21 July 2010

What Can the Discovery of an Old Railway Camp Tell us About our History?

Alan Polster examines a stone oven found at the scene.

Glacier National Park British Columbia - John Woods' eyes lit up. His curious mind could be seen at work as he gazed at the remnants of an old stone oven.
 
"I knew there were camps all along the railway but I didn't know the details," said the retired Parks Canada naturalist and Rogers Pass Historian. "This shows the depth of the story here."
 
The oven was part of an old railway camp that was uncovered only last summer by a team of contractors clearing out the path over the old railway line. The site was revealed to the media by Parks Canada Wednesday morning, though its exact location must remain secret lest relic hunters come and clean the place out.
 
For Woods the discovery helps provide a human story to that of the railway, which he said is largely seen as one of engineering. Little is known about the workers because the only proper journals were kept by engineers.
 
"Could this tell us about camp life," Woods wondered as he witnessed the site for the first time. "I was thinking about camping out here. You would probably discover so many things because you'd put yourself in their situation."
 
Alan Polster, the manager of cultural resources for Mt. Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, was with the group of contractors who were clearing out the vegetation over the old railway line when the site was discovered.
 
He had pushed right through the bush, tunnelling through the trees that had pushed up over the years. One of the contractors tossed some branches over the side into the forest when he noticed something odd in the forest, the remains of an old stone oven.
 
Since then, Polster and two archaeologists have been exploring the site. They've uncovered evidence of an old railway camp that stretched for several hundred metres along the old railway line through Glacier National Park. Its exact size is not yet known.
 
"The reason I think it was really big is, it was the last really safe place before you started to get into the really big slide paths," Polster said.
 
There is evidence of at least three stone ovens, many old tent sites, and a 250-metre-long water line. Old glass bottles, tin cans, and various tools are scattered about, and more is being found all the time.
 
"There's so much here in this site area that hasn't been previously recorded. It's amazing," said Polster.
 
Added Woods:  "This is the biggest concentration of this sort of thing I've ever seen."
 
While on a tour of the site, Karen Tierney, the parks superintendent, spotted another oven that had gone unnoticed by Polster in all his exploring.
 
"We keep finding more stuff," said Polster. "We still haven't fully explored it. We still haven't documented it."
 
Polster estimates, based on the number of ovens, that several hundred people lived on the site and it may have been used to cook for other camps along the line.
 
Near one of the ovens there are signs of a large, flattened, area that was likely an old mess tent.
 
Amazingly, there's no record of the site existing or at least none that Woods and Polster know of.
 
"I have a copy of the original map and it's not on there," Polster said.
 
The site likely dates back to 1884 or 1885 when railway manager James Ross and his team of engineers and labourers were forging the Canadian Pacific Railway through Rogers Pass. More research has to be done before an exact date can be placed on the camp.
 
Exploration of the area has really only just begun and it will probably take several more years before it is fully mapped and documented.
 
In the meantime, it remains to be decided what will be done with the new discovery:  how will it be preserved and how will the discoveries be presented to the public?
 
For Tierney, this discovery will help enhance telling the story of the area, a story that tells a key component of Canadian history.
 
Alex Cooper.