Rediscovering Rural Appalachian Communities with Historical GIS

From the late 19^th century until World War Two, agrarian southern Appalachia was a patchwork of small, close-knit farm communities. This historic rural settlement pattern is locally recorded in community case studies by ethnographers and historical geographers but has not been mapped systematically. This paper explores the hypothesis that GIS analysis of historic topographic maps adequately identifies the boundaries of bygone southern Appalachian agricultural neighborhoods. Using the ArcGIS cost allocation analysis function, least cost regions are generated around neighborhood nodes based on the energy cost of foot travel relative to distance and slope. These prospective agricultural neighborhoods closely match ethnographers and historical geographers’ spatial descriptions. Mapping historic Appalachian agricultural neighborhoods provides an important basis for comparison with past and present settlement patterns. The research method is significant because it is easily replicated and may be extended across southern Appalachia and the past century.