During the summer of 2010, Peter Dawson , an associate professor in the Department of Archaeology, and colleagues from Parks Canada’s Nunavut Field Unit set out for the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. There they spent two weeks at historic Fort Conger, a base camp for the early polar explorers of Canada’s North. The buildings, constructed more than 100 years ago, are being affected by a range of environmental factors, and they are in real danger of being lost forever. Dawson and his team developed a project to document them as they are today, in hopes of introducing the public to this important part of Canadian history.
Q: How did you become interested in this subject?
A: Two things led to the development of the Fort Conger Project.
The first was a growing awareness that many heritage sites in the Antarctic and Arctic are currently threatened by the impacts of climate change and human activity. Melting permafrost, storm surges caused by reductions in sea ice, and the rise in ship-based adventure tourism are contributing to the deterioration of buildings and artifacts at sites associated with the “heroic age” of polar exploration. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, events like the First International Polar Year (1882-’83) and the quest for the North and South Poles brought western explorers and scientists into some of the most remote areas of the world. They left behind material traces of their activities, which are monuments to the development of polar science and exploration. As a result, many polar heritage sites have been designated as sites of national and international significance by organizations such as the Federal Heritage Review Office (Canada) and the Antarctic Heritage Trust. To see many of these important sites damaged or completely lost to future generations would be tragic.
The second was my interest in exploring how laser scanners, which are used in the construction industry and civil engineering for creating as-built drawings of bridges, industrial plants, and monuments, might be repurposed for rapidly and accurately recording polar heritage sites at risk. Of course, this posed certain challenges, as these instruments were not designed to work in remote areas like the Canadian High Arctic.
Q: Who was on your team?
A: Richard Levy, professor of planning and urban design in the Faculty of Environmental Design, geomatics engineer Chris Tucker, BSc’96, and I were joined by Parks Canada archaeologist Margaret Bertulli and historian Lyle Dick. I should mention that Chris Tucker, a former graduate of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, played a critical role in bringing his expertise in laser scanning to the project, and its success were, in large part, due to his efforts.
Q: How and why did you choose Fort Conger?
A: Fort Conger is located on northeastern Ellesmere Island in Quttinirpaaq National Park, and is a site of national and international significance. The three standing structures built by American polar explorer Robert Peary at Fort Conger in 1900 have achieved the highest level of designation made by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office as Classified Federal Heritage Buildings; the same accorded Canada’s Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Fort Conger is also one of two places in the Arctic at which the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada commemorates the First International Polar Year of 1882-’83 as a National Historic Event.
Like many polar heritage sites, Fort Conger is under threat.
Snow, ice and water accumulations within the wooden buildings are leading to soft rot caused by fungi. Part of the site is also vulnerable due to the effects of erosion. Perhaps most surprisingly, the scientific activities of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, who were at the site from 1881 to 1883, also pose significant risks to Fort Conger. Arsenic trioxide, for example, was used by expedition members to preserve natural history specimens and samples; mercury for weather recording instruments; lead from can solder; and copper and zinc from batteries. The construction of expedition buildings also involved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from tarpaper. All were left behind by these various expeditions, and have leached out of their now broken containers. The potential uptake of these elements into the terrestrial food chain and migration into the marine environment pose significant risks to nearby plants and animals.
The removal of contaminated soils at Fort Conger would irreparably damage the site, as the entire surface is covered with artifacts and building remains. So, it seemed as though laser scanning might provide a way of accurately mapping and recording the site in three dimensions, and at a high level of detail. In other words, it provides a way of digitally archiving the site so that a record of it remains, should anything ever happen to it.
Click here for the full article in Utoday.