What We Are Working On: Report from the Field:
Archaeology, 2001

Archaeology Report 3 (Stanley Mission, 2001)

Friday, July 27:

Trench showing stratigraphy of Stanley Mission excavation site.

Saturday, July 28:
Fish derby at Stanley Mission. There are so many boats on the Churchill that it looks as if the Spanish Armada has arrived. And no wonder – first prize is $7000.00!

Further evidence of Murdoch McKenzie's house is eluding us. The beam that is the west wall of the house appears to extend southward from Cora's unit into Bev's unit, but all Bev finds is an assortment of bits and pieces of kindling-sized wood. Obviously, the beam ends somewhere in the wall between the two units. Joan and Annie are not deep enough yet to have encountered the beam.

Profile showing dip in wood chip layer.

However, there is hope. The “wood chip” layer takes a distinct dip above each beam in Cora's unit. The same dip appears in Annie’s unit to the north and Joan’s to the east. That means both Annie and Joan should soon find the beam in each of their units.

Sunday, July 29:
The day begins with rain but it soon clears off and leaves us with a wonderful day for excavating.

Paydirt! I find plank flooring 30 cm down. The boards run north-south. The heads of three square nails stick out of the planks. I manage to clear off only a small portion of the floor by the end of the day.

Monday, July 30:

The last cataloguing day. Several people come visiting to see what we have found. I pick up Flora Charles so that she can see some of the artifacts, and she has lots of stories to tell (all in Cree, of course). We pack up all the artifacts at the end of the day. I’m rather sorry to leave this facility. It’s been a real gift.

Tuesday, July 31:
Second last day of excavating. Murdoch McKenzie's house is starting to take shape. Annie finds the top of the west wall and some of the plank flooring. The beam is grooved on the floor side, but why?

The old school at Stanley Mission: an example of post-on-sill-construction.
Photograph courtesy of Saskatchewan Archives Board

Two units to the east, Bev finds the south wall with a rectangular mortise cut into its upper surface. Could this be where an upright beam was set in? Does this mean the house was built using post-on-sill construction? Bev is also finding a lot of artifacts (a badly rusted metal teaspoon, a large and ornate suspender clasp, and lots of seed beads). She’s really happy about this because she found so little in the two units she worked in previously. But she’s not finding any plank flooring. What happened to it? Was it removed? Or has the house slumped downward here so that the flooring is much lower than in the other units?

In between, Joan finds the top of the south wall beam. Just above the wall, there is a lens of ash and burned clay that contains wire nails under a chunk of wood. The beam underneath appears to be charred. What happened here?

Excavation pit showing bark, wood fragments and broken glass.

I discover bark and wood fragments, two broken panes of window glass, and yet another picket mixed in with the clay tossed in on top of the floor in my unit. When and why was this floor buried? When I remove all of this, I find two more square nails in the plank flooring underneath. How long ago was this house built if only square nails were used? Is this really Murdoch McKenzie's house? Or have we found a much older one?

The end of the day comes before we can answer any of these questions. And only one day left in which to find clues.

Wednesday, August 1:
There is a certain sense of urgency today. How much more can we learn in this last day?

Cora is working with Annie in her unit. Annie finishes uncovering the plank flooring and finds a piece of birch bark on top of it. Cora uncovers the west wall beam and footer.

Nails and burned clay and ash deposit.

Joan finishes excavating the south wall in her unit. She finds almost 2 dozen wire nails in the burned clay and ash deposit, and the south wall beam is heavily charred. Once she cleans off the beam, she finds two square nails embedded in it.

Scrap of plank flooring.

Poor Bev. All she finds of the plank flooring is one small, hand-sized scrap. The rest has vanished.

I am curious about the type of joint used at the corner of the house. I dig down to the bottom of the footers in Cora’s unit and decide the builders must have used a joint something like a square dado to lap the logs. Furthermore, the end of the west wall footer is beveled upward. Then I notice a subtle change in soil colour and texture around the logs – I have found the footer trench!

Thursday, August 2:
A blazing hot sun shines down from an intensely blue sky utterly devoid of clouds. There is no wind. It is humid. I don't know what the temperature is, and I don't want to know. By noon, Joan is not feeling well and, fearing heat exhaustion, I send her home.

Four of the old-time carpenters – Solomon Ballantyne, Jude Ratt Sr., Ernest McLeod, and Wilson Charles – come over to look at the house. What they have to say clears up some of the confusion. Murdoch McKenzie had two buildings, his home (where the depression is now) and an older log house that he used as a warehouse. They say that the one we have excavated was the warehouse. They didn't know when it had been built but they were not surprised to learn that it could have been built 90 or 100 years ago. After all, the little log house just north of Holy Trinity Church was built in the 1920s and it is as solid as the day it was built.

Annie and Bev map the soil layers in the walls of all the units. Cora and I map the floor of the old house which is a challenge because we can’t step on the floor to take the measurements. I learn how to lean W-A-A-Y over without falling into the unit.

Friday, August 3:

Closing up excavation.

We officially close up the excavations today. Cora and I finish the planviews and profiles. Some of the people cleaning up the cemetery help us to backfill the units, pull up stakes, take down the screening tripods, and take all the equipment across the river. By noon, it is all over. It is hard to believe that 5 weeks have passed so quickly.

Now, it is time to prepare for the next project – excavating an ancient quarry and campsite on the east side of Lac la Ronge.

For further information contact the Curator of Aboriginal History

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