1. Reinterpreting Cultural History: Visualizing a Former Appalachian Landscape Using GIS Joel M. Staub The Pennsylvania State University jms837@psu.edu West Virginia GIS Conference May 10, 2004

2. Visualizing an Appalachian Landscape Background Study Region Spatial Data Settlement Patterns –Spatial Relationships to Rivers/Streams –Spatial Relationships to Schools Land-Use Activities

3. Blue Ridge Mountains…

4. …Shenandoah Homesteads

6. Study Region Shenandoah NP The Old Rag Hollows –Corbin, Nicholson, and Weakley Shenandoah NP and the Old Rag Region Corbin, Nicholson, and Weakley Hollows

7. Spatial Data 1934 U.S.G.S. Topographic Map Five Aerial Photographs, October 1937 31 Stitched DEMs –27 at 10 meters –4 at 30 meters

8. Settlement Patterns

9. Dendritic/Fan- Shaped Linear Shaped

10. Settlement Patterns

11. Proximity of Homes to Rivers: #Homes0-250 ft. 250-500 ft. 500-750 ft. 750- 1,000 ft. 1,000+ ft. Corbin950112 Nicholson29244100 Weakley2059510 Totals (%) 58 (100%) 34 (59%) 13 (22%) 7 (12%) 2 (3%) 2 (3%) -- Average distances:* Corbin = 527 ft. Nicholson = 186 ft. Weakley = 507 ft. Total = 350 ft. * 1/16 th of a mile = 330 ft.

12. Spatial Relationships to Schools Low educational attainment despite the number of schools present in hollows –Intermittent school terms –Children kept at home to do chores –Location! The Hull School in the 1930s

13. Location of Schools

14. Travel Distances to Schools Transportation routes to two different schools: –“A” = ~1.8 miles –“B” = ~1.5 miles –“C” = ~1.7 miles Topography determined distances to school Educational attainment?

15. Land-Use Activities Agriculture Orcharding Pasture

16. Land-Use Activities

17. 3 acres 27 rows 266 trees 2 acres 14 rows 166 trees 1 acre 7 rows 68 trees

18. Land-Use Activities

19. Pasture Agriculture Orchards

20. Conclusions Interpreting cultural landscapes that park officials until the 1990s neglected to acknowledge Used GIS to re-create the mountain hollows Compared this cultural landscape to patterns of the new resettlement communities

21. “…within another decade a new era will have begun in these mountains and the day of the Blue Ridge mountaineer will have passed.” --Margaret Hitch, 1931