Research Projects

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: David Watkins
• Co-PI: Chelsea Schelly
• College/School: College of Engineering
• Department(s): Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Center/Institute: Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI)

As part of a new program called Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding the team nearly $3 million over five years. Their research focuses on how household consumption of food, energy and water (FEW) impacts climate change and resource scarcity.

Project Co-Director: Dr. Don Lafreniere

The Canadian HGIS Partnership is working to build and expand a network of researchers and community members engaged in Historical GIS.  Project activities include producing and disseminate a series of white papers on HGIS methods, developing HGIS-specific standards for Geospatial data structure and for research data and the creation of a pilot version of an open, accessible Historical GIS data portal. The research and development activities proposed are the beginnings of a strong infrastructure for conducting historical research, in a geographic context. This framework will allow for the effective creation of historical GIS research data, their storage and long-term preservation, their sharing among known and unforeseen collaborators. In addition, this project is part of the broader movement to create a new culture of openness and collaboration in research activities.

Project Director: Yves Frenette, Université Saint Boniface
Project Co-Director:  Don Lafreniere

Sponsor: Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada

The project aims to study the cross border migration and settlement patterns of French Canadians on the North American continent, between 1760 and 1914. The timeframe encompasses two periods: 1760 to 1850 and 1850 to 1914. The research hypotheses relate to the interconnected migratory waves that took place between Quebec, New England, Manitoba, Michigan, and the Minnesota-North Dakota region.

The research question is threefold: drawing an encompassing picture of French-Canadian migrations across time and space; identifying the socio-economic factors and the complexity of these migration patterns, and analyzing at a micro-level the migratory waves that took place during this period and their related processes. The research hypotheses will be verified through cross sectional (portraits of specific moments based on census data) and longitudinal studies (biographical data matched with personal data found in Public Records Offices, the censuses and mixed sources).

The project will throw new light on the scope of the migratory waves undertaken by French Canadians across the continent, and the impact of their settlement patterns and socio-cultural interactions in shoring up and shaping identities.  The Metis are one example of how the meeting of culture, especially intercultural marriages, fostered new social, economic and political realities. In Manitoba, New England, Michigan, and Minnesota-North Dakota more specifically, the research findings will bring a renewed focus on the unique linguistic heritage, cultural practices and settlement patterns that underpin the social history of a people and of a region. Finally, the project sustains awareness of the importance of historic migrations in the context of current French-speaking migratory waves from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Greater Maghreb and the West Indies.

The Biographical Dictionary of Copper Country Architects contains information on 25 architects who were known to have designed buildings in the Copper Country of Michigan, narrowly defined here as Houghton and Keweenaw counties. Some of the architects were based downstate, with nation-wide practices; some had offices in Marquette, Milwaukee, or Detroit but did significant work here; and others set up shop in the Copper Country, although none of them spent their entire careers here.

The Inventory of Historic Scientific Instruments (IHSI) at Michigan Tech is a collaboration between the Social Sciences and Humanities departments. Its goal is to locate, digitally catalog, and interpret all historic instruments and teaching materials at the University. This includes not only the 150-year-old brass surveying instruments first used at the Michigan College of Mines, but also equipment that records the breakthroughs made in Michigan Tech even as recently as the end of the 20th Century.

The Caribbean Industrial Heritage Research Program (CIHP) is a multidisciplinary research program focused on the study of the evolution of industry in the circum-Caribbean region. The CIHP is dedicated to the study of social, economic, and technological change associated with industry in the region, as well as to the promotion of industrial heritage and archaeology, including preservation, in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America.

Starting in the summer of 2018, Michigan Technological University’s Industrial Heritage and Archaeology researchers began a systematic effort to document and revitalize the heritage of communities in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula and the Lake Superior Copper District. Research at the Cliff Mine and other sites had identified compelling stories about immigrants and residents who’s lives have not been part of the commonly told stories of the towns and mines of the region. Student and faculty kicked off this research effort by doing a series of quick assessments to identify the integrity and potential for significance at archaeological sites associated with Chinese, African-American, and Native American residents, along with women students at own institution, Michigan Tech (the former Michigan College of Mines).

For more than 15 years, Michigan Technological University’s Industrial Heritage and Archaeology students and faculty have helped community groups and agencies work toward the preservation and productive reuse of the Quincy Smelter heritage site. The smelter is the best preserved nineteenth century copper smelter in the United States. The site is part of the Quincy Mining Company Historic District National Landmark, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is part of the Quincy Unit of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. Industrial archaeologists brought together a group of experts in remote sensing and survey technologies to study the industrial complex, building on decades of documentation at the site to create a collaborative training ground for integrating geospatial sciences and heritage studies. The Historic Environments Spatial Analytics Lab is supporting a scientists from Michigan Tech and the Michigan Tech Research Institute who are using a suite of geospatial technologies—including Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR, Photogrammetry, Thermal and spectral imaging, among others. HESAL staff built an Historical GIS to document how the property has changed over time, help the scientists examine the remote sensing and geospatial data, enable digital exhibitions and tools for public education, and help the site managers make wise decisions about the cultural resources at the site. For Michigan Tech’s Industrial Heritage and Archaeology faculty, the Quincy Smelter is a case study in balancing preservation, environmental remediation, cultural renewal, economic revitalization, and heritage management.

From 2009 until 2014, teams of industrial archaeology students from Michigan Technological University studied the site of the Cliff Mine in Keweenaw County, Michigan. The Cliff Mine (1845-1870), often referred to as the nation’s first great copper mine, focused primarily on “mass” copper (copper found in its “native," metallic state). Masses were often found exceeding 50 tons in weight and could take months to break up and remove from underground. The Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Company owned the Cliff and they were the first mining company to pay their investors a dividend in the Lake Superior district. The workers and managers at the Cliff became the model for most of the early industrial mining efforts in the Copper Country. Starting in 1845, the “Cliff Vein” produced over 38 million pounds of refined copper over a 40 year period, and paid dividends to its investors totaling $2.5 million. Michigan Tech IHA students published a series of theses and books on the mine and its community, including Sean Gohman’s major update of Donald Chaput’s book.