Digging through the paperwork

The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Saturday, September 08, 2007

CAPTION: Photo courtesy of Michigan Technological University

Stephanie Atwood sifts dirt during a dig at the Michigan Technological University West Point Foundry Archaeology Project at Cold Spring, N.Y. in 2006. Atwood is concentrating on the historical records end of Industrial Archaeology, however

By Kurt Hauglie

DMG Writer

HOUGHTON — When people hear the word archeology, many think of intent scientists digging in the dirt to pull out bones of extinct animals or pottery from a vanished civilization. That’s what Stephanie Atwood thought when a classmate suggested she consider a graduate degree in industrial archeology.

Atwood, who is a master’s of science candidate in Industrial Archeology at Michigan Technological University, said she had no desire to be digging in the dirt for a career, but after working on a project to justify placing the Village of Laurium on the National Register of Historic Places, she realized IA might be something she’d be interested in.

“I found out IA is not just digging (in the dirt),” she said.

Industrial Archeology is also about digging for records and photographs, which conforms with her lifelong interest in history, Atwood said.

Atwood said she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Art History from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., but she realized getting a job which utilized her art degree would be problematic.

“I was interested in art conservation, but the field is very narrow,” she said.

Eventually, Atwood did choose to seek a master’s degree in IA, and for her thesis she chose to get involved with getting the Village of Lake Linden placed on the National Register of Historic Places, a project suggested to her by one of her professors, Kim Hoagland. That work began in January 2006.

Atwood said the process for getting a place on the National Register involves going through records about buildings and making certain the place has historical significance.

Hoagland, who is a professor of history and historic preservation at Tech, said she teaches two IA courses which concern the documentation of historic structures.

“Basically, I’m a buildings person connected with the program,” she said. “Industrial archeology isn’t only about things underground.”

For the last decade, Hoagland said her students have been working on documenting modest houses in the Copper Country, many of them former miner’s houses.

To find out if a building has historic significance, local records, such as tax roles and tax maps, need to be examined, Hoagland said, but it may take some work to find the appropriate paperwork.

“It’s going to show up somewhere,” she said. “It may not show you everything you want to know.”

Often, researchers will use local lore about a building to help with their research, Hoagland said, but that can be a problem.

“It’s really hard if that memory hasn’t survived,” she said.

As with many university-led projects, Hoagland said finding time and especially money can be difficult issues. However, the project to put Lake Linden on the National Register was funded by the Americana Foundation, which is based in Novi, near Detroit.

Hoagland said the field of industrial archeology is growing in popularity with business and government officials, and students, which is as it should be.

“This is our history,” she said. “It’s very much about who we were and who we are.”

Patrick Martin, professor of archeology and director of the industrial archeology graduate program at MTU, said the program started during the 1991-92 school year.

“It was an outgrowth of a push to grow the graduate programs at Michigan Tech,” he said.

Martin said although the idea for the IA program was initiated by him, several people in the department of social sciences had an interest in the idea. It wasn’t necessary to start from absolute zero, either, because Tech was already providing research services for local, state and federal agencies, including the United States Department of Transportation and the U.S. Forest Service, to make certain projects they were working on didn’t damage historical or culturally important sites.

“This kind of work had been done by traditional archeologists,” Martin said.

The Tech IA program includes historians and cultural anthropologists, he said.

Martin said after the faculty members developed the idea of an IA degree, it was presented to university officials, who were impressed.

“It clicked,” he said. “We’re sitting here surrounded by a laboratory. (The remnants of the copper mining industry.)”

So far, Martin said the program has produced about 50 master’s recipients.

“They’ve virtually all gone on to work with no problems,” he said.

Some of those students have gone on to get Ph.Ds and some on tenure track at universities.

Currently, the Tech IA program is the only one in the country, Martin said. There used to be one at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

“That failed to thrive for a lot of reasons,” he said.

Although Tech IA students have been working at various sites connected with copper mining, Martin said an ongoing program is in Cold Spring, N.Y., where a 19th century foundry is being excavated. That is actually the Tech IA field school.

Atwood said she worked at the Cold Spring site for awhile, and she was even doing a little digging excavating a house, but she enjoyed it.

“It was exciting,” she said.

She’s not certain yet what she’ll do after receiving her master’s degree, Atwood said.

“I have thought about a doctorate,” she said. “(But) it’s a good idea to get real-world experience (first).”

She would like to get a job soon, Atwood said.

“I’m open to anything having to do with history,” she said.

The whole process of working on her master’s degree has been very enjoyable for her, Atwood said.

“I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “I’ve gained a lot of practical work.”

Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com