Greetings to the remaining 87:

Lest I be perceived as one of the lurkers, I'd better identify myself.
My name is Bruce Barrett and I don't care who knows that I subscribe to
BP! I am a historic sites technician working for the Yukon government in
Whitehorse. As you might imagine, being in the heritage preservation
field up here is an isolating experience, particularly since our budget
does not include sending people at my level out for conferences. I have
had little to offer on the technical niceties surrounding gum removal
etc. because our history climate and resources have strongly oriented
the historic building stock towards the rustic, pioneer, log and simple
frame vernacular buildings. Pragmatism and cheapness ruled the early
days here; the saving grace for our historic "architecture" has been a
cold, dry climate and the boom and bust of a resource based economy that
has led to complete abandonment of communities.

As one of my various responsibilities, I am the project officer for one
such historic community, Fort Selkirk on the Yukon River, about half way
from Whitehorse to Dawson City. The site is jointly owned and managed by
the government and the Selkirk First Nation, and represents such themes
as precontact trade between coastal native people and locals, the
earliest incursions by the Hudson's Bay Co. (who were violently removed
by said coastal traders), the missionary movement and of course, the
Klondike Gold Rush.

The townsite was abandoned around 1955 when the all-weather road was
built to Dawson City, which caused the sternwheelers to stop running,
which in turned caused the government to withdraw their school teacher.
The local people felt they had no choice but to go where the school was,
and left their home of many years.

The point is, I guess, that while I really am interested in the lime vs.
limestone debate, as we have no mortared buildings here (does chinking
count?) I haven't much to offer on many of the issues that burn so
brightly in the big city. My war stories, in addition to those shared by
all civil servants, have more to do with avoiding bears (white, brown &
black), surviving 300 mile road trips at 40 below, trying to make boat
props last until you reach civilization and so on. I'd ask for advice on
how to dissuade polar bears from tearing up historic buildings, but I
suspect I know as much as anyone else.

Anyway, I am a satisfied subscriber, and wish to remain as such.