and it was situated next to a small creek. Muckle postulates that the hole might have been a Japanese water supply where the water was siphoned out. The plywood seen in the photo was used for shoring (to hold up the dirt and debris), and five years ago the ladder was supplied to provide the excavating group access into and out of the the reservoir.

Several cans were also found on site, and students were left to wonder what was contained in these cans. The air holes were very small, so it is suggested that a thin liquid was contained in them. No labels or markings could be seen because of the state the cans were in. Although they look very dated, these are actually very nicely preserved.

The highlight of the day was having Bob explain to the students his golden discovery. Below Muckle is pictured with what is probably the only excavated Japanese bath house in North America. There is evidence that a shelter had been built around the bathhouse and that it was stoked by a fire from underneath. Along with the bathhouse, a ladle was found, a large metal sheet typical of bath houses, around a thousand nails, and several pieces of camera equipment. How exciting! More discoveries and fun await the Archaeology Field School tomorrow!

Day 1 and 2: Tour of the Reserve and Introduction to Course

2010-05-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

On day 2 Capilano University's Archaeology Field School of 2010 adventured for the first time this semester into the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve in the lower mainland of British Columbia. The field school is led by the instructor Bob Muckle, and consists of 15 adventurous students, who are eager to learn about archaeology in a hands-on excavation site setting.

Today the troupe visited various excavation sites from previous field school years, allowing the students to become more familiar with the land usage and history of some sections of the reserve.

Some of today’s highlights included visiting former cabin & logging sites from the early to mid 1900’s, and an old water irrigation tunnel.

More fun is bound to come tomorrow, with the investigation and familiarization of different sections of the reserve.

Day 1 was in the lab, and involved doing basic paper work, figuring out supplies, going over course objectives, introducing ourselves, meeting the instructor, and arranging plans for the next day.