Reinterpreting Cultural History:
Visualizing a Former Appalachian Landscape Using GIS
Joel M. StaubThe Pennsylvania State University
West Virginia GIS ConferenceMay 10, 2004
Visualizing an Appalachian Landscape
• Background
• Study Region
• Spatial Data
• Settlement Patterns– Spatial Relationships to Rivers/Streams– Spatial Relationships to Schools
• Land-Use Activities
Blue Ridge Mountains…
…Shenandoah Homesteads
…Shenandoah Homesteads
Study Region
• Shenandoah NP• The Old Rag Hollows
– Corbin, Nicholson, and Weakley
Shenandoah NP and
the Old Rag Region Corbin, Nicholson, and
Weakley Hollows
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
Settlement Patterns
Settlement Patterns
Dendritic/Fan-Shaped
Linear Shaped
Settlement Patterns
Settlement PatternsProximity of Homes to Rivers:
#Homes 0-250 ft.250-500
ft.500-750
ft.750-
1,000 ft.1,000+
ft.
Corbin 9 5 0 1 1 2
Nicholson 29 24 4 1 0 0
Weakley 20 5 9 5 1 0
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.* 1/16th of a mile = 330 ft.
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
Location of Schools
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?
Land-Use Activities
• Agriculture• Orcharding• Pasture
Land-Use Activities
Land-Use Activities
3 acres27 rows266 trees
2 acres14 rows166 trees
1 acre7 rows68 trees
Land-Use Activities
Land-Use Activities
Land-Use Activities
Pasture
Agriculture
Orchards
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
“…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