Paper Abstracts
Panel I
Patterns and Processes in the Morphology of Public Squares in Ohio
Timothy G. Anderson – Department of Geography, Ohio University
This presentation discusses some preliminary results of a largely empirical analysis of the spatial morphology of public squares in Ohio, focusing especially on the distribution of so-called “Lancaster,” “Philadelphia,” and “Shelbyville” squares in the state. After a brief overview of the defining characteristics of these types of squares, remotely-sensed imagery, Sanborn fire maps, and historic plat maps are employed to determine and map their distribution. Finally, this distribution is compared to historical migration patterns from the East during the Early National period to assess possible explanations for the observed distribution patterns.
“In view of the perilous times can we afford to stay at home this year?”: Twentieth-Century Seventh-day Adventist Camp Meetings
William D. Moore – Department of History of Art & Architecture and American Studies Program, Boston University
In the middle decades of the twentieth century, camp meetings played a significant role in the denominational life of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA), a Protestant faith which anticipates Christ’s imminent return and the end of the world. Across the United States, SDA camp meetings annually drew tens of thousands of millennialists to what observers gleefully called “tent cities.” By 1983, one hundred and eleven camp meetings were taking place annually in North America. Laid out with geometric precision, these seasonal compounds, largely used during the summer, contained massive organizational tents and capacious auditoriums, as well as residential tents and facilities for dining, educational programming, worship services, and literature and food sales.
With roots in nineteenth-century mainstream Protestant practices, SDA camp meetings developed a distinct physical form in the twentieth century which emphasized sustaining and solidifying denominational membership rather than privileging missionary outreach to possible converts. Simultaneously, SDA camp meetings transformed from ephemeral undertakings held in temporary locations to annual gatherings on properties owned by institutional divisions of the church. While some of the denomination’s ten-day assemblies were hosted on the grounds of their sectarian educational institutions, others took place on single-use properties located on urban peripheries. While organizers ideologically linked their camp meetings to both biblical precedents and to the late-nineteenth century institutionalization of the church under the prophetic leadership of Ellen G. White, they accommodated twentieth-century realities by including electrical power and ample automotive parking.
Although camp meetings have long been of interest to landscape scholars, including John Stilgoe and Ellen Weiss, those of the SDA church have previously received little attention. By drawing upon written records, church publications, historical photographs, and the buildings and landscapes which comprise these institutions, the proposed twenty-minute, illustrated, introductory overview expands the scholarly understanding of the broader American camp meeting tradition, while documenting the built form of this significant understudied religious group.
Rehabilitating a Landscape: The Creation of Wisconsin’s Great Sauk State Trail
John A. Cross – University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
This paper describes the development and unique landscape history of one of Wisconsin’s newest rail trails, running from the Wisconsin River in Sauk City to the southern boundary of Devil’s Lake State Park. Multiple features and conditions influenced the development of this state trail. The state park to its north features the conspicuous Baraboo Range, formed of Pre-Cambrian quartzite through which a pre-Pleistocene river carved its channel. The once navigable Wisconsin River that parallels part of the trail was dammed over a century ago, providing hydroelectric power. The lands south of the Baraboo Range had been occupied by the Ho-Chunk Indians and later by European settlers who farmed the land. In November 1941 the federal government began its forced acquisition of 10,500 acres for construction of the Badger Ordnance Works in March 1942. This involved the laying of 24 miles of railroad track and erecting nearly a thousand structures, where 11,000 employees worked by year’s end. The Badger Ordnance Works was the world’s largest during World War II and it continued supplying ordnance through the Vietnam War.
The establishment of the rail trail across the former munition factory grounds is just one of several utilizations of its lands. However, this paper focuses upon the way signage, art, and displays on the rehabilitated lands along the rail trail showcase the historical legacy of the site and its environmental rehabilitation. The trail itself is being extended, a new bridge was constructed across the Wisconsin River to link to a trail connecting to Madison. Plans are being prepared to run the trail through Devil’s Lake State Park, ultimately connecting to trails to the Mississippi River.
American Rustic: Sublimation to Nature and The Beaver Lake Colony, 1905-1925
Robert W. Reynolds – Kutztown University
In the early twentieth century a new rustic aesthetic spread across the Appalachian Mountains of New Jersey, shaped by families that camped outdoors in canvas tents during summer vacation. As changing land uses displaced these campers from their favored grounds, they established permanent summer colonies in new locations favoring lakes and ponds, where founding members transitioned from tents to simple summer cottages that initially reflected a utilitarian aesthetic. As the colonies grew, a distinct rustic design philosophy emerged alongside the adoption of the innovative bungalow style. This shifting aesthetic prioritized integrating structures into the natural environment, thereby yielding architectural prominence to the surrounding landscape. This middle-class response to nature echoed Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Magazine and the "simple life" philosophy as a remedy to urban stresses. The Beaver Lake colony directly underwent this transformation.
This study draws on diverse primary sources documenting Beaver Lake, including articles from 1905–1912, published in Paterson newspapers and written by a colonist journalist, an archive of family photographs and postcards gathered across decades, oral history interviews from 1984 with the children of the first-generation of colonists, and the author’s fifty years of residency and ownership of a 1908 rustic bungalow. Sublimation to nature occurred at Beaver Lake through material mimicry and low-profile volumetrics. Bungalows adopted the textures, local materials, and earth tones of the forest, utilizing deep overhanging eaves, low rooflines, and long porches to mimic both the lake's horizontal plane and surrounding ridge lines. Through these deliberate aesthetic choices, the structural mass of these bungalows was visually absorbed and sublimated—metaphorically converted into vapor—disappearing into the background to celebrate the landscape, rather than overpower it, marking the realization of American Rustic at Beaver Lake.
“Can We Still Use Drums?”: The Role of Inquiry in Replacing Indigenous Programs at a Scouting Summer Camp
Michael Watson – Steward Elementary School #220
Canyon Camp, a Scouting America summer camp in Northwest Illinois, lies within the Apple River canyon valley in the scenic Driftless region. For over 70 years, Canyon Camp had organized a Wednesday evening “Visitors Night” program for the parents and families of the campers. As part of this program, members of the Canyon Camp Staff used to perform a series of Native American story dances and songs learned in the 1950s and passed down through oral tradition. However, in February of 2025, the controlling body of Canyon Camp, the Blackhawk Area Council — ironically named for Chief Makataimeshekiakiak — announced they “will no longer permit the use of Native American themes in any Scouting programs.” What came next was a community driven initiative by Canyon Camp volunteers to create an alternative Wednesday night program following the C3 inquiry framework of recognizing perspectives, evaluating sources, and taking informed action. In this project, we explore the complex history of American Indian Activities within Scouting since the organization's founding in 1910, including the use of Indigenous names, wearing of Indigenous regalia, and other perceived forms of cultural appropriation amongst intended good faith efforts to honor Indigenous peoples. Additionally, we break down the need for a cycle of inquiry when bringing significant change to an institution rooted in tradition through our own leading experiences in facilitating the launch of the new replacement Wednesday night program at Canyon Camp.
The Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area
Dawn S. Bowen – University of Mary Washington
A National Heritage Area is designated by Congress for its nationally significant qualities and resources. It is a place natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources have shaped a distinctive landscape. The Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area was established in 2009, and the geographic isolation of the area has preserved the cultural identities of the Hispano and other immigrant groups to the region. As with all National Heritage Areas, development of the Sangre de Cristo NHA is a long term process that seeks to engage residents in both conserving and promoting a sense of community and tradition, and to increase awareness of the heritage area’s character and significance. This presentation explores the process of area designation and the methods of interpretation used to tell the stories of the region.
Panel II
Cultural Landscapes through Flowers: Balinese Offerings
Maria Fadiman – Florida Atlantic University
In Bali, offerings adorn statues, fountains, and sidewalks. The making offerings for the gods permeates all households, businesses, and government offices in the country. Each day, thousands of offerings are made to appreciate and connect with the gods that control the earth, water, air, economics, family and numerous other aspects of daily life. Each offering is put into a palm leaf basket as an arrangement of specific colors of flowers. Often food items are placed on top with incense and sometimes a specific addition such as a cigarette, or a special treat to please that en tity. In one household a person can create over 60 offerings. These are changed out daily. Thus, the amount of resources used is notable. Through interviewing those who make offerings, both in homes and those who make them to sell commercially, flower growers, flower collectors, palm collectors, basket makers and incense makers, I explore the entire process in reference to cultural significance, economic investment and resource sustainability. Land use is changing in conjunction with the offerings as they clear more land for flower production. Once planted, the same producing plant can continue to bloom for many years. They collect the palm fronds sustainably, as the outer leaves can be cut, while the growing meristem remains intact. Those who produce the materials and products depend fully on this income. The cultural practice of creating and praying with these offerings connects local people with the land on which they live, and the resources on which they depend.
Vzpomínáme: Changes in Central European and Central European Immigrant Gravestones from the 1870s to the Present
Gelisse Mae – Penn State York
From 1870-1920, Central Europeans (Poland, Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia) immigrated to the United States looking for jobs and freedom. They migrated to industrial areas like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago that were looking for cheap labor. At first, the traditions, beliefs, and practices of the individuals living in Central Europe and Central European immigrants were more similar, but they have diverged over the years. Due to the events of World War I, World War 2, the advent of Communism, and the dissolution of the Iron Curtain, the Central European region has undergone demographic, cultural, and physical changes. In the United States, immigrants influenced and were influenced by the broader American culture. Gravestones act as a cultural “snapshot” which can help historians understand aspects of culture and how it may change over time. To understand the cultural divergence between modern-day Central Europeans and Central European immigrants in the United States, a research review was done to compare the gravestones of the two groups from the 19th century to present day. Results indicate that the gravestones of early migrants are more similar to 19th and early 20th century gravestones in Central Europe. Over time, the gravestones and cemeteries of the descendants became more “Americanized” following general Catholic and Jewish memorial traditions. However, Central European gravestones have changed due to the Holocaust, Communism, and Post-Communism. The divergence in gravestones may help the present understand the changes in culture between the immigrants in the United States and those that stayed behind in the “old country.”
Non Silba Sed Anthar: Fraternalism, White Supremacy, and Ku Klux Klan Grave Markers, 1920-1963
Joy M. Giguere – Penn State York
Across the American landscapes of burial, grave markers serve as useful artifacts that illustrate personal and familial identities of the dead. Among the most popular iconographic forms during the twentieth century are those associated with fraternalism and they appear with such frequency that even non-members can easily identify the major symbols associated with Freemasonry, the Odd Fellows, Elks, Woodmen of the World, and others. Within the context of American fraternalism, which reached its peak in the period from the 1880s to the 1920s, millions of Americans joined one or more organizations (including women’s auxiliaries). With the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the wake of D.W. Griffith’s film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), the Second Klan took off as a national movement that ultimately garnered approximately five million members, including men, women, and children. While still secretive with many of its rites and rituals, the Second Klan also sought to normalize itself for the American public and presented Klan membership as synonymous with that of any other fraternal organization. The movement by the Klan to enter into mainstream fraternalism resulted in many klansmen and women publicly embracing their identities as such, so much so that klan funerals became a common spectacle nationwide and klan identity manifested on grave markers. This paper examines the scope and variety of Ku Klux Klan gravestones, what these artifacts illustrate about the Second Klan and its membership, and how they compare to other fraternal grave markers.
A Church by the Water: Black Baptist networks of freedom-seeking in Southwest Michigan
Mary K. Snyder – Boston University
Among the cornfield of southwest Michigan sits a group of mid-nineteenth century Quaker homes and barns stewarded by a local historic society seeking to protect their architectural grandeur and their ties to the Underground Railroad. Despite the pastoral landscape, this group houses or their Quaker owners would not have been alone in assisting the purported 1500 freedom-seekers who sheltered, settled, or passed through the rural landscape. A scan of the 1850 census reveals a settlement of hundreds of Black Americans, free and freedom-seekers, settling south of the sites. Today, only scant traces of their historic presence can be found in the ghostly remnants of the old Baptist Church and whispers of oral traditions.
Tracing the settlement of this community and the founding of their Baptist Church in 1838, this paper argues that free and self-emancipated Black individuals actively managed their own freedom-seeking network and refuge in southwest Michigan. Answering Larry Gara’ Liberty Line and building on recent work by Dr. Laroche, Alicestyne Turley, and Frost and Tucker, the paper combines landscape studies, settlement patterns, and church networks to recover what traditional archives have lost. Drawing on census records, Baptist annals, Black newspapers, and local historical society collections, it shows how ministers and congregant families with ties to southern Ohio antislavery hubs extended their networks of faith, sanctuary, and activism into Cass County, linking it to an established Black Baptist freedom network running from Ohio to Detroit. Mapping this network onto an 1865 map of Black-owned property and the county's waterways demonstrates their deliberate settlement near navigable water to support freedom-seeking and refuge. This essay concludes with a reexamination of the memorialization of the landscape and avenues for further research into the key Baptist congregants and their connections to other locations in the Midwest, including Chicago and Detroit.
Finding Malcolm X’s Lifepath in Detroit, 1952-65
Dan Bonenberger – Eastern Michigan University
Although Malcolm X is among the most significant people of the twentieth century, and Detroit was one of the most important cities in the Black struggle for equality, their connection is poorly understood. The historical geography of Malcolm X’s lifepath sheds light on the man, the movement, and the city, revealed through a dozen significant places in and around Detroit. The project is part of a larger, collaborative effort, Black Heroes of Detroit, which seeks to compile and share knowledge of related sites and make their stories widely accessible - to residents, secondary school children, local block clubs, and non-profits, along with policy-makers academics, and potential visitors. If such places are to be recognized, preserved, and interpreted, and the city’s many Black heroes properly honored, many challenges must be overcome. Beyond the time, money, expertise, and energy needed are the means to address privacy, agency, and safety along with sustainable access to geospatial data, audio, video, still images, transcriptions, and other media.
Commemorating the Blues Beyond the American South
Chris W. Post – Kent State University
The Mississippi Blues Trail commemorates sites—from the important places of artists’ lives (births, deaths, dealings with the devil, etc.) to the sites of recording studios, labels, venues, and festivals—significant to the development of Blues music throughout the world. Created in 2003 with its first marker dedicated three years later, the Trail receives support from various private, state, and federal sources. Of its 200+ markers, 19 exist outside of Mississippi, from sites across the river in Louisiana to as far away as Europe, reflecting the Blues’ global reach. This paper critically assesses the textual content of seven signs found outside of not only Mississippi but the South as a whole in an effort to address their commemoration of the blues through Clyde Woods’ “Blues Epistemology” as a pilot study that evaluates if and how the markers’ text tell a critical history of Black life in the South and abroad. Established in 1998 in Woods’ Development Arrested: The Blues and Plantation Power in the Mississippi Delta, the Blues Epistemology presents the genre of blues music as a methodology for understanding the lived geographies of Black Americans, and the landscapes produced through that Black experience of slavery, emancipation, sharecropping, Jim Crow policies, and other practices meant to dehumanize and limit opportunities for Black Americans. This paper highlights the Blues Trail’s grasp of Blues music’s globalization through the Blues Epistemology and finds whether or not a more just way of retelling Black American Geographies is necessary.
Panel III
From Confinement to Commemoration: The Changing Landscape of Camp Security, a Revolutionary War POW Camp
John T. Crawmer – George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Camp Security was a prison camp in York, Pennsylvania, that held 1,500 British prisoners of war and their families from 1781 to 1783. The camp was largely built by the prisoners themselves, and the archaeological assemblage, which includes window glass, sewing implements, and locally made redware, indicates that they shaped their surroundings with considerable autonomy. After 1783 the camp was dismantled and the land returned to farming. Although its exact location was forgotten, the place remained part of local life. It was remembered in Pennsylvania Dutch ghost stories and as a place where adventurous children could find old buckles and bones. The land was proposed for residential construction as suburban development spread, prompting archaeological excavation and the formation of the Friends of Camp Security. Since 2014 a community archaeology program, whose volunteers include descendants of camp guards, has worked to locate the camp and define its layout. This paper examines how the site has evolved since its abandonment and what changed when community archaeology became part of that story.
Celebrating the Centennial of the First Generation of US Interstates
Wayne Brew – Montgomery County Community College
This year on July 4 the US celebrated the 250-year mark of independence. A less well-known date is arriving on November 11, 2026 marking 100 years of US interstate highways. These highway routes were planned and numbered throughout the country becoming the first generation of US interstates that were partially funded by the federal government. This presentation celebrates the centennial with a brief history of roads prior to the approval on the numbered interstates followed by the establishment of and building of the roads starting in 1926. This illustrated presentation will include a curated oddities I have found over the many miles traveling these interstates.
Stamp Encores and Stamp Icons: The USPS Makes the Most of Our 250th Birthday
Thomas L. Bell – University of Tennessee
In late 2025, to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, the USPS announced an opportunity for the American public to “vote” for their favorite recent commemorative postage stamp to be reissued in a contest labeled “Stamp Encore”. Twenty-five recent best-selling commemorative stamps were chosen from which one would be selected for reprinting. Ballots could be submitted via email. There was no limit on the number of times an individual could vote. The stamps in the competition included those that were patriotic in nature, but also stamps that pandered to collectors worldwide including many cartoon characters and superheroes as well as stamps that might be labeled ‘gimmicky’. The total number of ballots received (580,000), and those cast for the winner of the competition were announced at the 2026 International Boston Stamp Expo. The Mister Roger’s stamp, first issued in 2018, won receiving over 40,000 votes. It was reissued both in sheets of twenty stamps, and in the form of a new four-stamp souvenir sheet issued on June 1, 2026. But the USPS was not through with its US 250th anniversary celebration. It also enlisted Ralph Lauren to “curate” a souvenir sheet of 13 stamps referred to as “Stamp Icons.” Those icons are quite nostalgic and bucolic including, among others, Jackie Robinson’s old baseball mitt, an old pickup truck and Teddy bear. An image of Ralph Lauren’s knitted 13-star American flag sweater forms the centerpiece of the souvenir sheet. I suspect that the USPS decided to err on the side of caution and issue the Stamp Icons souvenir sheet because it reflects more favorably on the US’s 250th birthday celebration than if, say, a stamp featuring Bugs Bunny had been the most favored in the Stamp Encore competition.
New Deal Post Office Murals and Sculptures in Illinois: Examining the Themes of Geography Depicted in Depression-Era Public Artwork
Jordan M. McAlister – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Of the roughly 1,650 pieces of New Deal artwork commissioned for post offices across the United States, dating from 1934 to 1943, Illinois received 89 works in 72 different postal units scattered evenly throughout the state. That is the sixth largest total for any state or territory. All but one of these commissioned murals and sculptures remain on public display. This distinguishes Illinois as home to the fourth largest accessible collection behind New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These works are almost entirely geographical in theme, and worthy of geographical analysis. Each one highlights a place and a particular narrative associated with that geography. The geographic themes are based on the local knowledge, research, and/or imaginations of the 60 various artists who painted, sculpted, and chiseled the pieces. The murals and carvings run the gamut from depictions of hometown boosterism, overt glorification of settler colonialism, and stereotypes of disinherited and disenfranchised communities. They depict local historical events, Native American life, bucolic Midwestern scenery, industry and manufacturing, farming and animal husbandry, aspirational and inspirational material, and a fair number of controversial topics that hint at racial division and animus. Regardless of their sometimes disputed and discordant representations of history, these pieces can be considered national treasures that tell a part of the American story. Some are deteriorating, in need of care, or are being covered up due to content, but all 88 are deserving of attention, preservation, and the thoughtful contextualization that historical geographers can facilitate. This study categorizes and documents the New Deal post office artwork in Illinois and explores ways to use them as tools for examining geographies and place, bridging the Depression Era and the 21st century.
Additional Explorations in Historic Major League Baseball Stadium Postcards: Placemaking and Changing Urban Forms
Adam A. Payne – Auburn University and Douglas A. Hurt – University of Missouri
A small, but growing, number of geographers have utilized historic postcard imagery to investigate the shaping of American places, particularly townscapes, regional imagery, and roadside landscapes. Especially between 1920 and 1970, postcard publishers and photographers created thousands of cards that contributed to the formation of place perceptions amongst the public. This was particularly true before the widespread adoption of televisions beginning in the late 1940s, after which Americans could more easily consume imagery. In part two of this research project, we continue to utilize historic Major League Baseball stadium postcards to examine the changing relationships between stadiums and their surrounding cities. For this presentation, we build on our work with American League teams presented at last year’s conference in Jacksonville. Today, we have limited ourselves to the eight teams playing in the National League prior to 1961. We followed the progression of each baseball club from their earliest to their current stadium. At this point, our initial observations continue to revolve around the relationship between stadiums and their adjacent neighborhoods, the portrayal of sense of place inside stadiums, as well as the changing architectural features and distinctive layouts that characterize these urban landmarks.
Panel IV
“East is Up”: Allegory, Mythos, and Worldbuilding in the Story of Dema by Twenty One Pilots
Seth T. Kannarr – Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
The discography of American musical duo Twenty One Pilots includes a recent five album run — Blurryface (2015) to Breach (2025) — that shares the "Story of Dema" across its lyrics, music videos, and expansive lore. This story takes place on the fictional continent of Trench and follows the character of Clancy as he seeks to escape the city of Dema with the help of the character Torchbearer and the Banditos and to break the cycle of oppressive rule by the nine bishops. These bishops, led by Nico, have enslaved the populace through the religion of 'Vialism' that teaches self-destruction is the only path to paradise. In this project, I sought to explore how Twenty One Pilots has built a rich geographic setting with a strong sense of place through the effective use of allegory for mental health struggles, mythos in lore to create demand for more content, and fictional worldbuilding that enhances Clancy's journey from plucky protagonist to becoming the 'Nova Bishop'. This was done through analysis of song lyrics, music video imagery, and the supplemental lore artifacts dropped into the release cycle media of each album. Whether a dedicated fan or simply a casual listener, all can appreciate the depth of immersion in place and metaphorical storytelling that Twenty One Pilots has provided through the "Story of Dema."
Territory, License Plates, and the State
Jonathan Leib and Timothy Kidd – Old Dominion University
In discussing the concept of territory, political geographer Anssi Passi wrote in 2003 that "several important dimensions of social life and social power come together in territory: material elements such as land, functional elements like the control of space, and symbolic dimensions like social identity." As a method of state regulation and outward expression of state territorial identity, one place where these elements come together is on the license plates of motor vehicles. Issued by governing authorities, these plates are a statement of legitimacy of government control and an expression of the territorial status of the vehicle owner. Therefore, it should not be surprising that license plates have been used as one way of claiming state ownership of territory. At the same time, such claims can be contested by other states and entities, as well as by individual drivers.
An Architect, A Double-Murder, and a Public Legacy: John D. Betley and New Hampshire’s Post-War Cultural Landscape
Scott Roper – Vermont State University
Early on the morning of December 14, 1963, New Hampshire architect John D. Betley and his companion, Doris Piasecny, were murdered at Piasecny’s home in Manchester. After his death, local newspapers heralded Betley’s architectural contributions to the state, and his funeral was attended by many of the state’s best-known politicians, religious leaders, and architects. The crime and its aftermath have received some attention in national media, most recently in Gloria Norris’s memoir KooKooLand, but Betley—as both a person and an architect—is largely forgotten. In reality, this civic-minded veteran of World War II designed or assisted in numerous important public, commercial, private, and religious projects across New Hampshire. Using issues of New Hampshire Architect (1949-1962) and Granite State Architect (1963-1968) together with reports in the Manchester Union Leader, the author identified 31 projects in which Betley was involved as chief or associate architect, at least fifteen of which still exist today. Together, these projects reflected both the form-follows-function of Mid-Century Modern architectural styles and a post-New Deal idealism about the ability of architecture to help improve the lives of those whose social and economic standing placed them at a disadvantage.
Maria Chabot Rebuilds an Adobe House
Joann Noe Cross – University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
In the public’s eye, Maria Chabot is best known as a companion to the great American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. However, she was much more than a footnote to someone else’s life. A high school graduate with aspirations to being a writer, Maria rebuilt, authentically, an abandoned adobe home in Abiquiu, New Mexico for Georgia O’Keeffe. Now a part of the Georgia O’Keeffe House Museum managed by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the house is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year. Weaving Maria’s own words together with pictures, the art of building – or rebuilding – an adobe residence is the focus of this presentation.
“Invisible” Atomic Landscapes: Nuclear Legacies Around Lake Erie
Rex J. Rowley – Illinois State University
Of the many spaces impacted by the development and deployment of American atomic weapons, some of the most intriguing are those whose peripheral role in atomic history goes largely unknown and unnoticed. Given their obscure role in the atomic project, academics and everyday passersby aren’t likely to recognize them as anything other than what they see in front of them today. Landfills of contaminated materials still exist as landfills. Some factories have been decommissioned or demolished, while others have been repurposed. And, storage warehouses have taken on a completely new role in gentrifying neighborhoods. It would be easy to label them as “invisible” but for their brutal form and glaring presence on the contemporary landscape. In their current manifestation, however, the atomic legacy remains hidden, invisible. In this essay I will analyze a dozen such atomic landscapes around Lake Erie, including waste disposal sites, enduring industrial complexes, and repurposed buildings that played a material, albeit ancillary role in support of American atomic weapons development. A cultural landscape analysis of these “invisible” atomic spaces not only gives way to untold stories of the atomic age embedded in their material remnants, but also illuminates meaningful discourses surrounding how the atomic project and its legacy permeates a variety of everyday spaces and places that Americans live and work in today.