Notes
1. A Gunter's chain measures 66 feet. More precisely the chain is comprised of 100 links. Each link is 7 92/100 inches. A brass piece marks every tenth link. Moreover, a red flag is placed at link 50-the halfway point. The chain is used in conjunction with an offset staff which is 10 links long (six foot seven and 2/10 inches long).Two people work the chain and record measurements of land parcels in the number of full chains and links. A plot measured at 804 means 80 full chains and 4 links. For a more complete explanation see Sam Wyld, The Practical Surveyor.
2. To access the digital images of materials from the collection open http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/ and type 'Lewis Clark' in the search box. Do not type the word 'and' between Lewis and Clark. You might be able to go directly to the collection by accessing http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/ SearchExecXC.asp. The collection holds 11 pages of illustrations, notes, and hand drawn maps of their routes.
3. The USGS hosts many excellent sites on topographic maps. Topographic mapping officially began with the USGS when the USGS was organized in 1879. Since its inception the USGS has issued series of maps of the country in particular scales- 7.5 minute 1:24,000 scale where 1 inch = 2,000 feet, 1:100,000 scale where 1 inch is approximately 1.6 miles, and 1:250,000 scale where 1 inch represents approximately 4 miles. To view the history of topographic mapping view http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/topo/topo.html .
4. One of the most interesting maps I plan to use is a panoramic map of New Haven from 1879 that is included in the Library of Congress collection- see The Library of Congress American Memory. To get to the site open http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
and click on 'Maps'. Scroll to 'Panoramic Maps', click and search by keyword, browse, and/or use subject index. Once a panoramic map is opened one can zoom in on particular buildings and even read street names. I am excited to try guiding my students through this map to explore New Haven neighborhoods in 1879.
5. (NAEP 1990 note) "A similar pattern of generally poor performance occurred in the national assessment of geographic knowledge (NAEP 1990c). The 76-item test measured knowledge of four topics: knowing locations, using geography skills and tools, understanding cultural geography, and understanding physical geography. Overall, the national sample of twelfth-grade students answered only 57 percent of these items correctly. Average scores for the four topics in the test ranged from 53 percent correct on geographic skills and tools to 60 percent correct in the cultural geography category.Very few of the respondents had taken a high school course in geography. Most of them, however, had been exposed to some geography content in their history and science courses. Students whose American history courses included substantial treatment of geography performed better than the others on this assessment."To access the report see: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9219/high.htm or http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/eric/ed329486.html
6. The Bill Lane Center for the Study of the American West hosts a website with an exhibit called, Exploring the West: A New Curricular Resource for High School Teachers. The site contains ten one day lessons about the role that mapmakers played in developing the West. Lesson three, Land Surveys, contains maps and text of the Land Ordinance of 1785. Other lessons include: Reading Maps Critically, Mapping Railroads, National Expansion, Native Americans in European Maps, Claiming Land, Mapping Mistakes, Mapmakers' Perspective, Finding the West, and Satellite Maps. To access site see: http://west.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=151
7. This Ohio History Central encyclopedia is a concise resource of historical information about the Land Ordinance and Ohio history. View the following url to view the site: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1472
8. To view the Maps in Our Lives online exhibition of maps sponsored by the Library of Congress and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) see http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/maps/ maps-exhibit.html.
9. The charter of Connecticut led to some interesting land claims by Connecticut. The charter indicates northern, southern, and eastern borders that we are familiar with today. However the western border is open to interpretation. Abel Buell's map published after the Treaty of Paris 1783 shows the western border of Connecticut being interrupted by New York but essentially being the Mississippi River. One could also claim that the South Sea that is the mentioned in the charter as the western border is the Pacific Ocean. These wildly conflicting claims caused problems for Connecticut and Pennsylvania in particular until Connecticut like many states on the eastern seaboard surrendered their land claims to the new United States government. To read the charter one may access http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ct03.htm
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