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The Field School Or Playing in the Dirt During the summer of 1993, the Chi Kung Tong project was jointly undertaken by SFU and the Barkerville historic park. Funded by the park, the goal was to better understand the history behind one of the structures on the site, a building dating to 1877. Called the Chi Kung Tong building, it was named after the faction of the Hong Men that built it during the gold rush. One of the main reasons why this building was chosen for excavation purposes is that Park officials wanted to stabilize and refurbish the aging structure. Long since used as a meeting hall and residence for the Chinese community at Barkerville, the history of the building was unquestioned. The building was moved off of its footings for a few months during the summer of 1993. A field school involving SFU students was undertaken from from June 1 to July 29. After the work was done, new footing were constructed and the building moved back into place. The excavation involved the digging of ten 1.5 meter squares. These extended to a depth of anywhere from 80 to 120 centimeters below the surface. And this was just the depth of the materials that could be linked to the building. Working with a backhoe at the end of the dig, a test pit was dug to see just how much deeper the materials went. The true depth was never discovered as the limits of the excavator was only 4m, and the cultural materials went much deeper. Over the years of the gold rush, a need for wood in all of its forms was essential for the town of Barkerville and its inhabitants. Not only was wood needed for buildings in town or on each claim, but also there was the need to build flumes for carrying water, and for firewood to heat your cabin in the depths of winter. So very shortly all the nearby slopes around the gold streams were barren of trees. When the spring thaw hit, and the rains started, this lack of vegetation on the slopes led to much of them washing away with the water. To the town of Barkerville downstream, this was disastrous. In the spring the streets were awash with water. By the time the streets had dried out, over a foot of gravel could have been deposited on the ground. Unless you jacked up your home or business each summer, you would soon find your building buried. At the Chi Kung Tong building there was indication that the building had to be raised three times in its life, just to avoid being buried. And this was after bulkheads had been constructed to prevent the worst of the flooding. However all of this flooding had a good point to it in the eyes of archaeologists. In the process of flooding, much of the garbage tossed out by the residents of the town would have been rapidly buried before it would have been picked up and moved. This means that any building at Barkerville is likely to have at least a meter of garbage all about it. This rapid burial was responsible for the finding by these archaeologists of much material that can tell them about everyday life at the building. Over 7,000 items were found during the excavation, including items such as clothing, hats, shoes, paper, opium tins, and fan tan beads. Each of these items can tell the archaeologists involved a little bit more about what went on at the site. Another unique factor of this dig was that gold recovery was done on some of the dirt dug out by the archaeologists. Because of stories told about gold being lost through the floor boards of buildings at Barkerville, some of the dirt taken from the units was run through a sluice box by park officials. Some gold was recovered, but how much was recovered is not known to the author of these pages. The People Involved
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