DIGITALLY RECREATING FORT SMITH NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE USING MOBILE 3D PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND LIDAR APPLICATIONS

The Fort Smith National Historic site is located on the border between Arkansas and Oklahoma. The fort was built in 1838 and played a crucial role as a base for the U.S. Marshalls and the Civil War. Over time the fort due to repurposing and fires lost multiple buildings and the original 8-10 foot limestone walls. This project focuses on attempting to digitally recreate the original fort walls and 3D scan the remaining fort buildings. This project is novel as it is using mobile photogrammetry to scan the original buildings and recreate the walls.

Mobile applications in data capture and 3D modeling have significant uses in field research. This project is experimenting with Polycam, a mobile application that uses high-resolution optical photogrammetry and LiDAR to scan and render 3D models. This project also is experimenting with Polycam’s algorithm to import previous and historical images to help recreate the fort walls. Satellite imagery and ArcGIS is used to spatially recreate the fort's original perimeter and framework.