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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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Conference Program

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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The 1923 Birdseye Expedition: First Maps of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon – Video Recording

Description
In 1923 an expedition left Lees Ferry with the intent of making an unbroken level survey line 251 miles through Grand Canyon. This expedition was led by the Chief Topographic Engineer of the USGS, Claude Birdseye. His handpicked crew consisted of four boatman, a rodman and a cook, who navigated four…

In 1923 an expedition left Lees Ferry with the intent of making an unbroken level survey line 251 miles through Grand Canyon. This expedition was led by the Chief Topographic Engineer of the USGS, Claude Birdseye. His handpicked crew consisted of four boatman, a rodman and a cook, who navigated four boats over 74 day to complete this remarkable task. Birdseye and his men also ran survey lines up prominent side canyons and were charged with perhaps the most important aspect of the mission, locating potential dam sites. The level line that was produced from this expedition and the accurate maps of eight potential dam sites started a dialogue that would frame and potentially tame the wild Colorado River running through the West. These maps were ultimately used to aid in the creation of multiple dams and water diversion projects. Today researchers continue to utilize several maps, photographs and survey points almost 100 years after they were collected.
ContributorsManone, Mark (Author, Speaker) / ASU Marketing Hub (Videographer)
Created2019-03-01