Vandal 探索r Series: Historical Log Cabin in Chewelah
Student 日期 Historical Colville Indian Agency Cabin Using Tree-Ring Science
破坏者探险者| Chewelah
How do we pinpoint the age of a cabin built before the city built around it? Matt Franz uses tree-ring science or dendrochronology. University of Idaho’s 格兰特哈雷 and his students traveled to Chewelah, 华盛顿, to age the Colville Indian Agency Cabin, and answer questions for the local historical society.
Matt Franz has learned that walls can talk. They just need someone to translate.
The senior who is majoring in 林业与火灾生态学 is working with Associate Professor 格兰特哈雷, who runs a tree-ring laboratory in the Department of Geography and Geological Sciences. 2021年夏天, Harley’s team traveled to Chewelah, 华盛顿, to age the Colville Indian Agency Cabin.
小屋是Maj. 约翰一. 希姆斯, an Indian Agent of the United States who worked with the Coeur d’Alene, 斯波坎, 卡利斯佩尔和科尔维尔部落. The Stevens County Historical Society believes the cabin was built in the mid-1800s and reached out to Harley for help pinpointing its exact year of construction.
The team used hollow drills to extract tree cores from the cabin’s walls and ceiling. Each core contains a record of the tree’s growth, or a ring for every year. The width of each ring varies depending on the climate each year.
The team will compare the growth pattern of the cabin’s tree cores with cores taken from local living trees. If the living trees are old enough that the tree-ring pattern from the cabin logs matches the early rings from the living trees, the team will know when the cabin logs were harvested for use and help the historical society piece together the history of the region.
本文由 利库柏, University Communications and Marketing.
Photos courtesy of Matt Franz, 自然资源学院.
Video editing by Kara Billington, University Communications and Marketing.
2021年7月出版.