Philadelphia was an awesome experience!

Philadelphia was a blast! Last week I attended FORUM 2014. It was a conference on cultural preservation on buildings, landmarks, structures, and other various properties which are under historic preservation within Pennsylvania. This year was different than most because there were many attendees who work all over the country. My job along with the other interns was to be the conference staff. This involved setting up computers and projectors, greeting guests, directing where everyone is to go, and put items and other registration materials together such as badges and bags with directories. Since I have been to various conventions before I already had a very good idea of what to expect. While setting up the equipment in one of the rooms, there was a problem getting the signal from the computer over to the projector. I had to ask a couple of my fellow interns for help but they couldn't find out the problem. Finally, my coworker in the PHMC figured out the laptop wasn't working right. After switching to a few different laptops, we found one which transferred the signal. During the conference, I attended numerous meetings. One of meetings I found very interesting about archaeology and other historical artifacts found in the ground. There was a lady speaker who looked upon artifacts as unique treasures and used them as visuals to tell the story of various historical people's lives back in the day. Other than sitting in the meetings I had the opportunity to talk to other various attendees about what they did and what I am currently working on with the PHMC. Many work in archaeology and architecture. The company WJE (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.) had a booth there which I looked into quite a bit. They specialize in architectural repair and one of their most notable projects was repairing the Washington Monument after the 2011 Virginia earthquake. A video showed the internal and external damage to the structure. Many cracks and small pieces of debris were found throughout it. One of the best places I visited during the conference was the Reading Terminal Market. The FORUM rented it out one night to hold a reception. The food was very good there. After the conference, the interns and I took a day-long field trip to Lancaster. In the morning we stopped at the Ephrata Cloister. It was an awesome experience learning the backgrounds about the founder and the people who lived there. It was a religious village primarily used by pilgrims who escaped the Holy Roman Empire in Europe for religious freedom. They had nowhere else to go and they were given food, shelter, and the freedom to practice their faith. In the afternoon, our tour led us to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. It was awesome seeing the many old steam engines which used to define our state's economy. In addition to the tour all the interns were given a special privilege to see a steam engine getting fixed up to be displayed. Seeing it up close was spectacular! So much effort and research goes into making these things look finished and historically accurate for its time. I can understand why the PHMC doesn't only want me to learn about the GIS aspect of my internship, they want me to learn about everything the commission does and about Pennsylvania's history. It helped me understand what GIS is for the state of Pennsylvania. I am almost done with plotting the oil fields and historical wells. Pretty soon I will have a project manageable for future GIS interns to pick up the pieces and work on.

Many exciting trips and tours!!

In the past week me and a couple of the other interns took a trip up to the Allegheny National Forest in order to get a hands-on feel of our work. We stayed in Warren County and looked at the Buckaloons and Loleta State Parks. The Buckaloons area had a town called Irvineton, it was owned by a wealthy family known as the Irvines. The family invested in oil which helped me in georeferencing the historical maps. One of the maps showed an area rich in oil close to their estate! It was exciting seeing out the other interns projects and mine combining. During the trip in what was left of Irvineton, we got a tour of what was left of the old Irvine estate. Unfortunately, the property has been demolished. Archaeologists on site showed us the footprints and other various locations of what remained of the estate. Trees and other vegetation has completely taken over what used to be a rich family mansion. The ice house where the family stored ice was still intact. There have been rumors there was a secret passage in it which led to the kitchen. There wasn't any proof though and no proof saying there was no passage so it could actually be possible. Our next stop was Loleta. Loleta was a project made by the Civilian Conservation Corp during the years of the Great Depression to bring tourists to the forest. There was a pool area which the CCC beautifully
constructed. Several cabins were constructed around the site to be a functional recreation area. Later I got to see old historical blueprints of Loleta layout at the Alleghany Forest Office. It was a great experience going up there and seeing a part of Pennsylvania that I have never been to before. Another very exciting tour I just went on was seeing the inside of the capitol dome! The Keystone Interns had a very special and rare opportunity to go inside and look around the structure. It was incredible! There was a ring passageway around the base of the dome and doors leading right to the interior balcony looking down at the rotunda! After climbing a number of ladders, I was in a crawlspace, it turns out the state capitol is two domes with an outside and inside dome. While climbing up inside, I could see the windows which decorate the outside and light up at night! At the top of the crawlspace, there were a few windows for ventilation which was at the very top centerpiece section. I managed to sneak a picture above at the night sky painting and at the staircase way below. There was a hatch at the top, which led outside to the top section right under the Statue of Commonwealth. Words cannot describe the view and the experience. My next challenge in the oil field mapping was georeferencing. At first it doesn't seem like its all that hard. Turns out most of the maps are broken into section pieces. Once I georeferenced them on the computer, I found out none of them were proportionate to each other at all. None of the polygons I was using in order to georeference oil fields matched up. I restarted georeferencing and focused on the the county borderline. This was better but considering the fact the historical maps I was using were not proportionate completely to the modern geographic surface interfaces we use today, it was impossible to figure out how to pinpoint the maps. I was one of my superiors if I should photoshop the map in order to make it one map again and georeferencing easier. After some thought he agreed and I photoshopped the map pieces. Due to the age of the material, many edges have been torn, faded, or

frayed off making it much more challenging to match up the pieces. I managed to completely stitch the map back together and georeference it. It isn't accurate as I wanted it, but it made my job easier in plotting the oil fields on the modern geographic surface. This week I am going to Philadelphia for a conference historical structures. I will post about my adventures as soon as the trip ends!