How to Research Your Land's History · Section 4 of 7

4. Putting the pieces together

Written by AI A draft for Dr. Bob Zybach's review, written by AI from his four published documents (one of them, Coquelle Trails, written with Don Ivy). Words inside quotation marks are quoted from those documents, with the page. He has not reviewed this draft.

The Tiller study outlines the whole job:

“Research for this project was conducted in four basic steps: archival research and literature review, predictive field map construction, “ground-truthing” the predictive map (field research), and synthesis. These are not discrete steps in any sense, and usually two or three were being undertaken at the same time throughout the course of this project.”

In plain words: gather records (section 2) and talk to people (section 3). Next, mark on a modern map where the records say something should be, such as an old trail or clearing; the Tiller study calls this a predictive map (paraphrase; Tiller 2011, pp. 25–26). Then go and look, which is ground-truthing. The Tiller map marked a landmark where two ridgeline trails meet, and named campsites and springs along those trails, as likely places to find stone artifacts or culturally important plants (paraphrase; Tiller 2011, p. 26), and the study reports: “And, in fact, just such evidence was readily found at each of these exact locations.” (Tiller 2011, p. 26). Last comes synthesis: putting it together and writing it down.

Township, range and section

Most old maps, and today’s property lines and tax lot maps, are based on the survey grid (paraphrase; Great Fires 2003, p. 91). Oregon’s grid starts at the Willamette Stone, in the hills above Portland. Townships are six-mile-square blocks counted north or south from an east-west baseline; ranges are counted east or west from a north-south meridian. So T. 12 S., R. 7 W., the township with Marys Peak, lies 12 tiers south and seven west of the Willamette Stone (paraphrase; Great Fires 2003, pp. 90–91). Each township normally holds 36 square-mile sections, numbered from Sec. 1 in the northeast corner, back and forth, to Sec. 36 in the southeast (paraphrase; Great Fires 2003, p. 91). Surveyors marked corners with bearing trees, which “were carefully marked, identified as to species and general condition, measured for diameter, and located by distance and compass bearing from each corner” (Great Fires 2003, p. 401). Distances are in chains, and “a chain equals 66 feet” (Thesis 1999, p. 275).

Why it matters: “Before 1851, these lines were absent from the environment. Since that time they have served as an exacting index to specific trees, points, locations and cultural artifacts on specific days in time.” (Great Fires 2003, p. 91).

Layering the same ground over time

Line up records of the same ground by date. Old lines can show through. Of a 1948 aerial photograph of the town of Alsea, Great Fires 2003 says: “General Land Office (GLO) subdivision and Donation Land Claim (DLC) boundary lines dating to the early 1850s are clearly apparent a century later as the straight courses of roads, fence lines, crop borders, and logging boundaries.” (Great Fires 2003, p. 85). Donation Land Claims were the original land claims (paraphrase; Great Fires 2003, p. 91). Watch the dates: on unclaimed land, typically steep, forested or burned, section surveys “were often delayed for a period of twenty to fifty years after initial township boundaries had been established” (Great Fires 2003, p. 113).

When the evidence disagrees

Disagreement is information. In the Tiller study, a 1936 government vegetation map showed mostly old-growth Douglas-fir (paraphrase; Tiller 2011, p. 24), but “This map was constructed before aerial photos were taken of the study area, before GLO surveys had been completed, and before extensive logging and road building had taken place.” (Tiller 2011, p. 24). Later sources showed most of the Douglas-fir timber volume then was in saplings, poles and second growth (paraphrase; Tiller 2011, p. 24). Ask who made each record, when, how and why; keep both versions.

Saying how sure you are

Use words, not false precision. The Tiller study rounded acreages partly “to dispel the illusion that there is more precision to the numbers generated by GIS” (Tiller 2011, p. 69), GIS meaning computer mapping. Looking out from ridgeline roads, the Coquelle Trails authors wrote of “likely, possible, and improbable trail locations” (Coquelle Trails 2013, p. 11). Great Fires 2003 states its main finding carefully: “This research has shown a strong correlation between Indian burning practices in the Oregon Coast Range and subsequent Great Fire events; however, it has not demonstrated a cause and effect relationship between the two.” (Great Fires 2003, p. 296).