The Development of the Southern Hills Ecoregion of Indiana

What might the spatial analysis of archival records from the early 1800s reveal about Southern Indiana’s past? Since 2018, researchers within the Historical Landscapes Laboratory at Indiana University have been analyzing archival survey records from the early 1800s of Southern Indiana. These historical documents included information concerning how the physical and cultural landscape appeared to surveyors, and are helping us reconstruct Indiana’s environment at the turn of the 19th Century. The documents we worked with most closely were field notes from the General Land Office. These field notes were produced during the first surveys of what was then the Indiana Territory and are the most comprehensive data source related to Indiana’s historical environment. These notes provide specific information on tree species, hydrology, and cultural features, all of which can be integrated into an Historical Geospatial Information System (HGIS) and mapped. Researchers in the HLL located, digitized, and transcribed these notes so they could be analyzed and brought into our HGIS. We have since completed this process for the Southern Hills region of Indiana - consisting of an HGIS database with over 36,000 lines of mapped data, as well as the digitizing and georeferencing of the associated plat maps for the region.

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without funding from Rebecca Lave, Chair of the Geography Department, and the Environmental Resilience Institute at IU.

In addition, many researchers were involved in this nearly three year process: Sarah Coletti, Chelsea Day, Mara Gordan, Walter Guardino, Jenna Jarosinski, Jess McPherson, Andrew Russell, and Cara Sullivan

Story Map Narrative: Walter Guardino, Andrew Russell, and Cara Sullivan

Excel Analysis: Andrew Russell

ArcGIS Mapping & Story Map Construction: Cara Sullivan