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The current issue of American Quarterly, the journal of record for the field of American Studies, features the Keweenaw Time Traveler as one of eight digital projects critically engaging with communities around the country. This Special Issue focuses on Digital Humanities, the intersection of computing with scholarship in history, literature, the arts, and cultural studies. The journal editors emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the success of large-scale digital projects like the Time Traveler, and celebrate their capability to grow and change along with community needs. We are honored to be featured alongside other projects using digital and spatial technologies to engage important issues in American culture today.
The paper is publicly available here and you can view the other featured projects here.
The paper is publicly available here and you can view the other featured projects here.
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This week student interns from Calumet and Houghton High Schools presented their WebGIS to the Village of Calumet Trustees and a full room of community members. Students outlined their work in the Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab to create a comprehensive WebGIS that the village can use to manage municipal infrastructure and promote tourism and economic development.
The WebGIS can be found at www.calumetmap.com
The WebGIS is an output of the NSF-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, "GRACE- GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education” project. GRACE is a collaboration between MTU's Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab, Eastern Michigan University's Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, and Michigan Virtual University, to bring GIS technologies to Michigan’s high school educators and intensive community-based internship experiences to high school students. You can read more about the GRACE Project on our website.
The WebGIS can be found at www.calumetmap.com
The WebGIS is an output of the NSF-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, "GRACE- GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education” project. GRACE is a collaboration between MTU's Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab, Eastern Michigan University's Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, and Michigan Virtual University, to bring GIS technologies to Michigan’s high school educators and intensive community-based internship experiences to high school students. You can read more about the GRACE Project on our website.
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Student interns from Calumet and Houghton High Schools, under the guidance of faculty, staff, and students of the Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab and the Keweenaw Time Traveler team recently launched a new WebGIS for the Calumet and Laurium region.
The map can be found at www.calumetmap.com
The map integrates information collected by the student interns from 2017 and 2018 and integrates it with state, local, and Keweenaw Time Traveler datasets.
The WebGIS is the beginning of a multi-year partnership between many local organizations including MTU Social Sciences, Western UP Planning and Development Region, Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance, Keweenaw National Historical Park, and local municipalities to create a regional GIS for local planning, economic development, heritage management, tourism, and health promotion.
The WebGIS is an output of the NSF-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, "GRACE- GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education” project. GRACE is a collaboration between MTU's Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab, Eastern Michigan University's Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, and Michigan Virtual University, to bring GIS technologies to Michigan’s high school educators and intensive community-based internship experiences to high school students. You can read more about the GRACE Project on our website.
The map can be found at www.calumetmap.com
The map integrates information collected by the student interns from 2017 and 2018 and integrates it with state, local, and Keweenaw Time Traveler datasets.
The WebGIS is the beginning of a multi-year partnership between many local organizations including MTU Social Sciences, Western UP Planning and Development Region, Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance, Keweenaw National Historical Park, and local municipalities to create a regional GIS for local planning, economic development, heritage management, tourism, and health promotion.
The WebGIS is an output of the NSF-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, "GRACE- GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education” project. GRACE is a collaboration between MTU's Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab, Eastern Michigan University's Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, and Michigan Virtual University, to bring GIS technologies to Michigan’s high school educators and intensive community-based internship experiences to high school students. You can read more about the GRACE Project on our website.
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Gravy or Ketchup?
Carrots or Rutabaga?
These are burning questions among the Copper Country's pasty fans. Make your voices heard! This Saturday August 18 come share your Pasty Stories and start up a conversation about the Keweenaw's favorite food.
Where did you eat your first pasty? Do you have a favorite recipe? Got photographs of your family eating or making pasties? Sharing these stories today can celebrate our shared pasty traditions and keep them alive in our community for the future.
Carrots or Rutabaga?
These are burning questions among the Copper Country's pasty fans. Make your voices heard! This Saturday August 18 come share your Pasty Stories and start up a conversation about the Keweenaw's favorite food.
Where did you eat your first pasty? Do you have a favorite recipe? Got photographs of your family eating or making pasties? Sharing these stories today can celebrate our shared pasty traditions and keep them alive in our community for the future.
Learn more about Pasty Fest here.
What should I bring?
Bring your memories! All you need is a short story and some enthusiasm and we will help you do the rest. One of our Time Traveler team members will make an audio recording of you telling your story, and then help you add it to the Keweenaw Time Traveler Explore App (learn more about the Explore App here). You can locate your story on a historic map—maybe at your grandmother's house where she taught you to make her special crust or at your favorite local pasty-maker. You can also include photographs to illustrate your story. Either bring a digital file on a thumb drive or bring the photograph and we can scan it for you (We'll even give you the high resolution digital file to keep!) Plan to spend about 10–20 minutes sharing your Pasty Story. After that, internet users will be able to enjoy your story and leave you feedback. We will also work with the StoryCorps app to share Pasty Stories with a national audience!
This program is a fun--and tasty!—way to #MapYourHistory with the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Can't wait to hear your Pasty Stories!
This program is a fun--and tasty!—way to #MapYourHistory with the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Can't wait to hear your Pasty Stories!
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Research Associates from the Human Environments Spatial Analytics Lab and the Keweenaw Time Traveler project worked this weekend with Dr. Tim Scarlett (MTU Social Sciences) and others at the Quincy Smelter Works to highlight for MTU Alumni how we use remote sensing and GIS to support the preservation and interpretation of industrial heritage sites.
The research team is using a suite of geospatial technologies—including Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR, Photogrammetry, Thermal and spectral imaging, among others. HESAL staff built an web-based Historical GIS (see links below) to document how the property has changed over time, help the scientists examine the remote sensing and geospatial data, enable digital exhibitions and tools for public education, and help the site managers make wise decisions about the vast cultural resources at the site.
The research team is using a suite of geospatial technologies—including Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR, Photogrammetry, Thermal and spectral imaging, among others. HESAL staff built an web-based Historical GIS (see links below) to document how the property has changed over time, help the scientists examine the remote sensing and geospatial data, enable digital exhibitions and tools for public education, and help the site managers make wise decisions about the vast cultural resources at the site.
Dr. Tim Scarlett, Dr. Sean Gohman and Ryan Williams, GISP
You can read more about our collaboration on the HESA Lab website at historicalgis.com/quincy
Link to our Smelter Archaeology WebGIS
Link to our Smelter Historical GIS
Link to our Smelter Archaeology WebGIS
Link to our Smelter Historical GIS
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Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Quincy Mine Hoist Association this week. Attendees worked with our Time Traveler team learning how to investigate old neighborhoods and tell their stories using the Explore App. Everyone went home with a magnet and two guests won a mug!
Also, several guests joined us for a sneak peak of the mobile applications we are developing. Using tablets outside, guests could trace their movements across Quincy Hill on the historic maps and compare what used to be there with features in the landscape today. Remnants of the Quincy's old boiler houses make a lot more sense after seeing them mapped!
Even if you missed this event, you can explore old maps of Quincy Hill on the Explore App right now. Or, next time you take a tour of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, you can use the Keweenaw Time Traveler kiosk while you wait to get on the tram. Drop a point and share a story! This easy-access touch-screen will be at the Mine Hoist all season.
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Are you among the hundreds of Time Travelers who have submitted story points to the Explore App? Have you been planning to share some stories but want more options? Either way, we have good news. Improved options for sharing stories on the Explore App are now live!
The new "Share Story" button is easier to find (see above!). You can still choose a location and a year on the Time Traveler's historic maps, and tell stories about anything — from your grandmother's pasty recipe to your childhood sledding memories. As always, you can illustrate your story with photographs. Now, you can also include audio and video files! We improved the interface so you can easily see your uploads and edit them as you go.
This updated interface was team-built by Michigan Tech students in Dr. Robert Pastel's Human-Computer Interaction class. The students met with the Keweenaw Time Traveler directors and research associates, heard about our need to enhance the capability of the "Share Story" feature, asked a lot of good questions, and got to work. Assessment of their drafts was conducted by graduate students working with Dr. Karla Kitalong in Michigan Tech's program in Scientific and Technical Communication. Just like the Keweenaw Time Traveler itself, interface updates and data additions result from great team work between faculty and students across the university.
Want to learn more about getting started with the Explore App? Check out these earlier blog posts about the Explore App's capabilities and the How-to Videos. You can also go directly to the HESA Lab's YouTube Channel.
Here's a shared story about Michigan's Oldest Woman who lived at 212 Iroquois Street in Laurium! What kinds of stories will you tell?
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The Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab is hosting our third class of GRACE Interns. GRACE (GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education) is a NSF-funded collaboration between Eastern Michigan University and Michigan Tech that aims to introduce high school students to STEM fields through geospatial technologies. We have 13 Interns from Houghton and Calumet High Schools, and this year, we are conducting fieldwork in the Village of Calumet.
We take our Interns through each phase of project design beginning with conceptualization. The Interns initially develop themes related to urban design and planning. Within these broader themes, they narrow down related concepts and move to asking questions such as:
- "What in the built environment promotes walkability for youth?"
- "What is safe or unsafe space?"
- "How does heritage aid in urban development?"
Our Interns are mapping features associated with themes including safety, walkability, and public spaces. They began practicing their fieldwork techniques last week in Houghton. This gave them the opportunity to use Esri's Collector app to create geospatial data about the built environment.
This summer's project is to build a municipal webGIS for the Village of Calumet. David Geisler, the Village of Calumet President, and Leah Polzein, the Director of Main Street Calumet, met with the Interns to help them better understand the economic, social, and heritage needs of the community and how a robust GIS can assist in the Village's planning, management and grant-making.
The Interns are mapping elements within the community such as street lights and sidewalk conditions. During the first 2 days of fieldwork this past week, the Interns have already mapped over 740 points and digitized over 4,000 polygons! Stop by and say hello if you see us out on the street the next couple of weeks.
The Interns are mapping elements within the community such as street lights and sidewalk conditions. During the first 2 days of fieldwork this past week, the Interns have already mapped over 740 points and digitized over 4,000 polygons! Stop by and say hello if you see us out on the street the next couple of weeks.
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"Do you like 'Whodunnit?' mysteries?" We ask this question of 4th Graders attending Copper TRACES, a program funded by the National Park Foundation as part of its Every Kid in a Park program. Students from the six western counties of the Upper Peninsula visit the Keweenaw National Historical Park for a series of field days, and the hands-on learning connects nicely with educational standards. One of many stations that the kids visit, we conducted 12 workshops over three days and worked with approximately 116 young history detectives.
We use the information housed within the Keweenaw Time Traveler to teach our detectives about interpreting the landscape over time. By using the Sanborn fire insurance plans and a walking tour of Downtown Calumet, these young detectives learn about buildings clearly recognizable on the 1917 map, buildings whose modifications make their histories questionable (unless they search for more clues), and buildings that are lost to time.
For instance, our young Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmeses learn a great deal just by standing in the parking lot beside the Calumet Visitors Center and seeing how many different buildings used to stand on that spot:
We use the information housed within the Keweenaw Time Traveler to teach our detectives about interpreting the landscape over time. By using the Sanborn fire insurance plans and a walking tour of Downtown Calumet, these young detectives learn about buildings clearly recognizable on the 1917 map, buildings whose modifications make their histories questionable (unless they search for more clues), and buildings that are lost to time.
For instance, our young Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmeses learn a great deal just by standing in the parking lot beside the Calumet Visitors Center and seeing how many different buildings used to stand on that spot:
Looking at these maps from different years, we can see changes over time. The 1888 retail spaces are missing from the 1900 map, where we can see a temporary structure. Were they lost to fire? Just based on the map, we have no way of knowing. By 1908, we have the construction of the Y.M.C.A. which became the Calumet High School Athletic Department by 1928. By 1949, the brick structure had disappeared, and today, we have the parking lot.
While looking at different maps enables our young detectives to understand building changes over time, the walking tour offers the chance for critical thinking exercises and interpreting the Village of Calumet itself.
Beginning in a parking lot and walking along Fifth Street, we can ask our detectives questions such as, "Do you think we needed parking lots in 1917?" Such a simple question enables them to think about their classroom lessons on the development of the automobile.
Both the ornamentation on our buildings and the make-up of historic businesses, such as confectioneries and the YMCA, allow us to ask our detectives about the bustling economy that fueled Calumet's early growth. These question and answer sessions allow the detectives to think about how life has changed in 100 years.
While we had the opportunity to spend 30 minutes with each group, we wish we had more time. We had so much fun working with our detectives, and some groups, particularly Ms. Pestka's class from Ontonagon, gave us the opportunity to explore even deeper connections within the landscape! We look forward to the Keweenaw Time Traveler making its appearance in the classroom and we appreciate the opportunity to partner with the Park Staff and area teachers. See you next year!
While looking at different maps enables our young detectives to understand building changes over time, the walking tour offers the chance for critical thinking exercises and interpreting the Village of Calumet itself.
Beginning in a parking lot and walking along Fifth Street, we can ask our detectives questions such as, "Do you think we needed parking lots in 1917?" Such a simple question enables them to think about their classroom lessons on the development of the automobile.
Both the ornamentation on our buildings and the make-up of historic businesses, such as confectioneries and the YMCA, allow us to ask our detectives about the bustling economy that fueled Calumet's early growth. These question and answer sessions allow the detectives to think about how life has changed in 100 years.
While we had the opportunity to spend 30 minutes with each group, we wish we had more time. We had so much fun working with our detectives, and some groups, particularly Ms. Pestka's class from Ontonagon, gave us the opportunity to explore even deeper connections within the landscape! We look forward to the Keweenaw Time Traveler making its appearance in the classroom and we appreciate the opportunity to partner with the Park Staff and area teachers. See you next year!
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Mud season is MUG season! And we are running the Mug Season Challenge! Here in the Keweenaw, it's still snowing but the spring sunshine creates too much icy crust for good skiing and snowshoeing. And soon enough we'll have nothing but MUD! So if you're looking for an indoor activity to tide you over until hiking, biking, and boating begin, try being a Citizen Historian with the Keweenaw Time Traveler. If you top off the classifications in one year's map, let us know and we will send you a mug as a thank you. Here's how it works:
We have three apps that ask you — Citizen Historians volunteering from home — to collect information from historic fire insurance maps. You can choose your activity: Document Building Materials, Document Building Use, or Transcribe the Maps. To learn more, check out our blog post from September or watch our how-to videos on YouTube.
We have three apps that ask you — Citizen Historians volunteering from home — to collect information from historic fire insurance maps. You can choose your activity: Document Building Materials, Document Building Use, or Transcribe the Maps. To learn more, check out our blog post from September or watch our how-to videos on YouTube.
NOTE: Sometimes, the counter will get to 99% and stop. That means that a few building parts can't be classified. That's OK! If you get to that point, you can call it done and submit your name to us.
Send us a screen shot of the counter or just contact us. You can send an email to the contact link below or to info@keweenawhistory.com. Or you can let everyone know by posting to our Facebook page.
Send us a screen shot of the counter or just contact us. You can send an email to the contact link below or to info@keweenawhistory.com. Or you can let everyone know by posting to our Facebook page.
Right now, we are asking you to finish documenting building materials on the Quincy 1942 map. Users like you have completed 36%. Let's work together to get to 100%! If you get the counter in the lower left to read 100%, send us a screen shot and we'll send you a Citizen Historian mug!
If Citizen Historians like you finish Quincy 1942, we will run another contest. So keep checking back for new Mug Season Challenges! Also you can track overall Citizen Historians' progress here. Thanks for helping to make the Keweenaw Time Traveler even better. Happy Mapping!