Chimney collapsed into basement of house (G. Slater)
Though it may surprise some in Ontario, Alberta has many
submerged shipwrecks. These include any number of small craft, various western lake steamers such as the Gertrude in Waterton Lake, and even a prototype for an aircraft carrier! I
may return to these sites in a future article, but, continuing
the theme begun last issue of underwater sites that are not
shipwrecks, we also find a couple of sites of this type in
Alberta.
Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park is a natural lake, but one
that has had its level raised three times by dams. Twice the town
of Minnewanka was forced to move because of the changes in water
level. The last dam was built by the Calgary Power Company in
1941-2, with the stated goal of providing hydro-electricity to
assist arms manufacture. The town was not rebuilt finally after
the water level reached a maximum flood level of 4,840 ft.,
nearly 100 feet higher than the original level.
Chimney collapsed into basement of house (G. Slater)
Today, the lake remains popular with boaters and also with divers
who particularly enjoy diving down to the impressive concrete
structure of the dam built in 1912. The top of the dam is in
about 40 feet of water, while the bottom of the rocky canyon it
spans is deeper than 90 feet. Divers can also visit a submerged
bridge, four wharves, several surviving house foundations and
cellars, a well, sidewalk, and other town features. Scattered
items like kitchen stoves, bedsprings, pots and pails are other
terrestrial vestiges of life on the former lake shore in the
first half of this century. All in all, it is a unique diving
experience.
Part of Dam built in 1912 (M. A. Bernier)
Unfortunately, all diving experiences in the Lake have not been
happy ones. One diver has lost his life on the dam. A much less
serious but more persistent problem for local Parks staff is the
congestion caused by divers sometimes numbering in the hundreds
on a summer weekend who obstruct the causeway and beach with
their vehicles and equipment. The principal problem from our
particular perspective is the vandalism the underwater structures,
the dam in particular, have routinely been subjected to. Graffiti
is found everywhere, even carved into the concrete face of the
dam. The dam had also been "decorated" with a bizarre
selection of objects including propane bottles, bath tubs, road
signs, plastic pink flamingoes, plastic daisies, plaques of
dubious commemorative value, and even a toilet that had been
carefully riveted in to one of the spillways.
Side scan sonar image of dam (R. Chang)
Though sometimes the effort to install these "improvements"
was very great, volunteers have tried to match these efforts in
cleaning the site up as best they could without further damaging
the structures. The encouraging news is that for the last couple
of years the volunteers have had very little to clean up.
Underwater Archaeological Services (that's us -- another name
change) visited the lake in 1990 and 1992. Joining the unit's
archaeologists were veteran volunteer divers from Calgary, Lorie
Hedemark, Mark Gibeau, Wally Romanchuck, and Park Warden, Gregg
Slatter. These divers not only greatly lengthened the teams'
daily bottom time but brought with them priceless local diving
experience, not to mention an extra boat. Sites were located,
inventoried, and mapped. Video and photo records were taken. Side-scan
sonar helped us locate new features of the site and was also a
valuable tool in assembling the overall site plan.
In 1994, three archaeologists from our unit again returned to
Lake Minnewanka, this time looking for a different kind of
submerged cultural resource. On the current shore of Lake
Minnewanka, a prehistoric site has been discovered, dating to
about 9,000 years B.P. Other similar sites might exist underwater.
Predictive models suggested some potential site locations on the
edge of the old lake and banks of the stream which drained it. We
endeavoured to test these hypotheses by coring in a number of
likely areas. Mark and Lorie joined us again, as did another
diving warden, Blair Fyten, and "terrestrial"
archaeologist from Parks Alberta Region, Bill Perry. What Bill
looked for in our cores was a diagnostic lens of red soil which
is characteristic of paleo-indian sites in the area. Sure enough,
in one of the cores he found it.
I hope to return in the fall of this year to Banff National Park
with one or two others from the Underwater Archaeology Services,
this time to excavate where we recovered our promising core. As
interesting as this potential prehistoric site may be, I look
forward to involving more volunteers in our work there. I take it
as a given that as more divers are exposed to underwater heritage
fewer will be tempted to plant new pink flamingoes.
On beautiful Lake Minnewanka as divers get ready to descend
with coring device (Calgary Herald)
The Banff National Park staff is also now considering more
concrete methods to safeguard their resources. One option is to
have divers register before diving on the site. Upon registering
divers would receive a pamphlet describing what they can see
underwater in Lake Minnewanka, and also the benefits of leaving
the underwater cultural resources of all sorts unharmed. Park
staff is also trying to secure funds for a video which would be a
more effective means of delivering the same message. The
registration requirement may seem onerous to some divers, but the
park is prepared to give back to the diving community. An access
trail has been provided specially for divers. and, with set-up
capital provided by the Alberta Scuba Diver's Association,
mooring and marker buoys safeguarding both the resources and
divers will be maintained. Descriptive billboards might be
erected on shore displaying historic and current underwater
photos juxtaposed that will be of interest not only to divers but
also to the thousands of non-diving tourists who visit the lake
but have no idea what lies beneath its waves.
If the benefits for all become apparent to the diving community
at large, we hope a core of local divers will join a "Friends
of Lake Minnewanka" organization based on the model of the
Friends of Fathom Five. If there is sufficient interest we may
offer a NAS Level 1 course there this fall as a kick-start to
such an organization. Lorie and Mark had the chance to get
trained as NAS assistant tutors last year in Vancouver, and they
will be more than welcome as fellow-instructors if they wish to
join us. Besides continuing the hopefully diminishing tasks of
site cleanup, a "Friends of" organization could also
undertake site monitoring, and the more creative and entertaining
challenges of setting up underwater trails and information
plaques. It is our hope that, by involving local divers and parks
staff in our short-term heritage-related activities, there will
be long-term spin-off benefits resulting not only in more
protected cultural resources, but also more fulfilling park
experiences for the diving and non-diving public.
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