Thermal Imaging and "seeing the unseen" at Industrial Heritage Sites

After years of talking about our potential to collaborate on remote sensing and geospatial mapping technologies, I finally had an opportunity to work with some colleagues at the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI). We decided to scrape together some resources so we could experiment. Rick Dobson, Research Scientist, and David Banach, Assistant Research Scientist, were both going to be in Houghton in July for some other important meetings. We convinced their boss to extend their visit so that we could get a few days to fly UAVs over industrial heritage sites in the Copper Country. 

Figure 1: The Bergen Hexacopter and FLIR camera flying at the Quincy Smelter.

I took David and Rick to different places. After considering the gear we had and the time of year, we decided to focus our efforts on the Quincy Smelter site (Figure 1). The Quincy Smelter is the last standing 19th Century copper smelter in the country. Built in 1908 by the Quincy Mining Company, people worked at the smelter until 1971, when the company finally shut down the operation. The company locked the doors and left the site alone, with the hope they could reopen and resume operations in the future. The reopening never happened, but even after years of neglect, the facility is still remarkably intact. The National Park Service recognized the importance of the smelter as a heritage resource, including it in the Quincy Mining Company National Historic Landmark District and ultimately within the boundaries of Keweenaw National Historical Park. While the Franklin Township held the property for many years, caring for it as well they could, the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission finally acquired the property. With the help of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association and the Quincy Smelter Association, the site is now open for guided tours Monday through Saturday, late June through mid-October. (Information on Facebook sites here and here!)

Figure 2: GIS overlay of 1906 plan map superimposed over a geo-referenced aerial image, showing the location of the Slag Shed and Scales building, and some underground water pipe locations. These were some of the targets we were investigating.

Reports and publications from this work will be submitted to the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission so the information can be used to guide future management decisions and in the development of interpretive programming. Copies will also be archived at Michigan Tech's University Archives and Historical Collections, and if given permission, we will make them free to download from the Department of Social Sciences website.

Figure 3. Geo-referenced high-resolution photogrammetric DEM with the 1906 Slag Shed and Scales outlined in red.

Figure 4: FLIR Vue Pro R thermal camera onboard of the Bergen Hexacopter.

Figure 5: The Bergen Hexacopter and FLIR camera at the Quincy Smelter

Figure 6: Geo-referenced FLIR Vue Pro R thermal imagery overlain on the photogrammetric DEM with the 1906 Slag Shed and Scales outlined. Differential thermal patterns reveal indications of some sub-surface structures at the location of the Slag Shed and Scales building.

After reviewing and mosaicking the thermal imagery, cooler sub-surface features appeared where the Slag Shed and Scales building once existed in 1906. Lots of features! Some of these features, like the lumber scrap around the standing shed, are on the surface of the ground and are visible in the optical imagery. But most of the patterned strips that look like railroad ties are invisible and nobody had any idea they were there (Figure 6 and 7). At first glance, David thought these features were ties for rail tracks, but because they are geo-referenced and imported into ArcMap, he could measure them. The smaller features measure nearly seven feet, much larger than today’s standard 4.5-foot tie for modern gauge track (details in Figure 7). They may be cross ties for rail track, since larger size ties were used. Another possibility is that these features are some sort of foundational support for the Slag Shed and Scales building.  

Figure 7. Detail of geo-referenced FLIR Thermal Image photomosaic superimposed on the DEM in the area of the Slag Shed and Scales Building.

We will have to do some "ground truthing" to find out what the different types of anomalies actually are under the ground! I will ask my students in Fall 2019 if they'd like to volunteer to help with some of the testing to assess the thermal anomalies. Right now, we've shared our findings with other archaeologists that have done work at the site over the years to get their thoughts. Hopefully we will be able to find funds to continue the study. We'd like to do another round of thermal imaging during the evening "cool down" as the ground emits all the energy it has absorbed during the day. I'd also like to add data captured using multi- and/or hyper-spectral instruments, since the different energy spectra all can reveal different potential about the site. 
My colleague Jeremy Shannon and his students ran some Ground Penetrating Radar at the site, and we'd like to pull his data into the GIS. If we can get some additional equipment for Tech's GPR, we'd also be able to more efficiently scan the entire work yard space at the smelter. The GPR has potential to add information about more deeply buried features, such as pipes and the boundary between the poor rock fill and the original shoreline and lake bottom.
I am grateful to Rick and David and my colleagues at MTRI for their willingness to collaborate. Remote sensing and digitization tools are becoming much more readily available to archaeologists after a long period where only elite research institutions had common access to these technologies. I know that Rick and David are terribly busy with other research projects and I really value their efforts to help me spark some collaborative work. We are also using this material to create educational materials we can use in classrooms at Michigan Tech where students can use our tools to look at local sites and solve real world problems for local organizations. These are interesting and important technologies for industrial heritage and emerging professionals in the field must know how to use them, as operators and/or collaborators!

Michigan Technological University's Industrial Archaeology students have helped the preservation efforts in many ways over the years, by volunteering time as archaeologists conducting forensic rescue excavation and recovery after an arson in 2010, assisting with cultural resources monitoring during ongoing environmental remediations, and advocating as volunteers within the community as part of the Quincy Smelter Association. Exemplary of that work, check out this blog that Sean Gohman and Craig Wilson put together as part of that effort! They included lots of photographs, maps, and historical discussion about the smelter. That blog is now an archived resource. The Copper Country Explorer is an independent website by Mark Forgrave has published lots of pics and information about the Quincy Smelter.

The Quincy Smelter is typical of legacy sites in industrial heritage because it included a landscape with a legacy of environmental contamination that posed both ecological and public health hazards. Rather than acting hastily to demolish the site, many different partners worked for years to find ways to secure the site, remediate the toxic materials that posed threats to health or ecological systems, and start the bring the site back. The Environmental Protection Agency just published a short summary of the story of the smelter, Quincy Smelter: From Stamp Sands to National Historic Park. Michigan Tech students and faculty have supported the efforts to make wise decisions through the remediation process. As two examples, Fred Sutherland and Sean Gohman have both monitored remediation and clean up projects in past years. 

These legacies make the smelter an ideal laboratory for us where we can test the applications of various remote sensing technologies and work through the data fusion challenges, while also contributing to a long term preservation and interpretation effort. Can we use remote sensing technologies to map underground features? That would be much less expensive than having an archaeology crew do subsurface testing of the entire smelter complex to find those features. Once identified, the managers can plan to avoid important features during redevelopment. Can remote sensing help identify targets of that have high risk of toxic contaminants? Doing so will also help with planning. Understanding the subsurface "landscape" of historical features is essential to thoughtful and wise planning as the KNHP Advisory Commission and it's partners work to preserve the site and bring it back to life.

We started last July by flying two instrument platforms: a DJI Phantom Quadcopter fitted with a 14 Megapixel Color Camera and a Bergen Hexacopter with an onboard FLIR Vue Pro R (radiometric) thermal sensor. Before the field days, I had gathered high-resolution scans of historic maps and blueprints of the Quincy Smelter site from the Michigan Tech's archive and the collections at the Keweenaw National Historical Park (some of those maps are also here). David set up a Geographic Information System database using all the historic plan maps that I could find. He traced the building footprints so that we could superimpose those plots overtop of any geo-referenced image of the site (Figures 2 and 3).

Archaeologists have long used aerial thermal imaging to spot features and sites underground. The technique works because different materials, such as a stone foundation or a capped and buried well shaft, will absorb and radiate heat energy differently and patterns in this "differential thermal loading" therefore can reveal clues about what is buried under the ground. The Bergen Hexacopter UAV platform carried an onboard FLIR Vue Pro R (radiometric) thermal sensor for several flights during the early morning (Figures 4 and 5). We'd received FAA approval for a flight plan in the narrow window of time between civil twilight (when it becomes light enough to see) and actual sunrise. After the sun breaks over the horizon, the thermal energy of direct radiation overwhelms and "washes out" any subtle thermal variation in the ground surface. The drone captured most of our best images during a flight at about 6:45 AM. When researchers use thermal imaging in archaeological survey, it is common for them to also capture a series of images as the landscape cools down, flying between sunset and evening twilight. We didn't have FAA permission to conduct those flights, so we took only "warm up" images as the site began differentially absorbing the ambient energy from morning twilight, before the sun rose over the buildings.



Like a GPS-equipped camera, the sensor captures images that are stored in JPEG format and can be used in GIS software such as ArcMAP and image mosaicking software such as Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE). The FLIR sensor records the radiated thermal energy as it varies from spot to spot on a surface, then assigns a false-color pixel to each value. This sensor has an imaging resolution of 640 x 512 and can sense temperatures between -4°F and 122°F. 

David used ICE to mosaic the individual images and then import that mosaic into the GIS. The results of his work were pretty remarkable! (See Figure 6 below).

In my next post, I'm going to talk more about Rick's photogrammetry work. He has produced a remarkable Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the site with tremendous potential to contribute to site management, study, and interpretation. He is also designing experiments now to compare the applications of LiDAR and optical photogrammetry in industrial heritage. 




If you would like to make a tax deductible gift in support of work at this and the Cliff Mine, you can make a gift to the Michigan Tech Fund online at this address:
https://www.banweb.mtu.edu/mtu/mtf/gift/give.xsql?desig=18143-Cliff%20Mine%20Arch-DeptSocSci-Scarlett
Or by contacting Benjamin Larson at the Michigan Tech Fund at 906-487-2464 or balarson@mtu.edu. Donated funds provide for student scholarships and equipment purchase and maintenance in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program.

Rural Community Sustainability: Research, Applications, and Engagement in Calumet, Michigan

Rural Community Sustainability: Research, Applications, and Engagement in Calumet, Michigan

Dr. Richelle Winkler

Assistant Professor of Sociology & Demography

Environmental and Energy Policy Program

Department of Social Sciences

Michigan Technological University

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar
Monday, February 25, 2013 3:00-4:00 PM
Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), room 201

Rural communities across the United States and around the world have long suffered from diseconomies of scale and dependence upon an exported extractive resource base to outside interests in more urban locations. Most of our rural communities are in decline demographically, economically, and socially. They face unique challenges and opportunities in the context of an increasingly “flat” and globalized world. My research aims to understand how rural communities transition from a legacy of resource dependence and population decline toward vibrant sustainable futures. What are these challenges and opportunities and how can they be overcome?

This presentation will explore the concept of rural community sustainability and describe ways in which the natural resource/economic base in rural communities is related to age-specific migration patterns. Then, I will focus on a new project underway in Calumet, MI that specifically investigates community efforts toward sustainability in this community with a legacy of natural resource dependence. Taking a community based research approach, I am engaging with community groups to investigate the potential for redevelopment focused on alternative energies, including solar and mine water geothermal.

Fire at the Quincy Smelter site

Last night and early this morning, several local fire crews responded to an emergency call about a structure fire at the site of the historic Quincy Smelting Works.  The smelter, built in 1898, is the last copper smelter standing in the Keweenaw Peninsula. I have heard many people claim that this is one of last and best preserved nineteenth and early twentieth century copper smelters in the world.

The buildings that burned were the Carpenter Shop and it's Lumber Shed.  The smelter blog included pictures taken of these two buildings before the fire, along with a description of their history:

The Quincy Smelter's Carpenter Shop and Lumber Shed from the blog: http://quincysmelter.wordpress.com

More photographs and text about the support buildings were posted by the Copper Country Explorer:
http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2009/12/the-support-buildings-p1/

The fire started at about 11 pm on Saturday night.  Due to it's location on the water in Ripley, the fire was visible from all over downtown Houghton.  Here is the "stub" story in the Mining Gazette:

The Daily Mining Gazette's photo in their coverage of the fire.

Photos of the event are finding their way to media sites like Flickr.com.

This morning I went down to see the damage.  I am very grateful to the firefighters for working so hard to save the Stock House, which was scorched by the heat, and the other buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Carpenter Shop.  Here are some pictures from my cell phone camera of the ruined buildings this afternoon:

Upcoming Lectures and Presentations, March 23, 2010.

A series of excellent events coming up of interest to the industrial heritage and industrial patrimony.

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Social Science Brown Bag Lecture Series: Louise Dyble

"Landmark of Death: Responsibility, Safety, and the Question of a Suicide Barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge."

http://www.payingthetoll.net/

Friday, March 26th, 12 Noon - 1 PM. Room AOB 201.

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T. Allan Comp visit and lectures, March 28-29, 2010

Biography:

Dr T. Allan Comp is an historian based in Washington, DC. Jo Hanson, the pioneering public artist in San Francisco, once described Allan as "a relaxed blend of John Muir, John Dewey and John the Baptist." He holds a Ph.D in history, worked for several years in cultural resources with the National Park Service, left that to work as a developer of historic properties and consultant to historic preservation projects, and then to work for a regional Heritage Area in western Pennsylvania where he invented AMD&ART. Always a volunteer for AMD&ART, his work attracted the attention of other watershed and community improvement projects in the Appalachian coal country and in the Western hard rock mining country as well. Winner of multiple awards in partnerships and planning, Allan now leads the OSM/VISTA Team and Brownfields Initiatives at the Office of Surface Mining in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
http://tacomp.info/

Coffee with Social Science grad students from Industrial Heritage and Archaeology and Environmental Policy.

Monday, March 29, 8:30-9:30, Annex Seminar Room 

The Use of Sustainability through Combining Arts and Sciences in Professional Practice and Environmental Reclamation

Monday March 29, 2010 3pm DOW 642

The term "sustainable" can be, and is, thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean?  How are we as practicing professionals working in the environment to appropriately use the term?  What are the realistic dimensions of "sustainable'?  What part does public input, public understanding, public support play in sustainability?

I'd like to review a few projects that attempted a broader approach to sustainability and then turn to some of the lessons learned in those efforts, both for professional practice and the
language we use to describe that practice and for larger community-based perceptions of sustainability (or reality) as well.

One such example is the AMD & Art project (http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/460/)

Comp’s idea was to reclaim toxic former coal mines using not only science but elements of design, sculpture, and history, which he hoped would spur community involvement and create vital public spaces…Undeterred, Comp put together a core team of designers that included hydrologist Bob Deason, sculptor Stacy Levy, and landscape designer Julie Bargmann. And crucial members of his elaborate cast were the townspeople themselves. “If I have an art form, it’s probably choreography,” Comp explained, “and I don’t even get to pick the dancers. I’ve got elephants and gazelles and they all have to work together.”… For years, Allan Comp has been describing the Vintondale project as “art that works.” The AMD&ART Park “works” in the sense that it filters acid mine drainage from millions of gallons of water. But it works in a much more subtle way as well—in the way the people of Vintondale experience and respond to it as art…ALLAN COMP HAS DESCRIBED the term “AMD&ART” as a shorthand for “science and the arts.” Following the ecological principle of interdependence, he possesses an almost mystical belief that disciplinary boundaries need to be broken down and worked across. Turf wars, especially at universities where budgets are strained, have too often kept the sciences and the humanities on opposite sides of campus, increasingly specialized, and so estranged that they, quite literally, cannot understand the language the other is speaking.”

“Twelve years after he hatched the idea to resurrect the town dump of Vintondale, Comp feels more certain than ever that the “arts and the humanities are absolutely necessary to environmental recovery.” Science can change the water chemistry, but for Comp, it is art and history, combined with the science, that will ultimately change people’s minds—will change the way we think about an industrial economy that is destroying the very ecosystems that sustain us, and all life. “It’s not the water that’s the problem, it’s us,” Comp said. “And if we fix us, we’ll start fixing the water.””

Evening Public Engagement:  Community-driven design in Environmental Reclamation

Monday March 29, 2010 6:30pm MUB Alumni Lounge B
The public lecture will definitely focus primarily on AMD&ART.  Dr. Comp will explore the co-dependence of the arts and sciences in environmental reclamation by introducing the community as the pivotal factor in adding sustainability to the process.  The public lecture will also focus on a few other spin-off projects to establish the viability of the approach and then try to draw a few lessons learned.  It will also include a short bit on a strong determined OSM/VISTA team of volunteers in Appalachia and the Western Hardrock.  This will be followed by an open question and answer session in the form of a dialogue.

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Social Science Brown Bag Lecture Series: Sean Gohman

"John M. Longyear's land holdings in the Gogebic Iron Range through the lens of Geographic Information Systems"

Friday, April 2nd, Noon-1 PM, room AOB 201.

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Moulshri Joshi, visit and lectures, April 18-24.

During the week of April 18-24, the Social Sciences department and the Visiting Women and Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series will be hosting Moulshri Joshi, a New Delhi architect and industrial heritage practitioner who is best known for her firm's prize-winning design of the Indian memorial to the victims of the Bhopal industrial disaster.  

Prof. Joshi will be available to participate in undergraduate classes and graduate seminars in environmental policy and industrial heritage management, and will meet with other interested groups across campus, to discuss current practices related to environmentally-sensitive planning as well as international industrial heritage policy – both celebratory and critical.   The central event of her residency will be a campus-wide lecture (probably Tues evening April 20) on the Bhopal Disaster and current efforts in India to memorialize its victims.  Prof. Joshi, though early in her career, has been an invited consultant in Japan and Europe to discuss these matters.

The websites listed below can give you more information about Prof. Joshi's architectural firm, 'Space Matters,' as well as descriptions of the Bhopal memorial and the many public controversies arising from it.   [This note by email from Susan Martin]

http://www.spacematters.in/
http://bhopalmemorial.blogspot.com/
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091204/jsp/nation/story_11819749.jsp
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fline/fl2626/stories/20100101262603800.htm

Henshaw's thoughts

Marc Henshaw wrote some interesting thoughts inspired by a recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  He was trying to raise awareness about the impending demolition of Andrew Carnegie's Pittsburgh Locomotive Works, but he also made some interesting observations about the challenges which heritage preservation poses for industrial (and post-industrial) communities.

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10040/1034454-437.stm

Archaeology Dude's discussion:
http://archaeologydude.blogspot.com/2010/02/industrial-archaeology-race-against.html

Quincy Smelter Site Blog

Please check out the excellent blog Craig Wilson and his peers have created for the Quincy Smelter Association.  Mr. Wilson has expanded the Quincy Smelter's Blog beyond a simple narrative about working to save the site.  He and his collaborators have built this site into a major historical exhibit, showplace for photography, and a resource with organized information useful to both local people and potential visitors.  The blog is exemplary and one I use when talking with people about the potential of new media for heritage preservation efforts.

My last post was about tourism, sustainable redevelopment, and industrial heritage.  Here in Michigan's Copper Country, we have several excellent examples of industrial heritage sites with tremendous potential for the region's communities.  Some sites have been preserved by local groups, like the Quincy Mine Hoist Association.  Federal agencies continue to make important contributions to preservation and redevelopment at some key sites, most notably the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.  

The smelter is a totally unique historic resource sitting in a well preserved landscape of great interest to many people.  Don't believe me?  Try these image searches on Google Image or on Flickr and here.

The cooperative model developing here requires local efforts-- locally funded, controlled, and advocated for by stakeholders-- coordinating with and assisted by national agencies like the National Park Service.  There have been no "white knights" charging in to save the day here in the Keweenaw.  Preservation of our industrial heritage has required planning, coordination, and small, "stepwise" thinking about efforts.  Things have not gone perfectly or easily, but the smelter site has become a real symbol of renewed commitment and partnerships.

The National Park Service maintains a map of the participating historic sites.

Industrial Heritage and Tourism

As many fans of Industrial Archaeology and Industrial Heritage already know, the European Union has named The Ruhr Valley the Capital of Culture for 2010.  RUHR.2010 will include an ambitious program of cultural and historical events on the themes of Europe, Mythology, and Metropolis. Michigan Tech's IA faculty consider the Europäische Route der Industriekultur (European Route of Industrial Heritage, ERIH) as a group of model case studies, showcasing examples of how committed communities, stakeholders, local and national governments, academics, and developers can all work together to capitalize on heritage preservation of industrial sites, monuments, and landscapes.

We established our Ph.D. program in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology because no programs in the United States pushed the academic study of industrial sites.  Unlike most colonial or ancient sites, Americans often see industrial history sites as centers of urban decay, the heart of a community's struggle for environmental justice, and/or are symbols of economic collapse and social decline.  The sites are brownfields to be remediated through least-cost methods, totally disconnected from issues of culture, identity, or any vision of the community's future.  At MTU, we believe that sites of industrial heritage are as critical as ancient or colonial places, if not more so, to a community's plan for sustainable living.  While tourism is only one part of our program, I have thoughts about this today.

The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is one exemplary model which we discuss with our students, critically exploring the complexities of industrial heritage preservation and redevelopment.  RUHR.2010 is an example where sites and Industriekultur become the inspirational anchors around which collaborators work from the arts, museums, sport and cultural event planning, dining, recreation, nature, reclamation and remediation.

Today's case study is an excellent example from the December 2009 issue of Passport Magazine.  Passport bills itself as "America's #1 Gay Travel Magazine."  RUHR.2010 is a program targeted at a very broad audience of potential tourists.  Passport is a great study for the students because they can examine how general preservation and heritage programming are being implemented to attract a specific set of "targeted" demographic groups to industrial-related sites.  Communities often include plans to attract heritage tourists as part of their economic and land-use plans as they enter post-industrial periods, attempting to rebuild sustainable economic and cultural activities.  GLBT tourists are a vibrant and economically valuable part of Heritage, Cultural, and Eco-Tourism sectors of the travel market, the world's largest industry.  Many academic studies reinforce this fact.  Passport Magazine published a long and beautifully-illustrated article on RUHR.2010 events.  It appears here.

The article, written by Rich Rubin, is itself an interesting case study for Industrial Heritage professionals.  Mr. Rubin is a freelance journalist who often writes about travel.  In his article, he touches on several themes of interest to communities in industrial archaeology and heritage.  I quote at length, from the original here:

For me, it’s an appropriate close to the trip, as it perfectly symbolizes the achievement of this region: to turn the industrial into a thing of beauty. To celebrate the industry by transforming it, to find new uses for the now-abandoned engines of manufacturing and to make of them something that’s more than just history. Here, in the Landscape Park, the lights glowing around me with a self-confident, low-key, and utterly appealing whimsy, the true lesson of the Ruhr region takes hold in a final and (pardon the pun) illuminating moment. This is a region that doesn’t try to imitate, that doesn’t try to best other areas at things they really do better. You won’t find the ultra-cosmopolitan nightlife of Berlin, the rollicking charms of Bavaria, or the cathedral beauties of Cologne. What you’ll find instead is something you can’t find anywhere except in the Ruhr, the creation of culture out of the industrial landscape, not imposed upon it or existing separately from it, but springing, almost organically, from this utterly inorganic setting. Backdrop and foreground both, the industry that powered this region, literally as well as figuratively, continues to power it. From a museum of light art in a former brewery to an art display in a gas tank to a rock-climbing wall in a smelter, the outline of industry is inextricably interwoven with the cultural life for which the area is becoming known.... Who knows where it will lead? Twenty years ago, only a few “crackpots” were interested in a form of travel now called eco-tourism. As the Cultural Capital year of 2010 focuses attention on this region, perhaps it will be the beginning of a new phenomenon known as Industrial Tourism. If that happens, you can bet Essen and the Ruhr will be at the forefront. This is not quaintness-on-the-Rhine territory. It’s raw, gutsy, and I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it. All it took was foresight, imagination, and determination to create a landscape of fascination out of a landscape of industry.


First, I am thrilled that Mr. Rubin's article will help dispel the common assumption that GBLT persons are not interested in industrial history, museums, and sites.  Heterosexual, male, retired engineers are not the only people who participate in this kind of tourism.  His essay will also help to raise the profile of  this very successful vision of industrial heritage in the United States.  The more urban planners, economic managers, and civic leaders see the ERIH and related sites and the manner in which they use the website to connect events, sites, and plans, the more allies we will find when we advocate this type of approach.


Mr. Rubin also falls prey to dichotomies that continue to frustrate industrial heritage professionals, however, placing industry in opposition to culture, separating power and work from the "sweetness and light" of culture and art.  In addition, Mr. Rubin is unaware that industrial tourism is as old as industrialization.  He is a journalist writing for a travel magazine and not a scholar of tourism writing for academics, so despite the minor error and his evoking of tropes in his essay, I think Mr. Rubin's essay is an excellent article and I thank him for giving me a "teachable moment" with my students. 


I look forward to following events through RUHR.2010 with my students and friends here at MTU. Several of our European colleagues and collaborators had roles in the Ruhr valley and the larger European Route of Industrial Heritage.  The ERIH website effectively links heritage sites with programming, news, and information for visitors.  I particularly enjoy the photo albums from the various sites and museums.  We will continue to present the outcomes of their work that successfully linked preservation, adaptive reuse, urban and regional planning, economic redevelopment, environmental remediation, and so many other issues that intersect in industrial heritage, issues both vexing and thrilling.

Reusing the Industrial Past: Call for Papers

Tampere, Finland, will host the first joint conference between The International Committee for the for the History of Technology History (ICOHTEC), The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH), and The International Association of Labor Museums (Worklab). The meeting will be held August 10-15, 2010, in the old Finlayson Factory area on the Tammerkoski rapids.

The organizers have extended the deadline for submission of abstracts until January 7th, 2010.  They would like to attract papers on a broad range of subjects and from many disciplinary perspectives, including social and cultural history, environmental history, industrialization and deindustrialization, museums and memory, and artifacts and experiences.

For more information, click here for the conference website:
http://www.tampere.fi/industrialpast2010/