One of the archaeologists who excavated the Rocky Mountain Fort site in the 1980s says much remains to be discovered about historical First Nations encampments near the site and valuable information will be lost forever if it is flooded for the Site C dam.
Lakehead University professor Scott Hamilton, a specialist in fur trade historic archaeology and ethnohistory, was a PhD student at Simon Fraser University when he spent two summers as the “pit boss” overseeing a dig to uncover the remains of the fort, the first European outpost in mainland B.C.
The site, near the confluence of the Peace and Moberly Rivers in northeastern B.C., is the scene of a First Nations-led standoff aimed at preventing BC Hydro from logging an area slated to be flooded by Site C’s reservoir, which would stretch for 107-kilometres along the Peace River and its tributaries.
Treaty 8 members and local farmers are camped out in minus 20-degree weather, vowing to risk arrest to protect Rocky Mountain Fort and the rest of the Peace River Valley from Site C. They have prevented planned logging from taking place so far this year.