Public Domain Photo:
Kajakai dam, built by Morrison-Knudsen Co. Photo by the United States AID.
Creative Commons Photo:
Citation:
Kajakai dam powerhouse. Photo by the United States Army Corps. of Engineers Public Affairs office
. used under creative commons license.
Here is a example screenshot of the military stance game:
This game would only use data from the last 50 years.
group:Corey, Jim, Hannalore, Anna
Ana, Aaron, Kyle, Jim
This cross section revisits the history, and importance, of transportation to the development of Boise. Starting with the early years trollies and wagon trails, moving into urban sprawl, air traffic and freeways, ending with the transformation into a bicycle friendly city. This cross section might encourage people to ask the question “How does a city provide transportation to its citizens? How has it changed, and what are the challenges facing city planners for the future of transportation in Boise?”
Start: Trolley House: To view the early history of traveling by electric street cars.
Military Reserve: see the old wagon trail to Idaho City.
Greenbelt: The importance of public pedestrian traffic.
Boise Municipal Airport (Boise State University): Imagine BSU as an airport.
Train Depot: Imagine travelers arriving in Boise.
Down Americana: To see how city planners wanted people to drive into downtown.
Connector (1-84): Travel through Boise’s suburban neighborhoods on a freeway.
Fairview view exit: Strip malls and the importance of cars to current modes of travel.
Car lots: The reliance on cars for traveling in Boise.
Cole, Mall: The suburban shopping center, limited public transportation and limited bicycles and pedestrians.
Veterans Memorial: Bicycles and cars sharing space.
Hill Road Bicycle memorial: The conflict between cars and bicycles.
Hyde Park and the North End: Watch hipsters on fixies.
8th and Idaho: City planners reduce car lanes and encourage pedestrians and bicycles
Jim Duran
In the harsh semi-arid desert landscape of the American West, or Arid West as John Wesley Powell described it, farming is a constant struggle between floods and droughts. From Central California to Colorado, settling the sagebrush country required massive irrigation projects to guarantee water for the farmers. The cold winters and hot summers made only the toughest crops acceptable to grow. As settlements grew, and the cities and states expanded their agricultural reaches, politicians promised more and more water for prospective farmers and cattle ranchers. The promise of water has been a theme of Arid West history. In the Arid West, the promise of water was synonymous with progress; politicians often used water rights and water projects as bargaining chips for growth. By surveying various campaign literature, and water project correspondence between politicians, this paper will show the nature of water and politics in the Arid West.
Outline
Introduction (See Above)
Historiography
Statement 1: Politicians associate water projects with progress, often claiming they (the politician) is the only person who will bring progress to their area, and guarantee safety and security for the voter’s children.
Source (1a): Jim Sperry and Steve Thorson Campaign Advertisement, Aberdeen American News url: http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/u?/hmwrc,174
In this advertisement Sperry and Steve imply that a vote for them is a vote for water projects. At the bottom of the document, the author explicitly states the voter’s children’s future is at stake.
(Source 1b): Mike McHugh advertisement, Aberdeen American News. url: http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/u?/hmwrc,102
McHugh argued he can get projects passed the gridlock of bureaucracy. McHugh implied farmers cannot last another drought, and water projects MUST be approved or else the community faces dire consequences, and he is the person to get things done.
Statement 2: The major rivalry for water projects is almost always environmental conservation. Those arguing against irrigation projects often point to the irreparable change (or damage) to the landscape, while those arguing for the projects typically argue that the economic gains outweigh any value in an untouched wilderness.
(Source 2a): Envirotech Publications: “The Water Report – A critical habitat, bull trout and politics.” April 15, 2005. URL:http://digitallib.oit.edu/cdm/ref/collection/kwl/id/3697
This environmental report argues against water projects that do not consider the impact of dams on the population of bull trout. The author indicates those who oppose fish protection are not thinking scientifically:
“The political currents are strong with the decisions clouded by factors other than science and the law.” (p. 18)
(Source 2b): D.G. Lorenzi. “Protest Emergency Water Ordinance 247” Las Vegas Review-Journal. July 26, 1939. URL: http://digital.library.unlv.edu/u?/hln,563
This author is concerned that conservationists warning of water shortages in Las Vegas will ultimately harm property values and impede new growth to the city. Lorenzi believes the water conservation ordinance is unwarranted and should be ignored by Las Vegas citizens.
Statement 3: As a counter to statement 2, sometimes the conservation advocates will also use an economic argument against water projects. Typically, these arguments include a calculation of taxes raised versus perceived value added.
(Source 3a): Letter from Las Vegas Land and Water Co. General Manager to C. W. Shelley (Las Vegas), July 7, 1950. http://digital.library.unlv.edu/u?/hln,497
This letter documents efforts taken by the Las Vegas officials enforcing the water conservation law. As a counter to Lorenzi, in source 2b, this author claims water conservation will save the tax payers money.
Statement 4: Claiming ownership of water is an important part of negotiating the creation and support of water projects. Politicians might use an argument of water ownership. Either water rightfully belongs to his or her party, or it is wasted or squandered by undeserving outsiders, to sway an audience that their plan for the water is best.
(Source 4a): Letter from Ernie W. Cragin (Las Vegas) to George F. Ashby (Omaha), October 8, 1948. http://digital.library.unlv.edu/u?/hln,721
Craigin was concerned that Las Vegas water might be sold or taken out of city limits. Craigin also mentions that water could be drawn from lake Mead, without any mention of ownership of that water.
(Source 4b)John Sieh Campaign Advertisement November 1978. http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/u?/hmwrc,186
John Sieh believed he knew what the people of Oahe Conservancy subdistrict wanted, and it was not another big water project. In this advertisement, Sieh argues for smaller water projects to divert the Missouri River to his constituents. “The Oahe Sub-district holds a permit right now for 80,000 acre feet of Missouri River water…”
Conclusion
As with most ideas associated with Manifest Destiny, coast-to-coast farmland was a pipedream. The Arid West was, and in most places still is, not suitable for sustainable farming. The history of civil development in states like Utah, Idaho, and Nevada often is attributed to the determination and work ethic of the pioneer men and women. These legends of conquering nature are prominent in early 20th century history books. This simplified view of the past overlooks the conflict between the modern pioneers – especially with irrigation. These dry states look the way they do today because of tenacious men and women who fought for their view of proper water distribution. The people had to fight each other as much as they fought nature to control the limited water supply.
Annotated Bibliography
Brooks, Karl Boyd. 2006. Public Power Private Dams, The Hell’s Canyon High Dam Controversy. Washington: University of Washington Press.
Brooks documents the social and political agents involved with the choice of a public or private hydropower system on the Snake River. Brooks successfully picks up on the anti-federal sentiment in local political struggles, which contributes to my argument about ownership of water, and its role in arguments for water projects.
Lovin, Hugh T. (Spring 1981) “’Duty of Water’ in Idaho: A ‘New West’ Irrigation Controversy 1890-1920.” Arizona and the West, Vole 23, No. 1. pp. 5-28. accessed 10/7/2012. url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40169105
Lovin argues Idaho politicians forced farmers to use less water in order to irrigate more land. In this article, Lovin documents failed promises of a bountiful New West, and the controversial actions of lawmakers to compensate for actual water yields compared to promised ones.
Lovin, Hugh T. (Fall 1998) “The Fight for an Irrigation Empire in the Yellowstone River Valley” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly , Vol. 89, No. 4, pp. 188-201. Published by: University of Washington. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40492429
Lovin critiques the various groups fighting for and against an irrigation project near the Yellowstone National Park. Lovin assigns agency to political prowess by demonstrating how relative power between farmers, city and state officials, and federal agents contributed to the outcome of irrigation projects.
Reisner, Marc. 1993. Cadillac desert: the American West and its disappearing water. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books.
Reisner argues the Arid West is not suitable for the type of settlements that have developed in the past 150 years. He documents the major water construction projects of the past several decades and how they are not sustainable and will ultimately fail to provide long-term solutions for the communities between the Mojave Desert and the Rockies.
Solomon, Steven. 2010. Water: the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization. New York: Harper.
This popular history title expands on the importance of water to civilization. While Solomon lacks consistency in this book, his argument about the role of water in the political sphere is valid.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Drummond, Willis, jr, Dutton, Clarence E. (Clarence Edward), Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region (U.S.), Gilbert, Grove Karl, Powell, John Wesley, and Thompson, A. H.. 1879. Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of Utah. With maps. By J. W. Powell. Washington, Govt. Print. Off.,1879. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47193.
This document describes the difficulties of agrarian economics in the Arid West.
Stacy, Susan M. 1993. When the river rises: flood control on the Boise River, 1943-1985. Boulder, Colo: Boise, Idaho.
In this book, Stacy argues that politics impacted water projects on the Boise River, just as much as environmental concerns. This book shows how projects are built when politicians and constituents agree on fixing a perceived problem.
Reflection
It may seem easy to just look online for historic primary sources, but this exercise showed the limits of only using digital objects. Digitized resources can be easy to select from an online repository, and viewing each item side-by-side can help the research come to some conclusions. There is, however, a problem with quantity, and quality of online resources. If a researcher never visits an archive or library, they might miss out on lots of paper-only resources. In this way, the argument made by only citing online resources will always have the caveat of not being entirely researched. For the time being, a historian should always consult some analog resources before coming to any conclusion.
As more and more historical documents appear online, the researcher becomes less reliant on the local library and archive – even if the only way to access these online resources is through a library subscription. For this project, I used the Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL), westernwater.org. This consortium of digital collections focuses on issues relating to hydro-power and agricultural irrigation. It seemed like an obvious choice, since my historical emphasis is the history of irrigation and water projects. This was the first time I actually tried researching the WWDL, all other visits were simply for browsing photos. With the WWDL I was able to quickly find a multitude of newspaper clippings, reports, and finding aids relating to water and politics. The WWDL did not, however, contain as much campaign literature as I had hoped for – most of the items I found were not substantial in content. I had seen several interesting two-fold pamphlets on water projects in Idaho at the Boise Public Library, and I hoped to see some other examples online.
Exclusively using online resources creates a challenge of selection. A researcher only has a small amount of time to find evidence for their argument. With an online search, whether using Google or a small niche digital collection, it is often difficult to create a query that both limits the results to a manageable size and includes items that will help with the argument. Often the search results will include thousands of items, or if it’s only a small selection, few are useful to the researcher. When looking in a physical location for historical documents, it is easier to sense what is useful, and the appropriate amount of time required attaining valuable resources. It is easier to manually shuffle through papers to gain a sense of what is available.
A researcher is also completely reliant upon the repository for selection of historical items. The researcher only sees what the presenter has chosen to display. Therefore, the researcher must not only consider their own biases, but also the bias of the digital repository. State and federal institutions, like universities and government departments, are often the owners of the digital repositories used by historians. These institutions may not have as many subjective motivations as other sources for historical documents (like a corporate archives for example), but the institutions still have agendas when creating a digital repository. This bias could be as innocent as the selector not choosing visually appealing resources, like a folder of meeting minutes of a water district conference. Decisions like this are made all the time. There is simply too much paper, and not enough time and money to scan everything. It is up to the archivist or curator to choose which documents are available online. For a researcher wanting to know the whole truth, the archivist’s selection could throw the researcher off track.
For these reasons, it is still a good idea to visit a physical location for additional research. As more and more institutions make their collections available online, the researcher may not need to actually visit a library, but perhaps a historical site, or surviving witness. The key to writing good history is uncovering new evidence that few have ever seen or heard. It is difficult to do so with the limited primary source paper items available online – at least for the near future.
a Five Card Flickr story created by Molly May, Ellie Couchum, Jim Duran
flickr photo by shareski
flickr photo by Serenae
flickr photo by hummingcrow
flickr photo by bionicteaching
flickr photo by ARckls
At the Chicago Zoo, the zoo keeper had a meeting with the media about feeding the animals. Meanwhile, the visitors at the zoo picked apples to feed to Esmeralda the gorilla and her baby, Izzy, for everyone knows the two gorillas love apples. The zoo keeper was so mad, he went into the gorillas area to get the apples but did not close the gate! Esmeralda saw the gate open and took off in search of more apples. The zoo keeper called the cops, but they were too busy being in the parade. Esmeralda left the zoo in midst of the chaos and ended up in the middle of Chicago where the parade was held. Moving slowly through the parade, the police saw the gorilla and her baby running throughout the parade. Not knowing they were looking for apples, the police chased them into a grocery store, where the gorillas found apples and more fruit.
Working in the library’s special collections and archives sometimes has its perks. For example, I get to meet some fascinating writers, artists, and professors from around the country. One such person is Jeremiah Day, an artist working in Amsterdam. Day is a graduate of the UCLA art department. His prior work includes a performance called “Of all the possible things,” as part of the If I Cant Dance I don’t want To Be Part of Your Revolution visual arts project in Amsterdam. Day mixes human movement and performance with photos, paintings and sometimes video. You can read, and see, more about If I Can’t Dance here.
Day visited my office in the archive to do research in the Senator Frank Church collection a few months ago. He was gathering resources for his current exhibit, which will include many digital clips of campaign commercials and other video from the Church collection. When our class was given the assignment to interview a digital humanist, I knew right away that I wanted to see if Day was available. Thankfully he was, and he accepted my request, however the due date of this assignment was only a few days after his due date for his film. Nevertheless, he took some time to answer my questions via email.
Day’s work will be on presented in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as part of the “Beyond Imagination” exhibit which, according to their website, artists find “ways in which boundaries are now blurred between reality and imagination, authenticity and role-playing, especially in relation to developments in politics, finance and media.” Day’s contribution is called Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness (2012), a name shared with Idaho’s largest wilderness area. Day’s work will consist of a video and a live performance piece performed on October 13th.
When I asked Day how he prepared for this exhibit, he said “There are a lot of facets to the process that led me to the work on Frank Church, but I guess two stand out – cultivating and maintaining the instinct that paying attention to political events and developments is somehow in and of itself consequential. And second of all the commitment to follow one’s intuitive line of thinking even when it doesn’t make sense at first analysis.” Day also points out that critical reading and writing are important educational skills to have to do his kind of work.
One of the questions we tried to answer in class was how do digital humanists use resources, and I found Day’s use of the Frank Church video collection to be insightful on this question. His work was unlike anything I had seen in my five years assisting researchers. Day’s comments reminded me of the importance of keeping context when doing research. During his visit, he went through dozens of reels of 16mm film and countless audio tapes; spending hours sifting through material. If it wasn’t for Day’s ability to watch for the threads of continuity, and not get distracted by all of the inconsequential media, I’m sure he would have left empty handed. Day made good use of our online finding aid before making the global trek to our archive. He knew exactly what he wanted to see, weeks before ever seeing our office. That said, he also had a very open mind once he was in research mode, and found new avenues of research.
As a full-time artist, Jeremiah’s typical day is much like you would expect. He said it includes “Coffee – take care of the baby – emails, procrastination – some kind of work. Right now that’s video editing. Some kind of exercise, dinner, tv, more emails, bed.” He of course is able to do this because of his ability to earn grant funding – a crucial part of a digital humanists career.
I asked Day what it takes to pursue a career in his field. He said, “Learn how to present oneself assertively. Either in the form of writing grants, or making exhibitions, even as simple as having a meeting with someone whose help you need – putting the work and oneself out there clearly is the name of the game if you want to make a living in the arts.” I am truly appreciative of Jeremiah Day’s willingness to discuss his work with me. Hopefully, some of his live performance or video will be made available online, for us all to experience.
Reposting our proposal to the blog — the original is in the comments section.
Team members are Eric Schooley, April Raine, Jim Duran, Ryan Regis, and Elly Couchum.
The project we envision would involve gathering information about income, gender, occupation, ethnicity, and religion from sources such as the Polk City Directory, Census Bureau, and the IRS/State taxes. The time period we will cover would be from 1863 to the present for as much of the Treasure Valley as we can handle.
Some questions we anticipate:
What jobs were located in which areas?
Are the patterns unique or to they follow larger patterns?
What are the correlations between our factors and geography?
What kind of segregation patterns will occur?
What effect would religion have on these patterns?
How did new developments (business/housing) affect these patterns?
Were women more prone to a specific field than another?
Was education a determining factor?
The methods:
We could use Google Fusion tables to analyze spatial information. This platform easily converts place names and addresses to GIS. We can then overlay our information on a standardized map. Then we INTERPRET!!!
Visualations
A modern map or historical maps with overlays similar to the San Francisco map, wherein the markers can be chosen in layers. We also envision intensity based markers when the data can be applied as such. More detailed information would be available by zooming into a plat.
http://www.boisepubliclibrary.org/research/Idaho_Information/ (POLK)
census.gov/cbdmap
irs.gov
bls.gov (bureau of labor statistics)
sutedentscomefirst.org