View of Bear Rock from the Mackenzie River.

On behalf of the Department of Transportation, GNWT, Glen MacKay, Assessment Archaeologist at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, conducted an archaeological impact assessment of the proposed Great Bear River Bridge Project.

The proposed Great Bear River Bridge (GBRB) Project, located in Tulita, NT, will require several project components, including the bridge, the right-of-way for the bridge approaches and tie-ins to the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road, and the camp and stockpile areas required to support bridge construction. The development of these project components will involve clearing and/or excavating by heavy machinery, leading to significant ground disturbance in areas of high archaeological potential, thus warranting a pre-construction archaeological impact assessment.

A detailed investigation was conducted for all of the high potential zones in the project footprint, including all development areas immediately adjacent to the banks of the Great Bear River, which exhibit high potential for campsites and travel routes, and the edges of oxbow ridges found on both sides of the river, which were likely used as lookouts for large game hunting.

Fire Cracked Rock from a Buried Hearth in Archaeological Site LfRq-17.

The assessment of these high potential areas included walking transects across the development area to locate any surface features, and inspecting subsurface exposures (i.e. tree-throws and eroded sections of the riverbank) and excavating shovel tests to detect evidence of buried archaeological deposits. The areas of lower archaeological potential – in general, the wetter areas between the riverbanks and oxbow ridges – were visually inspected by walking the winter road alignment right-of-way.

As a result of the assessment undertaken for the proposed Great Bear River Bridge, four archaeological sites were recorded. Archaeological Site LfRq-16 is a small precontact campsite located at the confluence of an ephemeral drainage channel with the north bank of the Great Bear River. This campsite is centred on a small hearth feature containing fire-cracked rock and highly fragmented large mammal bone. Lithic tools include a cobble-spall hide scraper and three refitting core fragments. Archaeological Site LfRq-17 is a small precontact campsite located at the confluence of a small drainage channel with the north bank of the Great Bear River. This campsite is centred on a small hearth feature containing numerous pieces of fire-cracked rock and highly fragmented bone (small and large mammal). Archaeological site LfRq-18 is a low-density lithic scatter located at the confluence of a small drainage channel with the north bank of the Great Bear River. The site assemblage includes a graver, a biface fragment and two flakes. Archaeological site LfRq-19 consists of a large flake found on the surface of the Enbridge Pipeline right-of-way. The primary context of this artifact is unknown but it likely belongs to an archaeological deposit disturbed during construction of the pipeline.

Site management plans were designed for these sites to ensure that they are adequately mitigated prior to construction of the proposed Great Bear River Bridge.