Hidden for more than a century by tall timber in Rogers Pass, a work camp from 1885 has been discovered by Parks Canada staff. “It was discovered last summer (2009),” said Alan Polster, the resource management specialist for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, as he led a small group of people to the site. One of those people — John Woods, retired chief naturalist for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks — peers into the opening of what might be either an intact stone oven or a cold-storage unit at the site of the camp. David F. Rooney photo
By David F. Rooney
Hidden for more than a century by tall timber in Rogers Pass, a work camp from 1885 has been discovered by Parks Canada staff.
“It was discovered last summer (2009),” said Alan Polster, the resource management specialist for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, as he led a small group of people to the site.
He said a worker tossing newly cut brush off an old railway bed noticed a pile of rocks that looked out of place. They turned out to be the remains of a stone oven. Subsequent investigation by Polster and Parks Canada Archaeologist Peter Francis found more stone ovens, used to bake bread, a water system wand what are believed to be mess areas, tent sites and root cellars dug into the ground.
On Wednesday (July 21) Polster led Karen Tierney, superintendent of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, retired chief naturalist John Woods and two members of the Revelstoke news media to site of the work camp, which was briefly surveyed after its discovery last summer by Parks Canada Archaeologist Peter Francis.
For Woods, who has not only studied wildlife in Glacier since his arrival in Revelstoke in 1975 but written extensively about avalanches in the pass, this is a hugely significant find.
“This is very important because we know so little about camp life,” he said.
The entire camp stretches for about 300 metres along both sides of a rail bed that was abandoned after 1886. Polster said it could have accommodated several hundred men in the 1884-1886 period. The camp has not been completely surveyed and some features, such as a suspected blacksmith shop and the midden, or garbage dump for the camp, have not yet been located. Rusty food cans, broken bottles and miscellaneous pieces of metal litter the site. However, they appear to have been left behind in some haste. Most refuse, which could prove to a valuable archaeological resource, was likely discarded in dump, or midden. Excavating that could provide researchers with information about what the workers ate and drank as well as, potentially, the kind of tools they used, what they read or what they did to pass the time.
What surprised Polster the most is the fact that he has so far been unable to find any reference to the camp in documents and maps about the CPR’s push through Rogers Pass.
Further study may lead to discovery of a name for the camp. Many camps were named after particular surveyors or other important officials who were in charge of them.
As to its future, that remains up in the air. Tierney said Parks Canada has a number of options, including both excavating portions of the camp and leaving it alone. But, for now, she regards its discovery as fortuitous.
“This is the 125th anniversary of the completion of the CPR and the 100th anniversary of the 1910 avalanche (which occurred not that far away from the camp site) so it actually adds important information to the our national narrative,” she said.
Parks Canada will be formally commemorating the 1910 avalanche with the opening of a Memory Garden on Aug. 15 near the site of the snow slide that claimed 58 lives on March 4, 1910.
Here is a selection of photos, including some of similar work camps in the 1880s, for your appreciation:
Parks Canada Archaeologist Peter Francis examines a stone over shortly after the 1885 work camp was discovered in 2009. Photo courtesy of Parks CanadaThis is what a CPR work camp would have looked like in 1885. Glenbow Museum photo courtesy of Parks CanadaHere’s a closer view of a trackside camp looked like in the late 19th century. McCord Museum photo courtesy of Parks CanadaHere’s a view of a late 19th century snow shed like some of those CPR workers built through Rogers Pass. Note the absence of trees. Photo courtesy of Parks CanadaRetired Parks Canada biologist John Woods and Karen Tierney, superintendent of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, peer at what was once the back wall of a snowshed built in 1885 by the CPR. David F. Rooney photoMount Revelstoke and Glacier Superintendent Karen Tierney (left) listens as Alan Polster, the two parks’ resource management specialist, explains how the snowshed, for which the structure behind them was a back wall, was built. David F. Rooney photoThey withstood the elements for more than a century, but the back walls of a number of the 125-year-old snowsheds near the site of a newly discovered work camp are gradually falling apart. David F. Rooney photoParks Superintendent Karen Tierney examines a large washer she found inside the back wall of one of the ancient snowsheds she passed on the way to an untouched 1885 work camp in Rogers Pass. David F. Rooney photoParks’ Cultural Resources Manager Alan Polster points out a century-old stone oven that was the first clue to the existence of an untouched railway work camp from 1885. Can YOU spot the oven he is pointing at? David F. Rooney photoHere’s a closer view of the oven. David F. Rooney photoKaren Tierney inspects the remains of the oven, which was located near what Polster thinks might have been a mess tent for the camp. David F. Rooney photoPolster, Woods and Tierney examine the remains of the stone oven, one of several that have been discovered at the 1885 work cap site. David F. Rooney photoPolster points at some of the debris — in this case, rusting food cans — left on-site by the CPR workers when they finally abandoned this camp. David F. Rooney photoJohn Woods peers into the maw of what might be either a stone oven or a cold-storage unit — a late 19th century refrigerator, if you will. David F. Rooney photoNo one stuck their hands deep inside the 19th century oven/refrigerator. Good thing, too, or they might have suffered from a case of arachnophobia. David F. Rooney photoIn the 125 years since the CPR camp was build, many trees have successfully established themselves, like these aspens. David F. Rooney photoAlan Polster points out a ditch that was dug, over more than 100 metres along the side of the mountain to supply workers with potable water. David F. Rooney photoWhile the camp itself has not — until now — been discovered, other elements of the national 19th century railway construction effort have been encountered by the kind of person who thinks there’s nothing wrong with carving his or her initials into obviously very old artifacts. David F. Rooney photo
