June 20th 2019 - The Last Day.

Today was the last day of our field school. We were all sad to part ways with each other, especially with those who are moving to new schools in the fall. Today we started off class with Bob mentioning a few things before we jumped into presentations. For starters, a writer from the North Shore News will be publishing an article on the project, which will most likely come out sometime in July. You should be able to find it on their website here, so keep an eye out for that. Bob also mentioned that he is going to continue tweeting about the project for a few weeks, as he looks through the student reports and analyzes them. You can follow him on twitter here to stay updated.

After that short introduction, students began presenting their finished projects to the class. Aza started us off with her research on the cedar plank road. For the road, she measured the width, depth, length and distance between each plank. The average distance between planks is 132.5 centimetres, and the mean length of the planks is 146.8cm. She showed us pictures from past field schools to compare the level of decomposition to this year, and also colour coded a digital rendering that shows the planks decomposition in 2019. On top of that, she created a photo journal with images of the cedar plank road, and tagged each plank with a sticker on the east side, so you can look up information on specific planks according to their number.

Colour coded digital rendering of the cedar plank road showing levels of decomposition.

Photo journal of cedar plank road.

Kirsten then showed us her maps of vegetation on the McKenzie Creek site. She split the camp into 5 zones, and create a colour coded map that showed different types of trees and plants living in those areas.

Nikki gave us an amazing slideshow of pictures from the past seven weeks, which were mostly students working in the field, as well as the guests that came to visit our site.

Nikki's slideshow.

Sepideh presented us with the amazing video about the McKenzie Creek site that she created, and I highly recommend that all of you watch it! You can see it on youtube here, and feel free to share it on all of your social media accounts. She made it easy for the general public to understand, but also added a lot of super interesting information about the McKenzie Creek site in it. If you do end up sharing it on twitter, make sure to mention @bobmuckle in the post so they can find his page and read more about the project if they're interested!

I gave quick presentation on the blog statistics which I put in yesterday's post, and I also talked very  quickly about the level bag report from 2019.

Shaunti gave a brief overview of the seven artifacts that she researched throughout the term, including the supposed glove fastener I mentioned in detail several posts ago.

Alyssa showed us the amazing sketches that she made of the ofuro, and also talked about how she excavated the southern side of it to try and identify its use. The small platform of rocks on the southern side could have possibly been a place where people cooked food, shown by evidence of many small pieces of mammal bone, but also where they could heat water for the bath that sat next to it.

Arial view of the ofuro. Drawn by Alyssa.

Siobhan talked a lot about the four major artifacts that she researched. She looked at the cans from the McKenzie Creek site and did quite extensive research on evaporated and condensed milk cans from Eaton catalogues. She also went into detail about ponds cold cream jars, mentioning we have a total of 28 in our collection which were manufactured between 1910 and 1925. Siobhan also looked into Colgate toothpaste and a stove piece from a 1917 Victoria Steel range model XG1 stove.

Rohan talked about the buttons that were found at McKenzie Creek, and counted a total of 75 artifacts that are or relate to buttons. There were 20 sew on buttons, 15 tack buttons, 28 donut buttons,  7 snap fasteners, 3 broken items that were found in level bags, and 2 unknown items. He couldn't find any evidence of gender-specific buttons in his research to show women and children living in the camp, but he did find Carhartt buttons which were using primarily in working overalls.

Phoenix studied bottles and found a minimum number of 90 alcohol/drink related bottles in our collection. These do not include medical or cosmetic jars. He mentioned that there are multiple missing level bags from 2004-2010, so there could be many more bottles within those. He calculated a minimum number by counting the bases of bottles; if a bottle base was more than 2/3 complete, he would count that as one bottle.

Mitch also showed us his sketches from the rock feature. He excavated around the entire feature, and said that is goes 60 centimetres deep almost the entire way around. We still don't know the exact use for this area, but it could possibly be the base to a shrine, or a platform for loggers to wash themselves on before going back home after a long day of work.

Fazila went over statistics about Japanese ceramics from the McKenzie Creek camp, Hastings/Seymour camp and the Suicide Creek site. The table below shows the level of completeness of ceramics found at all three sites.

Harman showed us her beautiful excel document with every artifact from the McKenzie Creek site, which totalled to 904. She also created separate spreadsheets listing items by material, and of what items are not physically present in our collection at this time.

Karoline talked about the old growth stumps on the McKenzie Creek site, and the waste audit. She said that the tallest stump on the site was 4.5 meters, and the largest circumference was 11 meters. For the waste audit, she pointed out that we had a total of 28 granola bar wrappers which was minimal compared to 2013 when they had 87 with one less student. She also said that bob drove a total of 374 kilometres to and from the site over the course of our field season. The chart below shows all of the project-related waste from the 2019 field season, not including plastic and non-plastic personal waste.

Allyah talked about the ink bottles, talc powder cap, Bauer and Black ointment, and a few stove pieces. She found that the Bauer and Black ointment tube that we have was from the Toronto branch of the Kendall Company, which only started manufacturing and sending out products in 1928. This is the best evidence that we have so far of people staying at McKenzie Creek after the logging camp had closed.

Angus gave us an overview of the many industrial items he studied such as stove pieces and twisted metal, but he also gave us a minimum number of lanterns, barrel rings and barrels on the McKenzie Creek site. He found 12 lanterns, 13 barrel rings which most likely came from 4 barrels.

Ali showed us 9 line drawings and 4 sketches that she had completed over the course of the field season.

One sketch of Alyssa, Fazila and I working at the ofuro.

All students worked very hard to complete their projects, and everyone did an amazing job. All of the projects that were done have an important role in piecing together this small Japanese residential camp hidden away in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

After our presentations were over, we gave bob a couple of gifts from the class, went outside to take a group photo, and then most students and Bob went to a restaurant close by for lunch.

Bob looking through the scrapbook that was made by Nikki, with hand written notes from all students. 

Bob looking at a mug that Shaunti got engraved with the image of a women's shawl pin found at the McKenzie Creek site on one side, and "Bob 'The Great' Muckle" on the other side. 

Group photo from top left to bottom right: Bob, Allyah, Rohan, Harman, Aza, Ali, Sepideh, Fazila, Shaunti, Nikki, Angus, Siobhan, Kirsten, Mitch, Phoenix, Alyssa, Kirsten, Meredith (Me)!

Overall, this field school was an amazing experience for all of the students who were lucky enough to be picked for it. We all put 100 percent of our energy into this project, and I'm sure it will be hard for a lot of us to stop working on it. I know for me, it will feel weird not having a blog post to write at the end of the day, but you can still stay updated on the project through Bob's twitter page. I'm sure that all field students will see each other in passing and get the chance to hang out a few more times. I hope that all of you enjoyed reading the blog, whether it was a few posts here and there, or every post from day 1, I am glad that I got the opportunity to write it. There are no plans to take this blog, or the past field school blogs that are linked on the right side of the page down any time soon, so feel free to take a look back through older posts.

Don't forget to check out this amazing video made by Sepideh about the McKenzie Creek site, and share it with all of your friends and family!

June 19th 2019 - Atlatl Party!

Today started off with a couple of students showing up in the lab and three others meeting Bob at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve parking lot.

The students who met in the parking lot were given a map showing the location of the Hastings/Seymour camp from 2010. A few years after excavations, there was a large flood and rock slide that swept right through the location of the site. Bob explained to us that the camp may not even still be there, but he wanted to try and find it using the map and his memory of the location. Unfortunately when we got to the entrance of the trail it was closed off for construction. We were very disappointed that we were not able to find the camp today, but hopefully Bob will relocate it someday in the future.  All students who were in the LSCR went back to the lab to work on projects.

In the classroom, everyone was working on something different. Most people were finishing up their reports to hand in tomorrow. I finished all of my papers yesterday so I helped a few students by proofreading their reports.

Aza finished up her report on the cedar plank road and colour coded her digital renderings. She will have over a dozen different digital maps of the cedar plank road, showing it in multiple scales. There are a total of 47 planks on the McKenzie Creek site that span a length of 82 meters.

The complete cedar plank road. Digital rendering by Aza.

In the afternoon, all of the students working in the lab joined Bob on the field behind the sportsplex at Capilano University to throw spears using an atlatl (spear thrower/ arm extender), and learned how to make tools with stone in the lab. Every student had a few chances to throw a spear with the atlatl, and most students threw it pretty far! 

Bob throwing a spear with an atlatl.

The "Atlatl" field at Capilano University. 

Rohan setting up for a throw.

Once everyone was happy with their spear throws, we went back to the lab to make tools out of obsidian with stone. Bob demonstrated how to create flakes with a piece of obsidian and a rock, and all students had the opportunity to try it.

Bob showing us how to make obsidian tools.

Students making flakes.

Sharp edge of obsidian that I removed from a larger piece.

He also showed us some examples of tools that can be made with obsidian flakes. 

Example of a knife.

Example of a tool used for scraping.

The day was filled with fun activities, and we are all sad that the field school is coming to an end tomorrow. All students will be making a short presentation on their projects, and we will be handing in our final reports. Make sure to read tomorrow's post for final updates! 

June 18th 2019 - Nikki the Photography Expert.

This morning four students came into the lab, a few others joining in the afternoon. Shaunti, Nikki, Sepideh and I all worked on our projects as the sun came out from behind the clouds.

Nikki worked on cataloguing artifacts found in the 2019 field season, and also distributed pictures to a few students of artifacts she captured in the past few weeks for their projects.

All of the artifacts found in 2019. Photo by Nikki.

Shaunti worked on writing up the report on all of the information about artifacts she has researched in the past few weeks. She is using some of Nikki's photos, including one of 'Stevens Comfort' foot warmer. Siobhan is also using some images from Nikki of ponds cold cream jars in her research report.

Stevens Comfort foot warmer. Photo by Nikki.

Ponds cold cream jars. Photo by Nikki. 

Sepideh got some images from Nikki to use in her video, while also working on sorting through level bags. Bob created a project for a few students to take one of each item from all level bags to keep in his collection, so the storage situation doesn't get out of control. Most bags contain multiples of nails, bottle glass and small metal fragments, and because they are all logged in level bag reports, there is no need to keep everything.

Angus came in this afternoon to start putting back industrial artifacts from the display case in the lab. When he was assigned his project on barrel rings and other metal artifacts, he put a bunch of them in a small display case at the back of the classroom. Because we are getting to the end of the term, him and others are beginning to clean up.

Display case of industrial artifacts.

I spent the day working on writing up a report on the blog. I looked into the statistics of the website and found it very interesting. It showed that most of the views on this blog come from within Canada, but people from other countries are also reading it. 

Working on today's blog post. 

How many views we have gotten from each country on the blog so far.

Tomorrow, some students will be going to try and find the Hastings Seymour Camp in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, and others will continue to work on their projects.

June 17th 2019 - The Start of the End.

This is the last week of the field school, which is sad for many, but also exciting because projects are being wrapped up. We are all working very hard to make sure that the reports for our individual projects are being done to the best of our abilities. Today was a mandatory class for all students, so everyone showed up to meet this morning.

Bob talked about the self and peer evaluations that students are to complete by Wednesday, so that he can get a better sense of what our grades should be for the professionalism portion of the course. Once that was covered, he got all students to give an update on their projects at our round-table discussion.

Aza told the class that she started using a software to plot the cedar planks from the road because sketching it to scale was very difficult. The software is called Rhinoceros and is used by architects. She also found that all of the planks that are buried deeper in the ground are preserved much better than the ones on the surface. Bob explained that microorganism's that lead to decay are less active in lower-oxygen environments, such as below the surface. There are also many other factors that can delay the decomposition of wood such as cold and dry environments.

A portion of the cedar plank road, mapped on a computer software by Aza.

Other students were assigned to work on sorting items in level bags, and cataloguing artifacts found in 2019. We only found a few artifacts this year, including the ointment bottle and the lid to a talc powder container. Sepideh is also working very hard to finish the animated video about the McKenzie Creek site. She is getting pictures and sketches from many people to incorporate into the video. If you want to see what projects students are working on, check the list out here if you haven't already.

Bob also talked about how he wants to take a group of students to look for the Hastings Seymour camp on Wednesday. He tried to find it on our first day, when he gave us a tour of the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, but was unsuccessful due to flooding that has occurred since he last visited it. Hopefully those students will be able to find it and tell the rest of the class about it on Thursday. 

After the morning discussion had ended, students had the choice to stay and work in the lab, or go home to work there. Students who still needed items from the lab to complete their projects stayed, and most others left to work on their projects at home. 

The day went smoothly, and everyone was happy to get the chance to see each other again after a week without a classroom meeting. Tomorrow will be an optional lab day, as most students are able to work from home, and Thursday will be our final day.