College students survey Coyote Flats Pioneer Village as part of new partnership

A new partnership between Lethbridge College and the Prairie Tractor and Engine Museum Society gave Geomatics Engineering Technology students a true taste of surveying challenging terrain in winter conditions.

Bill Smienk, chair of the School of Engineering Technologies, says the college’s agreement with the society, signed earlier this year, saw students survey the Coyote Flats Pioneer Village property near Picture Butte. Aside from giving students practical and purposeful work for an actual client, the partnership has potential for future student efforts, including applied research.

“There’s potential there to help the society with its immediate needs, but there’s also potential to continue to be involved in other ways,” says Smienk. Aside from marking the bounds of the society’s property – the focus of this year’s work — college students could provide topographical data of elevation or draft detailed floor plans of the historic structures.

Pieter van Ewijk, general manager of the pioneer village, says the students’ efforts were important to the society, which operates entirely on grants and donations.

Instructor Andrew Bowen and technologist Jim Pinches accompanied about 20 second-year students to the property twice in the weeks before and after Easter, where they experienced challenges that included unseasonable cold and snow. The museum opened for the season May 19.