Remaking history, literally

From the crowded control room, Carson-Tahoe Hospital radiological technician Paul Fry peers through the viewing window as a $1.2 million General Electric CT scan machine whirs into motion and a sliding table moves through the doughnut hole-shaped X-ray scanner.

The patient is 136-years old: The world's oldest-known Tabasco sauce bottle, an artifact unearthed in the 2003 archaeological dig at the site of the old Boston Saloon in Virginia City.

The bottle, once filled with the saucy red condiment, has been painstakingly put back together in the University of Nevada, Reno's archaeology lab by volunteer Dan Urriola and is now very fragile.

The same noninvasive technology used by health-care professionals to quickly and easily diagnose internal disorders is being used by the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs to essentially reverse-engineer and recreate artifacts from the past.

State Historic Preservation Officer Ron James said it's exciting technology.

"This will allow us to investigate artifacts remotely and without the risks involved in actually handling them."

It will also allow for simultaneous display of the same item at multiple museums.

Together with a cribbage board dating from the late 1800s found in a similar dig in John Piper's Old Corner Bar, the scanning (or computerized tomography) is the first step in a three-part process utilized by Sparks-based Point Data Marketing, Inc. to render exact replicas of objects.

The State Historic Preservation Office plans to show the replicated pieces of history at the new Department of Cultural Affairs under construction in Virginia City.

President and CEO of Point Data Marketing Inc., Brian W. Wilcox, said his firm has worked extensively with outfits such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and many corporations on similar projects.

"The technology allows us to effectively archive virtually any artifact for eternity," he said. By first taking the CT scan and then using computers to build a virtual 3-D surface model, an exact spatial representation is made, he explained. A facsimile of the item can then be manufactured in a process called "rapid prototyping," or the information can simply be stored on a computer for future use.

"Or in the event of a catastrophic loss," he clarified, "there will always be a copy."

The original artifacts will join a new exhibit at the Nevada State Museum in Reno called "Havens in a Heartless World: Virginia City's Saloons and the Archaeology of the Wild West."

Funding for the project is being provided by a grant from the Institute for Museums and Library Science.

n Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.