DEVELOPING A SPATIAL INDEX FOR THE HOMESTAKE ARCHIVE

Developing a Spatial Index for the Homestake Archive Aryn Rowe, Alfred Garraffa, Carolyn Weber, and Maribeth Price South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Adams Museum & House 54 Sherman Street Deadwood, South Dakota 57732 When the Homestake Gold Mine was donated to the South Dakota Technology Authority (SDTA) for conversion into a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), several hundred cubic feet of maps and other materials became the property of the Adams Museum & House (AM&H) in Deadwood, South Dakota, to be preserved for historic and research purposes. These materials included thousands of detailed, hand-drawn maps. Although much of this mine information was placed in a digital database as it was collected, and is currently in use by the SDTA, the original maps provide a wealth of information not otherwise available, as well as an important historical resource. The goal of this project is to develop a spatial index and database for these map holdings in order to make them more searchable and accessible, implemented as a geodatabase within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The database will store relevant information about each map, such as the level, title, author, and the information contained, so that searches on these key words are possible. In addition, the spatial extent of each map will be plotted so that they can be displayed along with other mine information including drifts, ramps, shafts, and geology, enabling users to search for maps spatially as well as by theme or keyword. Once the desired maps are identified, the user will be able to open a scan of the map and display it with the other information and other maps in a single seamless map. The project will entail designing the geodatabase and implementing it for a small number of maps on the 4850 level, prior to initiating a major development effort to include all the holdings.