View to the west of a small buried lithic scatter located east of Parsons Lake.

Archaeological investigations initiated in 2001 on the Mackenzie Gas Project continued for a second field season in 2003.   Imperial Resources Ventures Ltd., the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, ConocoPhillips Canada Ltd., ExxonMobil Canada Properties Ltd. and Shell Canada Limited are developing the Mackenzie Gas Project.  

The project will likely consist of:

• Natural gas field development facilities at Taglu, Parsons Lake and Niglintgak.
• A gathering system to collect natural gas and associated natural gas liquids from the three fields and ship them to natural gas compression and NGL facilities in the Inuvik area.
• A natural gas pipeline from the Inuvik area to Norman Wells.
• A transmission pipeline system (the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline) from the Inuvik area south along the Mackenzie Valley via Norman Wells, to connect to the existing natural gas pipeline system in northwest Alberta for delivery to market.

Artifacts found near the Travaillant River.

Infrastructure required to support the development and operation of the pipeline includes barge landing sites, camps and stockpile locations, granular resource extraction sites, as well as associated temporary and permanent access roads.   The precise number and location of associated facilities has yet to be determined.

During the 2003 field season, archaeologists with MPEG (a consortium of AMEC Earth and Environmental, Golder Associates Ltd., Kavik-AXYS Environmental Ltd. and Tera Environmental) led reconnaissance and impact assessment level investigations of selected project components. As listed below, numerous local people assisted with the fieldwork. Greenpipe Industries Ltd. assisted MPEG archaeologists with the investigations in the Tulita district.

• Inuvialuit region: Robert Albert, Abel Tingmiak.

• Abandoned cabin at KaRf 1 on the east bank of the Mackenzie River.

  Gwich'in region: Rita Carpenter, Anna May MacLeod, Fred Jerome, Harry Carmichael, Allen Firth, Tom Wright, and Albert Frost.
• Fort Good Hope: Marcel Grandjambe, Alfred Masazumi, and Leon Tauveau.
• Tulita: Richard Andrew, Lee Anne Wrigley, and James Bavard.
• Pehdzeh Ki First Nation: Justin Clilie, Ernest Moses, Darcy Moses, and Archie Horasey
• Liidlii Kue First Nation: Joe Tsetso, Leo Norwegian, and Edward Cholo
• Trout Lake: Arthur Jumbo, Dolphus Jumbo, Tony Jumbo, Edward Jumbo, Ruby Jumbo, Eric Kotchea, and Lucas Cli

While a definitive right-of-way has not been identified for the pipeline, which is in excess of 1400 km in length, a 1 km wide corridor has been identified.  

Aerial view of a large boulder feature near the Mackenzie River.

As this is too wide for a conventional heritage resources impact assessment, investigations are limited to reconnaissance techniques of selected moderate and high potential areas.   A heritage resources impact assessment will be completed once the right-of-way within the corridor has been selected.   For the 2002 field season, areas were selected for examination based on aerial photograph and NTS map analysis as well as helicopter over-flights.   During the winter of 2003, the project team identified several reroutes.   Subsequently, the archaeological team conducted reconnaissance level investigations at reroute locations thought to exhibit moderate to high potential for heritage resources.    

Heritage resource impact assessments were also undertaken at a selection of the infrastructure and granular resource extraction sites.   As with the pipeline corridor, moderate and high potential areas have been focused on and additional investigations can be anticipated as project plans become more finalized.   

Mosquitoes!

Numerous prehistoric and historic sites were recorded / revisited.   These include a wide variety of site types and ages.   The precontact period sites are primarily comprised of stone flakes and other debris remaining from stone tool manufacturing.   No temporally diagnostic stone tools were recovered during the field investigations.   Historic period sites primarily relate to traditional land use practices and include numerous trails, cabins and camps.   Palaeontological materials include one location of preserved tree trunks and leaf litter identified north of the current tree line preserved in permafrost.   A number of traditional land use areas such as traplines and camps were also observed / recorded.