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Hanging
Flume, Uravan, Colorado
by
Kelly Streeter, Photos by Jon Reis, Sketch by Robert Silman Associates,
P.C.
The Flume
The
cliffs of the Dolores River are the site of one of the longest historic
structures in Colorado: the 13-mile long remnant of a hanging flume just
north of Uravan, Colorado.
Built over three years in the 1880's, the flume carried water
to the hydraulic mining operations of the Montrose Placer Mining
Company. The water was used to provide hydraulic power to separate
gold from alluvial rock deposits originating in the San Juan mountains,
but after only three years, the mining operation was shut down.
Now, more than 100 years after its construction, the flume is showing
its age.
Listed
on the National Register of Historic Places, what remains of the
structure is a series of wooden brackets, suspended or braced by metal
rods, inserted into holes drilled into the cliff face.
The Project
The
State Historical Fund awarded a grant for the flume investigative effort
to the Western Colorado Interpretive Association (WCIA), after a
Historic Structure Assessment was completed in 2002. WCIA's
executive director Michelle Murphy selected Ron Anthony of Anthony &
Associates to manage the project. Anthony, a wood scientist from
Fort Collins, CO, believes the technical questions about the flume's
construction methods will be best answered with careful research and
investigation. Additionally, the project team delved into the
construction camps, trails and supply drop-off points associated with
its construction. "Construction of the Hanging Flume in the 1880s was accomplished in a time
and place that we can barely imagine," Anthony says, "It would be selfish and irresponsible
to allow these construction, engineering and human achievements to vanish
without doing our best to make them available for future generations."
The
near-term goal of the grant is to document and
understand the construction details of the remaining components of the
flume. Ultimately, this may allow this unique artifact to be preserved
for public education and historic interpretation . Long-term
objectives remain undecided,
however. Jill Seyfarth, a cultural resource planner, will finish a
master plan early next year, recommending the best plan for public
interpretation for the flume. Options that have been discussed
include preserving what is left of the structure, reconstruction of
segments of the flume using historic techniques, creating a scaled
replica, and adding interpretive signs along nearby roads and mountain
bike trails. Regardless of its fate, the flume could provide a
welcome tourism draw to the region.
The
new widespread interest in the structure doesn't tell the whole story.
For years, locals here have collected information, photographs, and
details about the structure -- a very important research tool to Ron
Anthony. "Many locals know a lot about
the flume and we hope they get in touch with us," he said.
"We would also like to hear about what people think about the
project, whether they thing it's a waste of time of if
they're supportive."
The
Project Team
The
project team for the hanging flume project is large and
multi-disciplined:
Alpine Archeological Consultants, Inc.
|
Jon
Horn
Jack Pfertsh
David Guilfoyle
Juliana Vivona |
Anthony & Associates, Inc.
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Ron
Anthony
Deb Anthony |
Bureau of Land Management
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Julie
Coleman |
Colorado Preservation , Inc.
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Pat
Holcomb |
Colorado Center for Community Development
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Jon
Schler |
Cultural Resource Planning
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Jill
Seyfarth |
Jerald Reid
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Jerald
Reid |
State Historical Fund
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Jim
Joy
Jennifer Cook
Tom Carr
Alyson McGee |
Robert Silman Associates,
P.C
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Justin
Spivey
Helena Meryman |
Vertical Access,
LLC
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Kent
Diebolt
Mike Gilbert
Donn Hewes
Jon Reis |
Western Colorado Interpretive Association
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Michelle
Murphy |
Photographer Tyler Young
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Tyler
Young |
Funding
Contributors:
1. Colorado Historical Society
2. State Historical Fund
3. Bureau of Land Management
4. Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway Council
5. Bacon Foundation
6. National Trust for Historic Preservation
7. San Miguel County
8. Montrose West Recreation
9. John Hendricks
10. John Bratton, Gateway Construction
The Site Work
Vertical
Access technicians Donn Hewes, Mike Gilbert, Tom Zajicek and Kent Diebolt
accompanied the team on site during the week of 26 April, 2004, to
document the remnants of the flume. Structural engineers Justin
Spivey and Helena Meryman (of Robert Silman Associates, P.C.) joined VA
on ropes to complete the inspection. As on-line VA technicians
surveyed the brackets with a video camera, an engineer at a monitor on
the cliffs several hundred feet above the flume noted measurements and
dictated observations. On Tuesday morning alone, three different
types of truss or
bracket configurations were identified and documented!
The
flume is located in a sparsely populated area of Western Colorado:
"50 miles from anywhere you want to be" says Sandy's Cafe
owner Sandy Pottorff. The extreme isolation of the site made it a
unique project for Vertical Access, who's technicians are accustomed to
urban work sites, where they go to a deli for lunch and can communicate
via cell phones. This time, they stayed 20 miles away in Naturita,
CO. Lunch, snacks and water were packed and ferried to the site
daily. A battery-operated monitor was used for the live-feed
video. This project, more than any other, had high-value
logistics. If a battery was left behind, or a cooler was
forgotten, an entire day could be wasted rectifying the situation.
Lack of cellular phone signal necessitated renting a satellite phone in
case of an emergency.
Safety
was a great concern given the site's remote location. VA has always
operated with a rescue plan that connects the casualty to an ambulance.
With the nearest emergency services several hours away, VA enlisted Donn
Hewes, a Cortland, NY firefighter and occasional VA technician, as
on-site EMT.
Without
a doubt, this will prove to be one of the most interesting and out-of-the-ordinary
projects Vertical Access has ever worked on. Mike Gilbert quipped that
"it's more interesting than the Chrysler Building.", and that's
saying a lot!
The Photographer
Ithaca
based photographer Jon Reis of Jon Reis Photo + Design has been working
for architects, engineers, historic preservationists, and commercial
developers for twenty-five years shooting from airplanes, helicopters,
and the roofs of skyscrapers.
The
recent trip to Uravan, Co to photograph Vertical Access on the Hanging
Flume was one of the most challenging jobs he faced in his eight years
doing publicity photographs for Vertical-Access on historic and unusual
structures.
Many of the rope drops were a great distance from good vantage
points and Reis needed to utilize long and fast 600mm and 1200mm lenses
to get close-ups of the team at work.
A
portfolio of his photography will illustrate an upcoming article in the
September 2004 issue STRUCTURE magazine about inspection by rope access.
For
more information, see Jon's website at www.jonreis.com
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Raising
the Grade for Preservation
![raising the grade for historic preservation](img/top3a.jpg) ![](img/logo1.jpg)
APTI's annual conference will take
place this year in Galveston, TX from November 4-7. Paper sessions
include:
Standards for Preservation and
Sustainability
Technology of Investigation
Mitigation of Sustained Hazards
Workshop Training Sessions Include:
Mitigation of Destructive
Organisms
Decorative Painting
Cast and Wrought Iron
Preservation Engineering: Diagnostics and Repair Strategies
For more information, please see the
APTI website at www.apti.org
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Vertical
Access Technicians Test to SPRAT Standards
by Kelly Streeter
During
the week of June 13, Vertical Access
Technicians Kent Diebolt, James Banta, Mike Gilbert, Tom Zajicek, Kelly
Streeter and
Stardust Atkeson reviewed and practiced rescue procedures at the
Lindseth Climing Wall on Cornell's campus in Ithaca, New York.
At the end of the week,
Robert Aguiluz, a SPRAT (Society of Rope Access Technicians)* evaluator, came to test each of the VA personnel
to the SPRAT standards. The week was a productive and interesting
time spent honing our rescue skills and protocols.
For more information on
SPRAT, see www.sprat.org.
*The Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians was founded to provide a specific and useful resource for information, networking, and support for companies and workers who use on-the-job rope access techniques. The society is built from a strong framework of rope-access systems users. SPRAT is committed to developing safe, practical industry standards. Members enjoy the security that comes from using an industry-consensus standard for rope-access techniques as the baseline from which to form an authorized body of written work"
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Employee
Updates
James
Banta
James Banta
will be taking a leave of absence from Vertical Access to accompany his
wife Andaleeb to Genoa, Italy. Andaleeb received the Theodore Rousseau
Fellowship in the History of Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
a Fulbright Travel Grant to conduct archival research and continue
writing her dissertation in Italy. James and Andaleeb are very much
looking forward to spending a year in Genoa.
Liv
Streeter
Liv
Streeter, the youngest member of the VA team, was hired on March 18,
2004. Liv joins Mom on site every once in a while - she isn't
on the ropes quite yet as she is still mastering head control.
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