When the concession at Shelter Point reopens next month, juicy hamburgers off the grill won’t be the only fare available for visitors to sample. Included will be a new archaeological exhibit featuring one part of Texada Island’s rich cultural history.
Powell River Regional District (PRRD) is inviting members of the public to attend the re-opening of Shelter Point Park caretakers’ residence and concession from 1:30 to 3:30 pm on Sunday, August 10. A free shuttle service is being organized, so that Powell River residents will be able to go to Texada as walk-on ferry passengers.
A fire in September 2012 destroyed the building at the park that included the food concession and caretakers’ home.
Funding to rebuild the structure was approved in last year’s budget and the regional district began the process of obtaining the permits necessary to rebuild in an established archaeological site. Work began on the building earlier this year.
The new design separates the concession from the caretakers’ home to mitigate fire risk.
Mike Wall, PRRD manager of community services, explained that the regional district worked closely with Tla’amin (Sliammon) Nation and Aquilla Archaeology on the project.
In BC before any building on an archaeological site can proceed, developers must first apply for permits from the Archaeology Branch of the provincial government.
Archaeologists test to establish boundaries at the proposed site and provide project recommendations through an archaeology impact assessment, said Colleen Parsley from Aquilla.
“The first objective is to avoid [developing in archaeology sites] but if it can’t be avoided then to come up with options to minimize any potential impact,” said Parsley.
The province identified Shelter Point as an archaeological site in 1971. At that time it was estimated that the site was 50 by 20 metres, but after the impact assessment the area increased in size to 442 by 175 metres.
“When the concession burned down, representatives from Sliammon visited the site and noticed that there were exposures of archaeological deposits in quite a large area which suggested that the site was much larger than previously recorded,” said Parsley.
Over 50 per cent of the subsurface shovel tests and 40 per cent of the backhoe tests were positive for subsurface cultural material. A total of 279 stone tools, 195 remains of animals and 15 historic artifacts were collected during the study. One culturally modified tree was positively identified and two additional trees with modifications of unknown age were noted.
Parsley was able to determine that the area was likely a Tla’amin winter village. Based on long avenues with several regularly spaced depressions from longhouse floors and the overall evidence from the artifacts recovered data indirectly dates the site to at least 3,300 years ago. Radiocarbon dates from a hearth feature show activity up until at least 850 years ago and probably up until contact.
One of the most frequent artifacts found at the site were slate knives, usually associated with fish processing. What they did not find, however, was evidence of fish being processed at the village.
“We identified only two fish vertebrae over the whole site,” said Parsley.
Instead they found deer.
Evidence suggests that slate knives were being used to butcher and process deer resources. Deer bones show butchery evidence for removal of the hide and a well developed industry of bone marrow extraction, she said.
Once the site boundaries had been established, Parsley and her team looked at the regional district’s plans and developed options and recommendations for the next phase of the project.
“We tried to encourage the siting of the buildings outside the boundaries of the archaeological site to avoid the arch deposits, but it wasn’t really feasible due to the fact a lot of the existing services were sited where the previous building was,” she said.
Wall said the regional district worked closely with Aquilla to design the buildings in a way to minimize their impact on the site.
They also saw an opportunity to tell the story of the people who lived there.
The concession’s design was altered to include a glass display window to give visitors a peek into the park’s past. Interactive technology will be used with the display to allow visitors to scan a barcode (or QR code) with their mobile device and link to the 3D imagery and additional information available online. Visitors are encouraged to equip their mobile device by downloading the free QR code reader for the grand opening.
Because the site is complex and significant, Parsley also provided a three-dimensional map of the surface featuring evidence of several longhouse depressions and mounds to help the regional district manage the area in the future.
Parsley said that when working on the site many Texada residents came over and told her that they had heard first nations people never lived there.
“There was a mythology that it was a sinking island,” she said. “The evidence from this site does not support that at all. It was a convenient colonial myth.”
Before the year 1500, Tla’amin’s population is estimated to be roughly between 30,000 to 60,000, but by the mid-to-late 1800s, after contact with Europeans, maybe 100 people were left, said Erik Blaney, coordinator of the Tla’amin Guardian Watchmen, who assisted in the project.
“It’s not like they packed up and left because they thought the island was sinking,” said Blaney whose great great-grandfather was one of the last Tla’amin people who lived on Texada. “Everyone was dying due to illness.”
Parsley added Texada Island is very poorly understood in terms of cultural history.
“It’s important for people who live in that region to understand that the place they live has a very deep cultural history and it deserves to be better understood,” she said. “It’s Tla’amin’s heritage and it was previously unacknowledged but we are changing that.”
To ensure adequate space is available on the shuttle service from Blubber Bay to Shelter Point Park, anyone intending to use the shuttle is asked to pre-register by calling 604.485.2260 or emailing [email protected] no later than 4:30 pm on Friday, August 8.
