GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO CIVIL WAR GEO-ARCHEOLOGY OF SALTVILLE, VA

Saltville, Virginia has numerous historical aspects, including a unique Civil War history regarding the production and distribution of salt. Radford University is part of a multidisciplinary project that involves locating undiscovered historical features relating to these salt operations. These operations produced certain signatures that can be recognized by remote sensing techniques. NASA's Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) remote sensing platform, which has never been applied to geo-archeology, was utilized for this investigation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database of the Saltville Valley was formed to organize/characterize the multidisciplinary efforts. Digital maps of the geology and soils of the area were produced and overlain on topographic maps as a foundation for this GIS database. These base maps were employed to analyze information concerning remote sensing data (AVIRIS, air photographs), geophysical data, and archeological expeditions. Through this investigation, it is hoped that this new remote sensing technique will provide valuable information concerning the operations at Saltville that occurred during the Civil War.