Abstract

Golder Associates Ltd. is currently undertaking a multi-stage mitigation program associated with development of the Muskeg River Mine, north of Fort McMurray. The program represents efforts to recover information from a relatively unique distribution of Early and Middle Prehistoric Period sites. This distribution is directly related to a landscape formed in the wake of a glacial lake outwash event that occurred approximately 9,700 years ago. Linear elevated ridges appear to have been used as staging or hunt preparation areas during or after the retreat of glacial lake waters from the flood zone. This area of several square kilometres is thought to have been scoured of vegetation during initial flooding and would have represented a distinctly different, perhaps more productive, ecozone from the surrounding forests over a period that have persisted for approximately 2,000 years. GIS-based models of the terrain have been produced to illustrate alternate use patterns scenarios throughout the region.