As an irreplaceable historical resource, the Atlas Coal Mine is making sure the tipple will remain standing for generations to enjoy and learn from.
Last week Gordon MacDonald and Steve Lawrence of MacDonald & Lawrence Timber Framing were at the Atlas Coal Mine to assess the condition of the tipple.
“We are looking at it in a more comprehensive way than we have ever looked at it before,” said Linda Digby, executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine.
Digby said they completed repairs to the south end of the structure a couple years ago, and now are looking at the rest of the structure where the actual bins are located.
“They are looking at every joint and every timber. They are actually drilling every structural timber to get a Resistograph reading that will tell us how sound the timber is,” said Digby.
The Alberta Historical Resources Foundation and a Parks Canada cost-sharing program for the project funded the project. The Atlas has also contributes to the project.
“The mandate of our preservation strategy is always to preserve as much original material as we can. The goal is to keep as much original as possible and only replace what is absolute essential, so this will give us the hard data we need to make those decisions over the next few years,” said Digby.
MacDonald and Lawrence’s expertise is in heavy wood structures, and they have completed many varied projects. The Atlas is an interesting project for the company.
“When someone first looks at the tipple, it is this incredible maze of timbers. It looks like pick-up sticks and after working with it for a few days, and also working with the historic drawings, it reveals these quite simple, rational systems that are all just tangled together. Each of the individual systems are simple and make perfect sense once you can see it for what it is,” said MacDonald “That has been really fun, it is like solving a crossword puzzle.”
Lawrence points out these are the first substantial repairs the structure has received in eighty years. MacDonald says just important as the original structure is the historical context of the wear and the repairs. It all goes towards telling the story of the building.
“We don’t want to remove that stuff because it is all part of the exciting story of the place and how it was used and looked after. We want to make repairs to the underlying structure, but not change the story,” said MacDonald.
The tipple was originally built in 1929 and Digby explains it was moved across the river to its present location. In 1937 the structure was rebuilt. At each of these phases changes were made to the structure. While the museum does not have every detail of the tipple’s lifespan, they are lucky to have the original blueprints for the structure as well as photo documentary evidence.
“The big task now… is to come up with a method that will give the structure its integrity and enable the historic site to look after it in perpetuity, which is always our goal,” said MacDonald. “From what we have seen it looks like the tipple is going to require a fair amount of work to put it back in that condition, so that will be the big challenge for the Atlas over the next few years.”
“There is no question it is a treasure and an important one at that, but in these economic times it’s tricky to find sufficient funding for a project.”
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