Post on 14-Feb-2017
The Geographical Bulletin
ISSN 0731-3292
November, 1984 Vol. 26
GAMMA THETA UPSILON
Officers
President Dr. Michael Thaller, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53186
First Vice President Dr. Douglas C. Munski, University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202
Second Vice President Dr. Virgil Holder, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601
Secretary Dr. O. Orland Maxfield, University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
Comptroller Dr. Leon C. Hallman, Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Historian Dr. Alice T. M. Rechlin, Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana 46383
Immediate Past President Dr. Benjamin F. Richason, Jr., Carroll College
Waukesha, Wisconsin 53186
Student Representatives Mr. Christopher Huggard, University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Mr. David Moon, Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana 46383
All addresses should include : Department of Geography.
Omega Omega (Alumni) Chairman
Mr. Lawrence Handley 6238 Canal Boulevard New Orleans, Louisiana 70124
© Copyright by GAMMA Theta Upsilon, 1984 Printed in the United States of America
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Department of Geography and Geology Eastern Michigan University
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editor's Comments: Guest Editorial. New Opportunities in Historical Geography by Marshall
Page
McLennan (Professor, Eastern Michigan University) 5
Land Use Related Adjustments to Aquifer Depletion in Southwestern Kansas by M. Duane Nellis (Ass't. Professor, Kansas State University) . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . 10
The Syrian Tabqa Dam: Its Development and Impact by Monib EI-Khatib (Graduate student, University of Damascus-Syria) ............................... 19
A Primer in Scientific Geographic Research Terminology: Implications for Teaching Geography Majors by Sharafat Khan (Heath/Zenith Data System, Inc.) .............. .. ...... .. ...... ..... .. 29
Research Note
Just Scratching the Surface: Geographers and the Mining West by Randall Rohe (Professor, University of Wisconsin Center-Waukesha County) 35
News from the Chapters of Gamma Theta Upsilon ... 47
New Opportunities in Historical Geography: Guest Editorial
Marshall McLennan
Eastern Michigan University
Traditionally universities and colleges have served as the employer of opportunity for aspiring geographers. The "baby boom generation" has graduated from the nation's universities, however, and its offspring won't make a significant numerical impact upon the hallowed halls of higher academia until late in the next decade. Demographics have dictated a contraction of the traditional employment market, and it behooves today's geography students to seek other outlets for useful application of the geographer's set of expertises.
Alternative employment opportunities have proven particularly hard to come by for aspiring cultural and historical geographers. Consequently, the Department of Geography & Geology at Eastern Michigan University has introduced an applied graduate program in historic preservation planning, which was initiated in 1979.' More than thirty individuals have now graduated from this program. Admittedly entry-level career positions in historic preservation are competitive, but not to the same degree as is the case with university-level teaching positions in geography. Despite a contraction during the economic recession of 1981-83, the long-term trend of cultural resource management as an employment field, in its various dimensions, has been one of growth. This trend has resumed in 1984, and provides career opportunities both for cultural-historical and urban-economic geographers.
Cultural resource management encompasses a broad spectrum of activities. While geographers would not normally expect to seek positions with libraries or art or archeology museums, cultural resource management also includes jobs with historic house museums, historic farms, pioneer and other types of historic villages, historic district commissions, historical societies, federal agencies, especially the National Park Service, State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) and state park systems, municipal or county planning departments, community development agencies, and private consulting firms. In
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terms of roles, job activities in cultural resource management can be divided into areas of conservation, planning, administration, or interpretation, though in any given job there is usually some overlap.
It is primarily in the areas of planning and interpretation that traditional geographic concepts and skills are most appliable. Because of recent trends and developments 'in historic preservation, certain concepts and methodologies in cultural-historic and urban-economic geography have emerged as highly relevant to the field. 2 The nature of cultural resources deemed worthy of preservation and interpretation to the public has broadened with time. Initially only nationally significant historical sites such as Mt. Vernon, The Hermitage, and Independence Hall were protected . Early in the twentieth century the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities took steps to preserve individual buildings associated with our colonial ancestors. The notion of "cultural resource" broadened still further during the 1920s and 30s to include colonial and culturally exotic townscapes. Colonial Williamsburg gave rise to the corporately managed historic settlement, while Charleston and New Orleans introduced the ordinance-protected " historic district" as a technique for preservation. The value placed upon townscape was more that of historic ambiance or sense of time and place than of the architectural merit of individual buildings. Architectural merit of the individual building as distinct from its historic associations emerged as a significant rationale for preservation during the 1950s.
The National Register for Historic Places came into being during the 1930's. Listing on the Register initially was limited to national landmarks. This changed, however, with passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Since that time, sites, buildings, structures, districts and objects of national, state or local significance may be listed. This represents a considerable broadening of what is deemed an important cultural resource. Each place listed must be sig-
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nificant in historical, architectural, archeological or cultural terms. The National Register defines historical significance very broadly. Among other things, a place may have historical significance if it has association with, or is representative of, the agricultural, commercial, industrial, or transport history of the locality, or for that matter, if it is associated with the settlement history of an area . This opens up the National Register nomination process to associating buildings, structures, and other types of places with occupance strategies (or genres de vie) of the past. Here is a perspective that cultural-historical geographers understand and can work with : the interpretation of relict features in the cultural landscape associated with prior occupance sequences.
A statement of significance must be prepared as part of each nomination. When a historic district is being nominated, the statement of significance interprets the built environment as a cultural or historic landscape that is a product of settlement history, of economic history, or some other theme. This statement of significance assumes conceptual and analytical dimensions for which the cultural geographer is, by training, uniquely prepared. Most individuals employed in preservation planning (the job area most associated with the preparation of National Register nominations) have been trained in architectural history. Many of them have a bias toward high style buildings, urban areas, and the unique cultural resource. Most cultural geographers, on the other hand, are biased in favor of common buildings and folk architecture, rural areas (which more clearly reflect the regional sense of place than urban landscapes), and the representative cultural resource. Cultural geographers are also better equipped to research and write a meaningful statement relating the built environment to the cultural history of the community than most architectural historians, and when it comes to justifying the nomination of a rural historic district, geographers have a better feel for the land as cultural landscape.3 The cul-
tural geographer, more than any other academician, is capable of interpreting the settlement patterns, agricultural systems, field organization, the significance of woodlots, the cadastral survey system, the cultural associations of dwelling and barn types, and the relationship of all of these with the characteristic topography and other environmental elements.
Recently two new types of National Register nominations have been created: the multiple resource nomination and the thematic nomination. Both are intended to facilitate and accelerate the nomination process. In a multiple resource nomination, all cultural resources within the survey area are nominated collectively rather than individually. A thematic nomination allows all places associated with the selected theme to be entered as a single nomination . For instance our historic preservation program at Eastern Michigan University has recently been provided funding assistance by the State Historic Preservation Office (every state has one) to prepare a thematic nomination for all deserving Greek Revival buildings in rural Washtenaw County. One might also collectively nominate all surviving Coast Guard life saving stations along the coast of Michigan or all country grist mills in Arkansas. Again, the nomination must include an essay analyzing the history and significance of the particular elements of the built environment under scrutiny. This is pure historical geography.
The National Park Service, the federal agency with primary historic preservation responsibilities, recently further amplified the potential contributions cultural geographers can make as career preservationists. In 1978 the Department of Interior provided funds to the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Office to develop a "pilot" cultural resource management plan. The Massachusetts SHPO, in turn, contracted with a team of consultants under the direction of geographers from Clark University to develop a conceptual framework and prepare a management plan based
on that framework.4 The Clark team drew upon a group of geography concepts to develop their plan. Among the concepts incorporated in the pilot plan were regional analysis, human agency in effecting landscape change, genre de vie, sequent occupance, central place hierarchy, Philbrick's "areal functional organization" structure,S and Whebell's corridor model of regional landscape development.6 For instance, the identification and mapping of historic routes can provide a basis for predicting where the greatest density of relict features will be found.
Based on the pilot model developed by the Clark University geographers,1 the National Park Service has mandated that all State Historic Preservation Offices implement Resource Protection Plal'lning Process (RP3) projects. All SHPO agencies have been sponsoring architectural surveys for at least a decade. The RP3 project envisions that each state will begin to analyze their accumulated data bases from the viewpoint that elements in the cultural landscape are not isolated features, but are related to each other in time and space through processes operative in local communities and regional systems. Thematic cultural landscapes are to be ordered by temporal stages (sequent occupance) and regions. For instance the Michigan SHPO is currently attempting to piece together the early twentieth century cultural landscape in southeastern Michigan that was directly associated with the evolution of the automobile industry. This calls for aggregating together as an associated landscape the automobile factories, tire factories, parts manufacturers, gas stations, motels, the mansions of the auto executives, worker housing, and the like. In a later sequence, one can see the initial automobile-influenced landscape as evolving to include the whole suburban landscape phenomenon with subdivisions, shopping centers, drive-in movies and auto-oriented commercial strips, although landscapes this recent have not yet been subjected to architectural surveys.
To the cultural-historical geographer the individual buildings that comprise the
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architectural data base of a SHPO agency have limited significance. Their significance grows as they are analytically integrated into a regional cultural landscape. SHPO preservationists trained in architectural history, and even in urban design, however, are struggling with implementation of the RP3 project. A recent graduate of our program has just been hired by a SHPO agency specifically to develop their RP3 project. Although this individual is not a geographer, she has been trained in the context of historic preservation to analyze regional American cultural landscapes. It is to be hoped that other SHPO agencies will also realize that historical geographers are trained in the perspectives needed to realize the full potential of the RP3 program.
This editorial has been written primarily for the benefit of would be cultural and historical geographers. Urbaneconomic geographers already enjoy applied employment opportunities in planning careers. Nevertheless, it should be noted that historic preservation planning also encompasses concern for integrating comprehensive preservation objectives into community master plans, for market and demographic analysis relating to downtown commercial revitalization, and for community or neighborhood development. For regional planners agricultural land preservation is a growing concern, and linking agricultural land preservation with historic and scenic preservation in rural areas provides for useful alliances. For instance the use of historic easement or historic district techniques can sometimes complement the preservation of agricultural land.
Turning now from planning to interpretation, aspiring cultural-historical geographers should be aware that heritage interpretation is emerging as a new career area.s In the past the design of interpretive programs for historic museums, villages and parks was a part-time responsibility of historic administrators. For the most part the result was a mere labeling of artifacts, or perhaps a restaging of colonial period weaving or candie-dipping. Today many national and
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state parks, pioneer villages and other historic facilities hire or contract professional interpretive planners to identify interpretive themes, integrate or design interpretive programs, and evaluate the effectiveness of existing programs. Cultural geographers have potential expertise in planning programs that interpret occupance strategies, sequential occupance, folk architecture, cemeteries and other elements of the cultural landscape.
Professional interpretation is also beginning to expand into an innovative new area, community interpretation, by which a community's cultural, historical, and recreational resources are identified and an interpretive master plan developed to foster tourism and attract new economically desirable businesses as well as to promote community pride by means of planned community interpretive events. Because of the popularity of historic resources with tourists and because they have become identified with the quality of life, there are some indications that RP3 and community interpretation may become interactive.
While traditional geographic training in many ways provides an ideal preparation for working in a planning or interpretation capacity in cultural resource management, coursework in architectural history, architectural surveys, historic preservation and heritage and community interpretation also comprise necessary educational components.
In sum, new directions in historic preservation and heritage interpretation provide opportunistic employment outside of academia for cultural-historical geographers who are prepared to demonstrate the relevance of their educational preparation to potential employers. General ignorance as to what geographic training entails is an obstacle to exploiting these employment opportunities, but if enough historical geographers sell themselves and the competence associated with their discipline, the employment opportunities will expand. Given the concern in historic preservation today for historic districts, townscapes, rural preservation, historic
landscapes, and ethnic landscapes, the reality is that cultural-historical geographers, who see cultural landscapes, relict features, and even architectural style as products of cultural process and history, and who are prepared to analyze individual landscape elements not merely in terms of stylistic ornamentation but also in terms of their relationships to each other as parts of regional cultural systems, have a broader conception of cultural resources than most architectural historians.
The last comment is not intended to denigrate architectural historians. They are specialists, while we are generalists. But as generalists, it is our opportunity to generalize and to conceptualize. Heretofore, polemic has substituted, in preservation, for an objective theoretical base. The Clark University geographers have begun the process of providing a theoretical base for cultural resource management, and happily for us, the conceptual foundations are drawn from cultural geography.
FOOTNOTES
1. Griffith, Gregory, " Preservation Eastern," Michigan Planner, v. I , no. 2 (Spring 1981): 13. In 1980 the program received the Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan for innovative programming.
2. Ford, Larry, "Historic Preservation and the Sense of Place," Growth & Change, v. 5 (1974): 33-37; Ibid., " Historic Preservation and the Stream of Time: The Role of the Geographer," Historical Geography Newsletter, v. 5 (19751: 1-15; Ibid., " Saving the Cities : Urban Preservation in America," Focus, v. 30 (Sept.- Oct. 1979); John A. Jakie and Roben Janiskee, "Why Covered Bridges? Toward the Management of Historical Landscapes-The Case of Perke County. Indiana." in Ralph F. Ehrenberg, ed., Pattern and Process: Research in Historical Geography (Washington. D.C.: Howard University Press, 1975): 193- 201 ; Roben L. Janiskee, " City Trouble, the Pastoral Retreat, and Pioneer
America : A Rationa le for Rescu ing the Middle Landscape," Pioneer America, v. 8 (January 1976): 1-7; Anhur Krim, Nonhwest Cambridge: Repon, Survey of Architectura l History in Cambridge (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press-Cambridge Historical Commission. 1977); Ibid., Three-Deckers of Dorchester: An Architectural Historical Survey (Boston : Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1978); Peirce Lewis, " The Future of the Past: Our Clouded Vision of Historic Preservation," Pioneer America, v. 7 (1975): 1-20; Ibid .. " The Right Kind of Preservation on a Creative Scale Can Save Our Disappearing Downtowns," Smithsonian, v. 6 (1975): 35- 41 ; David Lowenthal, " Age and Anifact : Dilemmas of Appreciation," in D.W. Meinig, ed., The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes (N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 1979): 103- 128; Lowenthal and Marcus Binney. Our Past Before Us. Why Do We Save 117 (London : Temple Smith, 1981 ); Lowenthal, " The Place of the Past in the American Landscape," in Geographies of the Mind, ed. Lowenthal and Manyn J. Bowden (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1976): 89- 117; Ian M. Matley, " The Evaluation and Preservation of the Cultural Landscape," in Applications of Geographic Research. ed. Harold A. Winters and Marjorie K. Winters (Lansing : Depanment of Geography, Michigan State University, 19771: 61 - 73; and Roben M. Newcomb, Planning the Past (Hamden, Conn.: The Shoe String Press, 1979). Although now dated, see also John A. Jakie, Past Landscapes: A Bibliography for Historic Preservationists Selected From the Literature of Historical Geography (Monticello, III. : Council of Planning Librarians, 1974).
3. Folklife and some landscape arch itects also have this feel for the interaction between man and the land. See the William Tish ler and Howard Marsha ll papers in New Directions in Rural Preservation (Wash ington, D.C.: Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, U.S. Depanment of Interior, 1980).
4. Seager, Jon i, and Michael Steinil2, " Historical Geography and Cultura l Resource Management: The Massachusetts Experience," paper presented at the Eastern Historical Geography Association/ Ontario Historical Geographers joint meeting, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, October, 1979.
5. Philbrick, A. K., "Principles of Areal Functional Organ ization in Regiona l Human Geography," Economic Geography, v. 33 (October, 1957).
6. Whebell, C. F. J., " Corridors: A Theory of Urban Settlement," Annals, Association of American Geographers, v. 59 (March 1969) : 1-26.
7. Seager, Joni, and Michael Steinil2, Cultural Resources in Massachusetts : A Model for Management (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Commission. August 1979).
8. Cherem, Gabriel, " The Professional Interpretor: Agent for an Awakening Giant," Journal of Interpretation, v. 2, no. 1 (1977) : 3-16.
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