Northwoods Memories Multimedia Productions

Darkwater Lake has two sites, both near the south end of the lake.  One is on the west shore and the other on the east shore.  While the images on both sites on Darkwater Lake can be fairly easily seen, there is evidence that the site has been repainted since the original images were painted on the cliff.  We discussed evidence for repainting in the Northwoods Pictograph Bulletin for Darkwater Lake.  We would like to find photographs taken decades ago to compare the images  across time.

Photos would only be of interest if they were taken at least in or before the 1950’s.  Not only would we like to see if there is evidence or repainting but images on this site appear to be of different time periods, or perhaps to have been painted with different pigment or binding agents.  Images that are very bright right next to ones that can hardly be seen bring this question to mind.

If you have in your family photo albums or old records, old photos of this site we would like to hear from you.  If you are aware of people who might have paddled this area prior to the 50’s we would like to know how to contact them.  If you have any of this information, please contact us at info@northwoodsmemoriesmmp.com  or call us at 405-823-0469.

Thanks.

Progress on the book is being made, but slowly.  Some image processing in black and white is difficult.  When images are specific, such as a canoe, or a cross, or a figure, we are able to select the red image from the background, change it to B&W and then do any one of a number of things to make it easily visible.  In many cases, however, images are abstract and the exact form of the image is not obvious.  While we want to show these images, they cannot be easily lifted from the background and showing them in place is difficult.  But we are persevering and getting better.

In the mean time we are going to try an additional approach.  Many of the unclear images seen now, and in the twenty-five or so years we have been studying them, were once much more clear.  In the course of our work we have visited with many paddlers who viewed a site thirty or forty years ago when it was much more clear than now.

So we are going to ask you, our readers, to help us.  Following will be a series of posts about specific sites where we will describe sites or parts of sites where information in the form of photographs may have been recorded many decades ago.  If you have any of this information or old photos, or know of those who might, please contact us.  While we are constantly searching the net for more information, you may know of references with old photos or diagrams about which we are not aware.   We will, of course, recognize the sources of the information when we publish.

So please read the posts about what we would like to locate and help us out if you can.

We are excited that we have been notified by the Rutabaga staff that we have had our presentation proposal accepted for Canoecopia 2010.  We will be presenting at 4:30 on Saturday March 13.   

As you know, we started three years ago revisiting every pictograph site in canoe country that we have visited in the last 20 + years of paddling, and visiting the remaining known sites not visited.  Our goal was to produce a complete and accurate record of every known pictograph site in canoe country.  Out of this project has come the Northwoods Pictograph bulletin series and much more. 

As many of you also know, in the course of this study, we have been notified of some sites about which we did not know.  On visiting these we have found some are probably authentic and we also have found two to date that very probably are not authentic.  We have found images at some sites that we have not seen previously reported, often using photo analysis techniques.  We also have found some images where authenticity is not clear.  And we have corrected some long held and incorrect information on the locations of some sites.

So our proposal was to present the most interesting of the new sites visited, authentic or not.  We are also presenting some very new information about some very old and well known sites.  In the presentation we will explain some of the photo analysis techniques used to evaluate images, discover images, and make images more easily understandable.  Check out Canoecopia at  www.rutabaga.com/canoecopia

For all of you attending Canoecopia 2010, please come by our presentation.  We would love to see you.  In addition, we will be on the Canoecopia floor throughout the conference wearing easily recognizable shirts.  Please stop us to say “hi” and visit.  We are looking forward to meeting each one of you.

Our Northwoods Pictograph project is based on our commitment to revisit every pictograph site seen in the past and visit those we have not yet seen.  On our first trip in 2007, we visited 13 sites through 4 entry points in Quetico and two entry points in the Boundary Waters.  This trip consisted of four individual trips of one or more nights and two day trips of a few hours each.  In this report on the first part of the trip, I will cover the day trip to the Sea Gull Lake pictograph site (in the BWCA) and the overnight trip to the Cache Bay site across the Canadian borderOrder Cache Bay and Seagull Lake Bulletins.

Northwoods Pictograph bulletins used on this trip:  Saganaga Lake, Cache Bay and Seagull Lake  (one bulletin covering two sites).  Order Bulletin here .
 

 Fisher Map used on this trip:  F 19

McKenzie Map used on this trip:  Map 6

  I also provide some information for future paddlers or those interested in simple trips, pictures of the Cache Bay Ranger Station, a video clip of the Quetico sea plane resupplying the Cache Bay Ranger station,  and the account of a completely unexpected and exciting encounter with a group of paddlers who reported a new petroglyph site. (more…)

Our first trip of 2008 took us to a total of 14 pictograph sites around the periphery of Quetico and in the Boundary Waters.  To complete our series of Northwoods Pictograph Bulletins, we committed to revisiting every site we have visited in the past to check the accuracy of our photographs and records, and to visit the few remaining sites we had not yet visited. (more…)