Place—Sometimes Gone But Not Forgotten

Guattari is clear: Place is about relationships and is in fact a “social construct.” As I continue to digest these ideas from The Three Ecologies, I have searched for some real-time/real-life scenarios. One such example immediately comes to mind. During the 2008 Forest History Association of BC’s Forest History conference at UNBC, a field trip to the Upper Fraser River communities of Willow River, Aleza Lake, and Giscome showcased the ease at which communities can be erased. Wandering past the defunct Eagle Lake Sawmill (once “the largest spruce sawmill in the world [that] operated from 1923 to 1972") and through the deserted, sagging community church, I was struck by the silence—a silence of forgone relationships, of place reluctantly abandoned. The memory of this encounter was resurrected today when I ran across an interactive National Film Board video of Pine Point, Northwest Territories—a single resource-based/owned town built to service Cominco’s lead/zinc mining operations. The mine was shut down in 1988 and the community's “buildings were removed or demolished.” Much the same thing had happened to Giscome in 1975. Pine Point not only is remembered in the video, Welcome to Pine Point, but also on the website, Pine Point Revisited. Both these websites bring into sharp focus Adrienne’s illuminating discussion yesterday on how we memorialize place (or not) through narrative.

PS: Check out Kent Sedwick's book on the town, Giscome Chronicle and C. S. Giscombe's award winning poetry in Giscome Road.