Integrating cultural resources information into a historical GIS for the Tower House Historical District, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, California

Groshong, Lorin; Reid, Ryan; Mohren, Sean

This report presents the results of a 6 month project, which created an Integrated Geographic Information System for Cultural Resources in the Tower House Historic District of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The Tower House Historic District and associated Archeological District are in the National Register of Historic Places. Funding for this Geographic Information System (GIS) project came from the Pacific West Region office of the National Park Service (NPS) under PMIS project number 139248 (Appendix A). The National Park Service has service-wide requirements for management of cultural resources. The ability to fulfill these requirements can be greatly enhanced through the use of GIS technology. For many projects that may impact cultural resources, parks must review spatial information including locations of archeological sites, historic structures, cultural landscapes, ethnographic resources, and the extent of completed archeological surveys. Many park units still maintain base maps for archeological sites in paper format. In addition, other cultural resource data may exist in various physical and digital formats. All of these data are consulted regularly and need to be in an easy-to-use accessible format, as has been accomplished in this project. This GIS project is designed to incorporate a variety of GIS data being managed by the NPS including cultural resources, park maintained facilities and utilities, and historical land-use and ownership data layers. These GIS data layers are dynamically linked to ancillary data including records and reports in PDF format, tabular data in spreadsheets, online databases such as the List of Classified Structures (LCS), and digital photographs so they can be easily accessed. Metadata and attribute information have been designed to expedite NHPA and NEPA compliance, year-end reporting to Congress, GPRA, and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The data in this project also meet Cultural Resource Base Map management requirements (NPS 28), achieve park level management goals (GMP and Fire Management Plan), expedite cultural resources project-related record searches, and promote efficient map production for archeological site records and reports.

Integrating cultural resources information into a historical GIS for the Tower House Historical District, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, California

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