The Mapping Grand Canyon Conference was an event held at Arizona State University's Tempe campus between February 28 and March 1, 2019. The conference marked an unprecedented exploration of the science, art, history, and practice of Grand Canyon cartography. It was a celebration and critical examination of the cartographic history of a global landscape icon.

Free and open to all, the conference delivered a two-day program of map-based story-telling, transdisciplinary analysis, state-of-the-art geospatial and cartographic demonstrations, engaging hands-on activities, and open community dialogue.

Inspiration and justification for convening such a conference was the confluence of two milestones in Grand Canyon history: (1) the centennial (1919-2019) of the legislation that led to Grand Canyon National Park, and (2) the sesquicentennial (1869-2019) of John Wesley Powell's famous first exploration and mapping survey through the canyons carved by the Colorado River, including the Grand Canyon.

The Mapping Grand Canyon Conference originated as a component of a larger research project supported through an ASU Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) seed grant -- Mapping Grand Canyon: A Critical Cartographic History.

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Description
Prior to the 1850s, no large-scale maps of the Grand Canyon existed. Maps covering the region were predominantly small-scale products, crudely generalizing vast swathes of territory. Most maps relegated the location of the Grand Canyon itself to a conspicuous “blank space”. In the mid-19th century era of US territorial expansion,

Prior to the 1850s, no large-scale maps of the Grand Canyon existed. Maps covering the region were predominantly small-scale products, crudely generalizing vast swathes of territory. Most maps relegated the location of the Grand Canyon itself to a conspicuous “blank space”. In the mid-19th century era of US territorial expansion, fueled by the ideological imperatives of Manifest Destiny, such glaring omissions of cartographic detail demanded a corrective filling-in. A map drawn by the pioneering cartographer Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein as part of the 1857-1858 Ives survey marked the first successful effort to map the Colorado River, and, by extension, its Grand Canyon, in any meaningful detail. A decade later, in the summer of 1869, a one-armed Civil War veteran named John Wesley Powell famously led a group of nine men to explore and conduct a more thorough topographic survey of the still mysterious lands abutting the river. In the decades following the Ives and Powell surveys, the motivations for mapping the Grand Canyon have changed, as have the technologies, the techniques, and the very maps themselves. From maps of increasing topographic accuracy, to fancifully illustrated pictorial maps, to National Park Service maps, to geologic maps, to interactive 3D web maps, and everything in between, the geography of the Grand Canyon region has been the subject of a multitude of diverse manifestations of cartographic representation.
ContributorsToro, Matthew (Author, Speaker) / ASU Marketing Hub (Videographer)
Created2019-02-28
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DescriptionOfficial program of the Mapping Grand Canyon Conference. Document was designed and optimized for digital dissemination and mobile device (smartphone, tablet) viewing and interactive browsing. Document was deliberately not printed in paper format with the intent of minimizing the event's ecological footprint through a reduction of paper and ink waste.
ContributorsWatson, Amy Carolyn (Compiler, Designer) / Toro, Matthew (Compiler, Cartographer) / Avila, Theresa (Contributor) / Field, Kenneth (Contributor) / Fry, Michael (Contributor) / Griffin, Dori (Contributor) / Kaplinski, Matt (Contributor) / Karlstrom, Karl (Contributor) / Manone, Mark (Contributor) / Oetting, Ed (Contributor) / Patterson, Tom (Contributor) / Quartaroli, Richard David (Contributor) / Runge, Peter (Contributor) / Semken, Steve (Contributor) / Smilovsky, Nikolas (Contributor) / Smith, Stephanie (Contributor) / Spindler, Rob (Contributor) / Trapido-Lurie, Barbara (Contributor) / Upchurch, Jonathan (Contributor) / Deitrick, Stephanie (Contributor) / Lemar, Shea (Contributor) / Messinger, Ellen Murray (Contributor) / Sherwood, Jill (Contributor) / Wilhelm, Karina (Contributor)
Created2019-02
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Description
Geologic maps are to geologists what equations are to mathematicians; they symbolically and compactly encode many layers of hard-won scientific knowledge for those who know how to read them. The best ones also are beautiful. There have been great challenges and great progress in geologic mapping of Grand Canyon over

Geologic maps are to geologists what equations are to mathematicians; they symbolically and compactly encode many layers of hard-won scientific knowledge for those who know how to read them. The best ones also are beautiful. There have been great challenges and great progress in geologic mapping of Grand Canyon over the past 150 years. Dutton era (1886) maps represent major advances in cartography and geology. The Huntoon et al., (1996) 1:62,500 “Dragon Map” of Eastern Grand Canyon is the best-selling geologic map of all time; it was produced by offset printing and is now out of print. The Timmons and Karlstrom (2012) Geologic Map of Eastern Grand Canyon at 1:24,000 is the most detailed available for large areas; it has been digitized and is being converted to GIS files. The Billingsley’s USGS maps of the entire Grand Canyon region are available at 1:100,000 as GIS files online. Next challenges are to incorporate multiple scales in Google Earth-style zooming in interactive 3-D geologic portrayals. This requires higher detail boots-on-the-ground geologic mapping than is currently available in many areas as well as innovative ideas for 3-D visualizations. Imagery and visualization technologies are available such that this “Grand Challenge” is within reach.
ContributorsKarlstrom, Karl E (Author, Speaker) / ASU Marketing Hub (Videographer)
Created2019-02-28