Managing Cultural Resources and Heritage

Reading the Cultural Landscape at Dyea, Alaska

Tonia Horton, National Park Service, Alaska Support Office, 240 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska 99501; [email protected]

If, as folklorist Henry Glassie has written, “history is the essence of place,” our literacy in the cultural process of historical landscapes is of paramount importance to the American national parks.1 Without the ability to “read” landscapes as historical phenomena that continue to evolve, interpreting their stories is largely restricted to an artifactual perspective, rather than that of con- stant flux and dynamism, characteristics more typically assigned to “natural” resource paradigms rather than those of “cultural”—historic preservation and heritage production. However, as the practice of landscape architecture in historic environments methodologically progresses, the implications for understanding landscapes as critical processes, rather than static fields of arti- facts, portends some rather dramatic revision of the ways in which we can view park lands from the interdisciplinary stance of cultural landscapes. This paper is a short introduction to building a mapping infrastructure for a historic cultural landscape to provide park management with an on-going, integrated portrait of history, change, process, and place. The Dyea historic townsite is located steep, rocky fjord topography that character- within the larger Klondike Goldrush National izes the Taiya River valley. Historical Park, with its headquarters in the Now part of a national historic landmark, southeastern Alaskan town of Skagway. the remains of Dyea historic townsite are Primarily known for its importance as a gate- located within a dramatically changing land- way boomtown for the 1898–1900 gold rush scape. Situated at the foot of a dynamic river- to the Yukon gold fields of interior Canada, ine corridor, Dyea’s landmass exhibits a range Dyea’s strategic importance lay in its location of environmental dynamics. The heavily sedi- at the foot of the Chilkoot Trail, one of only mented Taiya River is a braided, continually three non-glaciated routes to the Canadian meandering system which, impacted by natu- interior. Until overwhelmed by sheer numbers ral (e.g., topography) and constructed (bridge of “Stampeders” and goods waiting to make and armored banks) factors, continues to their way up through the Chilkoot Pass, the erode portions of the site at key points of native residents of Dyea—the Chilkat/ scouring, bank cuts, and flood zones. Nearly Chilkoot Tlingit—utilized the site for seasonal one-third of the historic townsite and virtually resource harvesting (salmon and berries as all of the Tlingit village are now in the active prime examples) and to maintain control over river zone. In contrast to archeological degra- the Chilkoot trail as an important native trade dation, numerous sloughs and low-water route between coastal Tlingit and interior areas, historically rich habitats, continue as Tagish communities. After the abandonment active salmon spawning sites. Isostatic of Dyea as a boomtown in 1900, its brief efflo- rebound—the decompression of land as gla- rescence as a thriving community became a ciers retreat—is another aspect of rapid envi- memory as the former seasonal village, trading ronmental change. Since the gold rush period post, and gridded townsite transformed into a of 1898–1899, the Dyea townsite has risen handful of homesteads. These, too, were relin- nearly six feet in elevation, continuing to rise quished as active vernacular landscapes by the at an annual rate of 0.059 inches. Vegetation 1940s. Until the creation of Klondike patterns, too, are part of the landscape story of Goldrush National Historical Park in 1976, ecological transition. The advance of a succes- Dyea’s significance was largely that of isolated sional forest—no longer subject to logging and residences and community recreation by left untouched by park management— virtue of its open, flat tidelands amidst the obscures nearly the entire range of archeolog- 177 Managing Cultural Resources and Heritage ical resources still embedded in the landscape array of historical and contemporary data sets, from the gold rush and homestead eras. ranging from rare narrative accounts, period In order to further park management maps, homestead surveys, and an especially objectives for the both park and adjacent lands pertinent series of aerial photographs from the (which include a mix of federal, state, and pri- 1940s, 1970s, and 1990s. Complementing vate parcels), the documentation and analysis these sources is a 1986 archeological survey of Dyea as a cultural landscape began in 1999, map locating artifact clusters and sites (includ- and continues to the present. As an interdisci- ing many depressions associated with lost plinary approach, cultural landscape method- buildings), and a 2002 Bureau of Land ology is ideal for Dyea because it focuses on Management cadastral survey of park bound- revealing layers of occupation and use over aries. This latter survey is especially important time in evolving environmental conditions— in that it depicts the extent of the river’s incur- an integration that suggests powerful insights sion along the remaining eastern edge of the into how resource contexts for any future townsite, a baseline for analyzing the historic development is proposed and evaluated. This aerial photographs from earlier periods. work is particularly timely considering the rate Seasonal fieldwork during the period of impacts on the site due to increased visita- 1999–2002 contributed critical pieces of the tion to Dyea with the rise in cruise ship overall spatial patterning of the site. In the tourism in nearby Skagway.In addition, larger attempt to locate an axis of two major streets numbers of rafting, biking, and horse tours, from the 1898–1899 boomtown, the first coupled with an increase in vehicular traffic (1999) field survey to address historic street on narrow, winding access roads, further alignment led to a computer-aided design emphasize the need for understanding long- (CAD) composite drawing depicting the range planning at the landscape scale. series of historic survey layers from 1898 to In order to develop a strategy for a master 1986, complete with notations on the features plan for Dyea as a cultural landscape, a major recorded by the earlier surveyors. During the effort to document and analyze the historic period 2000–2002, photographic inventories townsite and affiliated areas first entailed an of the site’s natural and cultural features were intensive research and mapping effort, much systematically documented for the first time. of which is still underway. At the outset of the With the completion of the 2002 boundary project, the goal was to create a spatial infra- survey, the basis for beginning a coordinated structure in which the history of Dyea could effort at GIS (geographic information system) be “read”—namely, the construction of base mapping of the site began with the most recent maps at a workable scale (rather than the 20- collection of GPS (global positioning system) foot contours of the existing U.S. Geological trail and road data throughout the townsite in Survey topographic quad maps). This series the fall of 2002. With the completion of a of base maps is the foundation for successive LIDAR (light detection and ranging) survey in historical layers locating features and 2002–2003, these data will be further refined resources within more traditionally conceived to fit a 2-foot contour interval with recording historical periods (such as the Tlingit occupa- of all features at sub-meter accuracy, allowing tion, gold rush era, and early-20th-century for future three-dimensional modeling to suit homestead occupation). Also integrated with- a variety of park management needs. in the historic layers is an environmental his- The initial importation of the CAD com- tory of the site, particularly showing the extent posite drawing of the townsite and cadastral of river meander, erosion, and deposition, as survey into an ArcView environment with the well as vegetation changes. GPS roads and trail data provides the park Developing a synthetic context for spatial with a powerful glimpse into the complexity of data—ultimately leading to the ability to create site’s history. For the first time, the park has elevational models with predictive capabili- the beginnings of a “real time” model illustrat- ties—rests on assembling and analyzing an ing the progression of the landscape and its 178 Managing Cultural Resources and Heritage resources—both natural and cultural—within continuum of change wrought by the river, an integrated context. Although only in its ear- and our attempts to reorder ideas of resource liest stages, the assemblage of data in a GIS protection in light of the inevitability of per- model attests to the efficacy of conceiving and sistent riverine impacts in the future. The documenting park lands as cultural land- river, then, becomes a force of encounter, a scapes. And, most importantly, it points to the historical agent, that cannot be abstracted critical importance of developing a compre- from the history of place. hensive spatial infrastructure at the outset of In reality,the on-going mapping and analy- any landscape planning efforts. sis of the Dyea historic townsite reaffirms the The importance of this initial mapping inherent value of cultural landscape method- effort cannot be underestimated. First, the ology in attempting to not only “reconstruct” only mapping of Dyea during the past three the past on a landscape scale, but to create a decades has primarily focused on archeologi- historical model that responds to the future. cal surveys, and those are now nearly twenty With technological advances in mapping and years old. The coordinated impetus toward illustration, the new baseline of knowledge developing the CAD/GIS base map has liter- about the Dyea landscape is the foundation ally created a “new” Dyea by revealing the for assessing future changes in the landscape extent of landscape scale and change. Certain and incorporating them into a living model of baseline information is now established: for process, one that effectively illustrates the instance, the park boundaries and extent of elliptical movement between time and place in riverbank erosion were in question, as were rather enlightening ways. Ultimately,this envi- the identity and disposition of many of the less sioning of landscape as process is about place- apparent historic features—vegetation and making—how a sustainable history can be cre- road traces. Discrete features present in his- ated and interpreted from the “bottom up,” toric photos and surveys can now be analyzed rather than the typological model implied by within the overall landscape matrix, broaden- the standard historic preservation methodolo- ing their interpretation. With the future addi- gy rooted in the National Register of Historic tion of the LIDAR survey and an analysis of Places.2 It eschews the idea of a dramatic dis- the existing spread of aerial overlays, knowl- continuity between past and present, and edge of the degree to which this landscape has between past and future, by expanding the changed in the past half-century, in particular, story of Dyea past the boomtown allure to one will be of immense value to any park develop- that reflects a world of constant change, and, ment schemes, from potential trail networks to importantly, how we map and interpret those a new visitor contact station. changes with contemporary technology. Additionally, by utilizing an interdiscipli- It also begins to ask very important ques- nary team to gather, analyze, and compile the tions about the storied nature of cultural land- spatial data within the context of the cultural scapes: how are landscapes symbolically and landscape, it quickly became apparent that physically constructed as repositories of a mapping this complex landscape as a process national heritage? Essentially, how are land- would be a rich field of inquiry. For example, scapes called into being by their physical rep- by extending the idea of the historic landscape resentation and symbolic interpretation? How to recontextualize artifacts within the broader viable is the history we “write” by mapping, paradigm of environmental change, the histo- by our cartographic views of the world? And ry of Dyea as a place begins to shift toward the perhaps most importantly, how do we design interaction between culture and nature, his- new layers, stratigraphies that future genera- toric communities, and the impacts of the tions will read as stories, voices in themselves? powerfully meandering Taiya River. In The implications of a landscape literacy essence, the fuller landscape story decenters based on cultural landscapes methodology the mythic boomtown (the artifact) as a adds a critical dimension to the design romantic “golden age” in favor of revealing the process. How we perceive and read cultural 179 Managing Cultural Resources and Heritage process in each unique environmental con- constructing histories of place. The beauty of text, how we construct and map authentic his- cultural landscape methodology is that it tories of place is based on the revelation of a allows for a continual accretion of meaning, as “deep structure” that can be graphically illus- the stratigraphy of physical and symbolic trated in sophisticated ways. But, just as there landscapes grows with each new layer of doc- is no absolute past, but rather one that is con- umentation, analysis, evaluation, and design. tingent upon interpretation, there are no It poses some very intriguing questions that absolute landscapes whose history can be can be explored in equally intriguing and frozen to one time period or another. While innovative ways. Building the spatial vocabu- this tenet is one that is generally accepted by lary—the infrastructure—through the ongoing most practitioners within historic preserva- mapping project at Dyea historic townsite has, tion, the extension of the argument leads to in many ways, only just begun. But, as with the realization that any landscape is a medium any story, the deeper the excavation, the more of exchange and negotiation. This, in turn, enlightening, the more profound the tale constitutes a fundamental alteration of the his- becomes. And isn’t this the real reason we toric preservation model. The central ques- cherish the national parks? tion is no longer simply one of “What is it?” (the artifact), but “How is it written?” Endnotes (process), a challenge to the artificial separa- 1. Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in tion between history and design, nature and Ballymenone: Culture and History of an culture. Ulster Community (Philadelphia: Univ- This is particularly salient for the unin- ersity of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), 201. habited landscapes of the national parks 2. I propose the term “sustainable history” as where the stakes for interpreting place are an alternative to the typological, thematic much higher. How we understand our designs histories that are written to conform to the as not solely ordering devices, interventions, standards of the National Register of superimpositions upon the land, but as woven Historic Places. The fit between histories into the tapestry of the cultural landscape as of landscape and those of archeological process signifies a critical self-awareness that and architectural focus is uneasy, especial- national parks can incorporate to great advan- ly when considering the issues of natural tage. As the Taiya River continues to shift and site evolution, and range of environmental meander, altering the riverbanks by simultane- dynamics at play. With the principles of ously accreting and eroding areas of the Dyea sustainable design adopted by the historic townsite every year, the proposed National Park Service, as articulated by resource protection strategy of engineered architect William McDonough’s logjams, as an example, is one that continues Hannover Principles, a “sense of place” the story of human adaptation to place. Rather linked integrally with the “resources of the than being viewed as separate from the history site” is the second determinant of sustain- of Dyea, they illustrate a rich window of inter- ability, the first being the survival of the pretative opportunity that opens on a sus- natural world (see National Park Service, tained process of change and adaptation. The Sustainable Grand Canyon {1996}, in Situated within the cultural landscapes con- which McDonough’s principles are articu- text suggested by the comprehensive base- lated). It stands to reason, then, that con- mapping project, the construction of engi- structing a history that reflects the full neered logjams can be incorporated seamless- panorama of the landscape of place ly into the environmental history of place. through a synthetic interpretation of its Ultimately, our ability to read the land- integrated environmental context, rather scape of Dyea through advanced cartography than concentrating on physical cultural and expanded interpretation speaks to our resources and their integrity within “peri- own contemporary perspectives and biases in ods of significance,” would more fully 180 Managing Cultural Resources and Heritage reflect ideas of sustainability.

✥

181