Dating a Historic Cabin on Eva Lake, Mount Revelstoke National Park: An Application of Dendrochronology - Geography 477 - Leah Hull, Manuela ...

Dating a Historic Cabin on Eva Lake,
Mount Revelstoke National Park: An
 Application of Dendrochronology
                  Geography 477

   Leah Hull, Manuela Arnold, Jacqueline Clare

Objectives
To learn and apply the skills of dendrochronology

To learn about the history of the region

To accurately date Eva Lake Cabin

Geomorphology & Hydrology
 Variety of granitic and metamorphic rocks

 Terrain underlain by granitic bedrock, which weathers and results in
podzolic organic soils

 Illecillewaet Major River Watershed with tributaries: Maunder, West
Woolsey, Woolsey, Clachnacurainn, Bridge, and Hamilton feed into
Columbia River

                              Elevations:
                     Lower Subalpine: 1500-1900m
                     Upper Subalpine: 1900-2200m
                    Mount Revelstoke Summit 1938m
                      Eva Lake Study Site ~1950m

Vegetation and Climate
 Engelmann Spruce -Subalpine Fir biogeoclimatic subzone (Interior wet
belt forest)

 Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), Subalpine fir (Abies
lasiocarpa) are the dominant tree species

  1278mm/yr mean annual precipitation in Revelstoke, 1995mm/yr in
subalpine zone

 High snowfall, complete snowmelt not until mid-July

 Short summers with lengthy winters

 Average temperatures range from 18.2°C in July to -5.3°C in December

Study Site
            Upper Subalpine Zone (1900m-2200m)

 Cabin Elevation: ~ 1950m Location: 51o04’27”N 118o06’33’’E

Steep terrain surrounds Eva Lake with elevation close to treeline

History and Development
 Founded in 1914 due to the urging of Revelstoke citizens
for a park, road built in 1927

 Tourist lodge open from 1940-1963

 Road rebuilt in 1967

 260 sq km protects the Selkirk Range

A Historical Perspective of Revelstoke

Nels Nelson ski            The Canadian Pacific Railway
jumping on Mt.             prompted the development of
Revelstoke in              Revelstoke
1916

                           World War I internment
                           camp in Mt. Revelstoke
                           National Park

The Discovery of Eva Lake
                  “There is another lake here”

          Eva Hobbs was a school teacher at Central School
          in Revelstoke. The principle of Central School, Mr.
          Miller, frequently took his teachers hiking on Mt.
          Revelstoke.
          The Revelstoke Mountaineering Club was started
          in 1909 and Eva Hobbs became a member.
          Members of the mountaineering club, including
          Eva, went for a hike to Miller Lake and they
          decided to explore further. Eva was ahead of the
          group and saw the lake first. Her companions
          named it Eva Lake after her.

The discovery of Eva Lake in 1910. Eva Hobbs is on the far left

The Cabin
 Eva Lake Cabin was originally constructed as a
small warden patrol cabin
 It is a one room cabin that measures 3.4 m by
4.3 m
 It is a recognised federal heritage building due
to its association with the origins of the
National Park and for its design.

North   East

West    South

The Cabin

 Cabin craftsmanship is simple

 The walls were built with logs that have
hewn squared corners and a hewn interior,
the corners are dove-tailed

 The cabin has two multi-paned fixed sash
windows, a plank door, and a shingle and log
roof with a porch extension

The Cabin
 The cabin was built using standard design prepared by the Architectural and
Planning Division of the National Parks Service, under the supervision of William
Cromarty

 Throughout the years the roof (excluding the beams), the floor boards, one window,
and one sill log have been replaced. The wood stove has also been removed

Leah beside Eva Lake Cabin, Sept 14, 2010   Fire Warden beside his cabin at Balsam Lake, Sept 1, 1919

Field Methods
Sampling Design:
 Visually scanned the cabin for dates from graffiti of past
visitors. Oldest date found was August 3, 1932

 The rings of three exposed corner logs were counted to
determine approximate age (approx. 150 years)

  10 samples were extracted from discreet locations from
the cabin

Field Methods
    The tree species used to build the cabin were inferred by
   identifying the two primary tree species in the adjacent
   forest

    20 samples in total from Subalpine fir and Engelmann
   spruce were taken if they were judged to be
   approximately 230 years old (150 +80= 230)

    150 cabin years: based on ring count, plus 80 years
   based on graffiti: 2010-1930= 80

Engelmann Spruce                                      Subalpine Fir

Laboratory Methods
 Glued/mounted tree cores

 Sanded cores with six different sand grits

 Scanned samples, and used WinDENDRO to analyse tree rings

 Subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce were entered into
COFECHA to determine intra-species correlation

 Adjusted Subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce using EDRM to
increase correlation values

Laboratory Methods
 Cabin samples were entered in COFECHA with both
Subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce to determine the
primary species that the cabin was constructed from

 The living chronologies and cabin data were combined in
COFECHA, and the final year of the cabin samples were
adjusted using EDRM

 Individual cabin samples were separately adjusted to
provide a higher correlation to the spruce samples

Results
Step #1-
Within species correlation of:

 Engelmann Spruce     0.616
 Subalpine Fir        0.537

Step #2-
Correlations between the Cabin Samples and:

 Engelmann Spruce     0.557
 Subalpine Fir        0.506

1928

Results

Discussion
Sources of Error:
 Not hitting pith

 No inclusion of bark on cabin samples

 Small sample size

 Samples were discretely extracted from the cabin (took samples
from the back side of the cabin and none at the front)

 Collected samples from trees in close proximity to the cabin - the
assumption was made that the builders used trees from the Eva Lake
area

 Possible human error during WinDENDRO analysis of samples

• 1928 was verified with   the Eva Lake Cabin Conservation Report published by
Parks Canada

•Upon microscopic analysis of sample 03C, early wood was detected after the last
ring (1927), which indicates felling in the spring of 1928

•Seven of ten cabin samples worked with the living chronology. The remaining
three samples were disregarded because they had a low correlation value with the
living spruce samples

•The cabin samples were desiccated and prone to crumbling; therefore, partial loss of rings
may have occurred. This may account for the inaccurate end years of samples 4C, 5C, and
11C

•Weathering of logs causes perimeter loss, and may have resulted in inaccurate end years of
samples 4C, 5C, and 11C

•Unable to verify the time between when the trees were felled, and when they were used for
cabin construction

•Bark may have been stripped (using a drawknife) prior to cabin construction resulting in the
loss of outer rings

Conclusion
 Dendrochronology is an accurate method of dating historic
cabins

 The cabin enhances Eva Lakes physical beauty, and historical
importance

Acknowledgements
          Thank you Dan Smith,
          Jim Gardner, and Parks Canada
          Kara Pitman, Bethany
          Coulthard, and Jill Harvey

References

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Knapik, L., Coen, M., & Landals, M. (1974). Detailed soil survey of the Mount Revelstoke
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