This weekend I’m going to make my first foray into the wilds of western North Dakota. Regular readers of my blog know that this trip is tied to my newest small research project which looks at documenting artifact scatters associated with the contemporary work camps that have grown up in support of the Bakken oil fields. For this trip, my primary goals are:
1. To document the range of temporary settlements present in the area. It is clear that work camps involve everything from formally constructed camps provided by companies like Target Logistics to campers set up in the Walmart parking lot, squatting on public land, and hot-cotting. My hope is that a few days around Williston will help me develop an informal typology of camps.
2. To identify camps or sites for study. If I can create an informal typology, I should be able to identify several potential study sites for a longer and more formal visit to region this summer. My hope is to attempt to organize my future fieldwork to sample in an efficient way the material signature of different kinds of camps.
3. To begin to develop a method for documenting the camps and their material signatures. This will be the most difficult aspect of the weekend. As I become more familiar with the kinds and distribution of materials associated with a living work camp, I will need to develop an efficient method for documenting the objects present. Ideally, we can create a method that would allow the comparison between camp sites while at the same time preserving the unique character of the artifactual assemblages.
4. Background Information. The greatest challenge for me will be to determine a way to collect contextual information on the various camps. For the larger, more formally organized camps, this should not be a particular challenge as they will have zoning records as well as regular paperwork on number of residents, capacity, et c. For the less formal camps, I anticipate the potential issues for documenting site history, the number of residents, and the stability of settlement. The archaeological data will provide a snap shot of a moment in time. Contextual information in the form of interviews, texts, and satellite images will provide information concerning the processes that produced the archaeological assemblage.
To collect data this weekend, I will rely on a motley assortment of technologies:
1. Garmin Gecko 201. This little, green, GPS unit has been my field companion for close to 10 years. Compared to newer Garmin products, it is pretty lame, but for collecting GPS points for large sites like work camps, it will do just fine.
2. Evernote. I plan to collect preliminary notes using the audio note function on Evernote on my iPhone 4S. This feature has two benefits. First, it lets me collect audio notes and save them directly to the cloud (no need for a separate backup process). And, it assigns the notes GPS coordinates. So I have spatial control. This is a cheap version of what Richard Rothaus has been doing with his field workflow (and I’d link this to his blog description of it, but I can’t find it any more).
3. A Corinth Notebook. At some point I acquired a small number of “Corinth style” notebooks. I have one left. My plan is to designate this notebook my “North Dakota Work Camp Project Notebook”. These notebooks are rugged, clothbound graph paper and designed for archaeological field notes.
4. Nikon Coolpix P6000 Camera. These little-ish cameras seem to be indestructible (unless dropped from a blimp), allow for geocoding photographs, and reliable.
Wish me luck this weekend and check back early next week for a full report!
