Ammo Cache

Concrete pad

A couple of weeks ago I went exploring in behind Boy Scout Lake with Nora and her friend.  This winter the area has been a favored destination for family exploration (click here for another blog post).  The area is full of old WWII structures, and when we explore we try and imagine what each one we find was used for back in the day.

On our recent trip we found the very unique structure shown below.  It had a grate at either end and was neatly roofed with slate shingles.  I suggested storage of some sort; Nora thought it might be a house.  So I asked my co-worker Marnie who has been researching the area and she tells me it was for storing small arms ammunition.  The slate roof was supposed to keep the bullets contained in the event of an explosion.

While attending my recent archaeology conference I saw a few talks about historic archaeology surveys (lot of old mining camps and tin cans), but nothing as cool as what we get to find on an ordinary walk on a Sunday afternoon here on Kodiak.  Patrick

the back end of the 'ammo storage' building