Bremner Historic Mining District is a former gold mining area in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Early efforts at placer mining proved promising, and throughout the 1930s a mid-scale lode mining operation worked various ore veins during the months of the year when weather permitted. Mining in the area ceased in 1941 due to World War II and never resumed, so the area is in a remarkable state of preservation. Due to the remoteness of the site, the main access today is via bush plane.
Although a detailed site study had been done previously, no complete site inventory had ever been performed, and there was concern that some historic items were being removed from the site. The most immediate example was that somebody had attempted to attach rigging to an old truck chassis in an apparent effort to remove it by helicopter. A GPS photo inventory of the site was undertaken to have a more complete visual record of the site as well as the ability to better plan future work at the site. Challenges included the remote and rugged nature of the site, variable weather conditions, the large area over which artifacts were scattered, and the challenge of keeping numerous electronic devices functional in such an environment. Devices used included a Trimble GPS with external antenna, digital cameras with GPS capabilities, and several Garmin GPS’s. Once back in the office, data from the various devices was integrated into a single ArcMap document with the photos geolocated, tagged, linked, categorized, and displayed on a map for easy reference and analysis.