Industrial Archaeology

The research consists of documentation of a surface survey of two locations at the former Pine Point Mine property, near the former community of Pine Point, Northwest Territories. They contain mining-related structures dating from the 1920s through 1950s. The two sites investigated are the following:

1) Pine Point Base Camp (JfPo-1). Occupied 1929-1953. The site represents the former base camp of the Pine Point lead/zinc mine. It is located approximately 5 km north of Northwest Territories Highway 6 and 10 km from Pine Point Town site. The camp was constructed and first occupied in 1929-1930 by prospectors and miners with the Atlas Exploration Company, Northern Lead Zinc Company and Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company of Canada (Cominco). This was during the first major exploration endeavor to prove a mineable resource of lead and zinc. Its last documented occupation was during the 1948-1953 period by Cominco, after which operations shifted to the nearby Pine Point Mine that operated from 1965 to 1988.

The site consists of 22 structures and 20 features. Most structures are in poor condition.

2) Genx Prospector Cabin (JfPo-2). Occupied 1929. The site consists of a single log structure constructed in 1929 by the General Exploration Company (“Genx”) on the ‘Catto’ mineral claim. It is located approximately 10 km north of Northwest Territories Highway 6, approximately 14 km from Pine Point Town site, and is encompassed by the mine property.

The site consists of one structure, a log cabin, with no associated features.
Neither location was directly affected by the remediation of the Pine Point Mine property that occurred after its closure in 1988. Both sites retain many original elements from the 1920s-1950s period of occupation, although the structures are in various stages of deterioration. In general, roof and floor elements tend to be highly deteriorated, and some walls have collapsed though most retain original footprints. The locations reflect a period in NWT history when its economy was shifting beyond renewable subsistence and trade activities towards non-renewable ones. The ultimate abandonment of these sites offers an illustrative view of the boom-and-bust mineral development cycle in the Canadian North.

No mitigation measures are recommended for either site, only continued monitoring.

Landscape learning provides a model for examining how colonists in Australia came to terms with the natural world, and repositions the environment at the centre of investigations into settler activity. The successful management of water was crucial in the colonising process, and settlers developed a sharp awareness of climate, soils and topography in their manipulation of land and water resources. In learning about climatic variability they built dams, races, reservoirs and many other features to capture, store and divert water, which have left extensive archaeological traces. This paper explores the archaeological remains associated with water use on the goldfields of Victoria’s Central Highlands, and the ways in which settlers learned the possibilities and limits of natural landscapes.

In Spain, the birth of interest in the nation's industrial heritage dates from the 1980s and occurred alongside the process of deindustrialization. Policies concerning derelict industrial sites have shifted gradually from destruction to preservation, rehabilitation, and enhancement, and industrial heritage enhancement projects are now widespread in the country. However, a clear mismatching has arisen between institutional and academic initiatives and local communities, which exhibit widespread disinterest in or even rejection of industrial remains. This problematic situation can be related to the utilization of industrial heritage as an economic resource without paying much attention to its connections with memory and identity. Also, the mismatching is due to a positivist approach to industrial heritage whereby the monument and the museum are prioritized. We argue that projects which consider industrial remains as part of cultural landscapes might shorten the gap between the institutional and economic side of industrial heritage and its identity-building and popular facets.