Saving an Alaskan Treasure

Saving an Alaskan Treasure. . , Blockhouse , Spruce, birch, tamarack, moss, weatherproof membrane, canvas , Kolmakovsky Redoubt, 1841 , Collector: Al Walsh, 1929, In 2009, the University of Alaska Museum of the North was awarded a $75,000 Save America's Treasures grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to preserve the Kolmakovsky Redoubt collections. This included rehousing and stabilizing the 5,000 artifacts in the archaeology department, as well as rehabilitating the blockhouse., Between the summer of 2010 and fall of 2011, a team of local log preservation specialists, led by Sandy Jamieson, disassembled the building, cut replacement logs using traditional double-lapped locking joints, stabilized other structural components, reassembled the building, and re-established a sod roof of locally-harvested moss., [Photo captions, left to right, read] , . The fully rehabilitated blockhouse, complete with tundra moss roof and birchbark-wrapped poles, receives its first dusting of snow following the successful Save America's Treasures project., . Contractors remove the roof in preparation for disassembling the blockhouse., . The blockhouse walls being reassembled on the new foundation. Rotten logs were replaced with new scribe-cut sections of local white spruce., . Contractors place the newly stabilized roof onto the reassembled and rehabilitated blockhouse structure., This project was supported in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.