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!
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