Imagining and Analyzing Paths: Using Modern GIS Techniques to Identify Historical Trails

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Since 2011, Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. of Montrose, Colorado has documented a number of historic trails for the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service (USFS). Most of our work has occurred on the Old Spanish (OST) and the Santa Fe National Historic Trails (SFT). To identify these trail segments we have mostly relied on historical journals, maps, and previously recorded alignments to guide our surveys. In recent years, the increased availability of quality historical and modern aerial images has helped us identify new trail segments. Additionally, we have started using least-cost path analysis to help identify segments that do not have associated clear aerial images, historical maps, or historical accounts of the route. In this paper, we present two case studies from recent work for the USFS utilizing these geographic information system processes to identify segments of the OST and SFT.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 313