Post by L Roebuck on Nov 7, 2005 13:25:35 GMT -5
Educator imaging historic inscriptions
MSU-B News Service
Even though the scrawling of explorer William Clark is the most famous on the sandstone monolith 24 miles northeast of Billings, his is not the only signature on Pompeys Pillar.
In the 200 years since Clark made his famous trip down the Yellowstone River, scores of amateur explorers, homesteaders, trail riders and local geologists have done the same thing. Some of the signatures have been etched into the sandstone near Clark's. Others are on outcroppings, vistas and walls in the great expanses of prairie that rolls between communities.
For some reason, people liked putting their name on the places where they worked and lived.
Unnoticed except by the passage of time and Mother Nature, many of the testaments to human exploration of the region have maintained a relatively obscure existence. Which also is a problem.
As human development reaches out into scenic urban areas and time takes its toll, those signatures, drawings and etchings are in danger of vanishing.
Thanks to a $65,400 federal grant through the National Park Service, Montana State University-Billings College of Technology will take the lead in surveying, digitizing and preserving some of those historic places.
Tim Urbaniak, a drafting and design instructor at the COT and an archaeological technician with years of experience roaming the high plains of Montana, recently was awarded the grant through the Save America's Treasures Federal Grants program. More than $14 million in grants recently were awarded for projects throughout the country. Urbaniak's idea to digitally preserve the etchings and inscriptions of past generations was the only Montana project to be funded.
"I'm kind of excited about it because this is a research grant," Urbaniak said.
The College of Technology has received a number of workforce training, facilities and program grants in the past two years, all of which will have direct effects on student experience.
But a research grant provides a different and equally valuable experience for both students and faculty, Urbaniak said, because the field experience can generate new areas of understanding.
Students and volunteers will assist in surveying, identifying and documenting locations not only in southeastern Montana, but also in Northern Wyoming and western South Dakota. Tom Rust, a faculty member with the MSU-B history department, will assist in the work.
The grant also will help preserve parts of the high plains culture and heritage that can explain the past to students of the future, a fact that was noted by the National Park Service when the COT grant was announced.
"History isn't always written in books; sometimes it is literally written in the landscape," the Park Service said. "Pioneers traveling west left their names and messages carved in the rocks along the way. A Save America's Treasures grant through the Institute of Museum and Library Services will support an innovative preservation approach that will digitize these delicate historical records."
Those records include an incised signature of a cavalry member in 1881 on sandstone bluffs in the Custer National Forest; carved initials and names done in 1883 on a cliff in the Bureau of Land Management's Four Dances Area; a charcoal inscription with the date 1887 found in a cave near the old town of Colson; and some incisings left by Civilian Conservation Corps members in 1934 in the Custer National Forest.
The people who left those marks and others participated in some significant events in the region's history, from troop movements in the Plains Indian Wars to the first U.S. Geological Survey to homesteaders who carved marks at hunting camps. They were the folks who built the railroads, founded towns and built churches.
All of those represent parts of Montana history that is being lost to wind, water and development and modern vandalism.
"Due to natural and cultural forces, these resources are rapidly disappearing at an accelerating rate and will simply disappear completely in the future," Urbaniak's grant request said.
Working collaboratively with federal land management agencies and private landowners, Urbaniak, Rust and students will identify sites and use the latest technology to map, survey, photograph and three-dimensionally scan items for a repository. Historians, archaeologists and the general public will then have access to the archive for research and information.
Progress also will be shared with the Montana Historical Society, the Montana Archaeological Society and the Plains Anthropological Society.
Unlike the preservation of American Indian carvings and inscriptions, Urbaniak said, historical inscriptions in this area are not being preserved. As a result, once they fall from a cliff face from the rumbling of passing truck traffic or crumble during a vandal's attempt to cut an image from stone, the writings are gone forever.
"A concerted effort is proposed via this project to catalog and digitally preserve these historic signatures, dates and artwork before they disappear, and to make them available to the public and to researchers in a centralized location," the grant request said.
Urbaniak said he looks forward to starting on the two-year project as soon as possible and will be recruiting students for field work.
Source: The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/07/build/local/80-inscriptions.inc
MSU-B News Service
Even though the scrawling of explorer William Clark is the most famous on the sandstone monolith 24 miles northeast of Billings, his is not the only signature on Pompeys Pillar.
In the 200 years since Clark made his famous trip down the Yellowstone River, scores of amateur explorers, homesteaders, trail riders and local geologists have done the same thing. Some of the signatures have been etched into the sandstone near Clark's. Others are on outcroppings, vistas and walls in the great expanses of prairie that rolls between communities.
For some reason, people liked putting their name on the places where they worked and lived.
Unnoticed except by the passage of time and Mother Nature, many of the testaments to human exploration of the region have maintained a relatively obscure existence. Which also is a problem.
As human development reaches out into scenic urban areas and time takes its toll, those signatures, drawings and etchings are in danger of vanishing.
Thanks to a $65,400 federal grant through the National Park Service, Montana State University-Billings College of Technology will take the lead in surveying, digitizing and preserving some of those historic places.
Tim Urbaniak, a drafting and design instructor at the COT and an archaeological technician with years of experience roaming the high plains of Montana, recently was awarded the grant through the Save America's Treasures Federal Grants program. More than $14 million in grants recently were awarded for projects throughout the country. Urbaniak's idea to digitally preserve the etchings and inscriptions of past generations was the only Montana project to be funded.
"I'm kind of excited about it because this is a research grant," Urbaniak said.
The College of Technology has received a number of workforce training, facilities and program grants in the past two years, all of which will have direct effects on student experience.
But a research grant provides a different and equally valuable experience for both students and faculty, Urbaniak said, because the field experience can generate new areas of understanding.
Students and volunteers will assist in surveying, identifying and documenting locations not only in southeastern Montana, but also in Northern Wyoming and western South Dakota. Tom Rust, a faculty member with the MSU-B history department, will assist in the work.
The grant also will help preserve parts of the high plains culture and heritage that can explain the past to students of the future, a fact that was noted by the National Park Service when the COT grant was announced.
"History isn't always written in books; sometimes it is literally written in the landscape," the Park Service said. "Pioneers traveling west left their names and messages carved in the rocks along the way. A Save America's Treasures grant through the Institute of Museum and Library Services will support an innovative preservation approach that will digitize these delicate historical records."
Those records include an incised signature of a cavalry member in 1881 on sandstone bluffs in the Custer National Forest; carved initials and names done in 1883 on a cliff in the Bureau of Land Management's Four Dances Area; a charcoal inscription with the date 1887 found in a cave near the old town of Colson; and some incisings left by Civilian Conservation Corps members in 1934 in the Custer National Forest.
The people who left those marks and others participated in some significant events in the region's history, from troop movements in the Plains Indian Wars to the first U.S. Geological Survey to homesteaders who carved marks at hunting camps. They were the folks who built the railroads, founded towns and built churches.
All of those represent parts of Montana history that is being lost to wind, water and development and modern vandalism.
"Due to natural and cultural forces, these resources are rapidly disappearing at an accelerating rate and will simply disappear completely in the future," Urbaniak's grant request said.
Working collaboratively with federal land management agencies and private landowners, Urbaniak, Rust and students will identify sites and use the latest technology to map, survey, photograph and three-dimensionally scan items for a repository. Historians, archaeologists and the general public will then have access to the archive for research and information.
Progress also will be shared with the Montana Historical Society, the Montana Archaeological Society and the Plains Anthropological Society.
Unlike the preservation of American Indian carvings and inscriptions, Urbaniak said, historical inscriptions in this area are not being preserved. As a result, once they fall from a cliff face from the rumbling of passing truck traffic or crumble during a vandal's attempt to cut an image from stone, the writings are gone forever.
"A concerted effort is proposed via this project to catalog and digitally preserve these historic signatures, dates and artwork before they disappear, and to make them available to the public and to researchers in a centralized location," the grant request said.
Urbaniak said he looks forward to starting on the two-year project as soon as possible and will be recruiting students for field work.
Source: The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/07/build/local/80-inscriptions.inc