Celebrating the university’s 50th anniversary with a new map is a logical extension for a geography faculty member.
But a map created by John Harner, professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Marta Blanco-Castaño and Glenn Xavier, undergraduate students, goes well beyond helping someone navigate between two points. The new, online map created by the trio tells the history of growth on campus and provides basic information about structures, boundaries, transportation, and other features on campus.
“I’m proud of this initial effort and the work completed by students in celebration of the university’s 50th,” Harner said. “But this project is far from done. First, we need users to give us corrections for dates on features, or let us know if anything is missing. Then we can continue to add new content or new features as the university grows to truly make this a living document.”
Available at http://geobase.uccs.edu/uccs, the map features a timeline that shows the campus growth after its establishment in 1965 as well as in the years the site was used as a tuberculosis sanitarium. Manually setting the timeline to 1965 shows a few parking lots, Main Hall, Cragmor Hall, South Hall and cottages previously used by the Cragmor Sanitarium along with their dates of construction as well the date they were demolished (South Hall burned in 1980).
Visitors can use the site’s animation feature to watch the campus expand or select a certain year to see how the campus looked. For any given year, markers show the location of historic photographs and public art installations with links to those images. The site employs standard zoom and pan tools, but also provides options to change background base maps or look at historical aerial images from select years throughout the campus history. Other reference layers include campus trails, parks, or urban features in the surrounding vicinity. Data came from a variety of sources, including the archives at the Kraemer Family Library.
Suggestions and questions should be directed to Harner, [email protected] or 255-4054.
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