Qu’ Appelle River Valley Spur Line Project
The Project
Several thousand stone flakes, dozens of stone tools, tens of thousands of bone fragments, at least one mammoth, hundreds of hours of paperwork, and a Master’s Thesis. The Qu’Appelle River valley spur line, also referred to as the Belle Plaine Spur Line project was a comprehensive multi-year archaeological, traditional land use, and paleontological impact investigation. The project included preliminary survey, site recording, site excavation, mitigation, and monitoring. This has been one of the largest single development undertakings that Arrow has had the privilege of working on. This project, also involved a critical discovery for the Province of Saskatchewan, in a mammoth tusk fragment more than 40000 years old.
In addition to multiple recorded sites and immense paleontological discoveries, the Belle Plaine Spur-Line project also afforded Arrow the opportunity to develop strong relationships with local stakeholders, particularly in local First Nations groups. Building and maintaining these relationships with all stakeholders is a cornerstone of how Arrow does business, and we look forward to the opportunity to building with our future clients.
Excavated Cairn site on uplands surrounding the Qu’Appelle Valley
Many newly and previously recorded sites that are in direct conflict with large-scale, or small-scale projects must be mitigated to satisfy heritage and historical requirements. In the case of the Qu’Appelle Spur Line Project, many sites were mitigated through excavation, detail mapping, and laboratory analysis. This is an example of the systematic research that is a proponent responsibility when working with heritage resources, and an expertise of Arrow.