Bruce Barrettt - big, bad lurker from the North.  "We love you, man." Tell
us your stories.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce.Barrett <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, December 02, 1998 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: Another satisfied subscriber!


>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.