Maps have been guideposts for travel and exploration, and have expanded people’s understanding of the world, since the earliest of times. Old Independence Regional Museum focuses on this through its new exhibit “Maps: From Here to There and Then to Now.” It will display maps from the distant past and digital interactive maps in the present. The exhibit will be on view from August 16 through the end of 2008.
Of special interest is an exhibition of Carter Yeatman’s Historic Arkansas map collection, which spans the years from 1821 through the 1860s and one dating ca. 1920. Each map illustrates the beauty of early cartography, and also shows how the boundaries of the state and its counties changed during those decades.
Arkansas was once part of Missouri Territory, designated as the District of Arkansas, the first legal use of the name. In 1813, the Missouri legislature created Arkansas County, which became detached from Missouri and in 1819 was named a separate territory. At that time it extended west to include what later became Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Gradually, 75 counties emerged within Arkansas, with their boundaries shifting over time.
In the museum’s main gallery, maps of various sizes and uses fill the space. Early settlement trails across Arkansas and Indian Removal routes show how settlers came to claim land and how the government forced Native Americans to leave their land.
Early survey maps display how the rectangular Public Land Survey System of measuring land worked, instead of using the former “metes and bounds” method of measurement in relation to landmarks.
Information about land patents and homesteads is mounted next to an original copy of each.
One exhibit shows a surveyor’s Vernier compass, used by Joseph Southard, surveyor for Independence County from 1872-1896. His original measurement “chains” and stakes are displayed as if in use.
Another survey instrument on view, a level on wooden tripod, was used from 1930s until 1960s by Jess Cox, who farmed in Woodruff County and surveyed rice levees in Northeast Arkansas.
Land ownership maps for1853, 1902, and the present, give names of individuals who own particular acreage plots. A display titled “Traveling the Land” reveals road maps in various forms, from an early fold-out map attached to a book up to the present Streets and Trips program on a computer that allows the visitor “hands on” navigation.
The city of Batesville is featured through a map printed on cloth about 1910 and Sanborn Insurance maps of the city in 1914 that shows actual house footprints. A large model of Batesville in 1840 will be on view.
Other displays include a geological map that shows the rocks and mineral strata and the Fayetteville Shale that is presently being drilled for gas, a Civil War map that shows company movements near Cord-Charlotte, a cemetery relocation map that details how cemeteries were moved before Greer’s Ferry Lake covered them. A tactile map of Batesville that can be used by a blind person is also displayed.
Although water courses are called charts instead of maps, an exhibit area shows a section of the White River with its depth “soundings” by the Corps of Engineers in 1899 and two lead lines used to measure those depths.
Two computer stations allow visitors to look at the area digitally. One is a satellite view that can be manipulated and the other is a topographic map that shows the height of the hills in which the visitor can “fly” down the river and see the hills on each side.
Along with this map exhibit, the museum has scheduled several programs this fall. On August 10 at 4 p.m. Pete Musgrave, Independence County surveyor, will speak on “Land Surveying Then and Now.” At 4 p.m. on September 21 Jim and Ann Bechdoldt will present a photographic program titled “Reliving the Chisholm Trail,” telling how he helped herd longhorn cattle along that famous trail just a year ago. On October 26 at 2 p.m. Russell P. Baker, Archival Manager of the Arkansas History Commission will give a program on “Early Settlers and Their Land.” Then on November 9 at 2 p.m. a program titled “Our Geological Deposits” will be given by Angela Braden Chandler, a registered professional geologist with the Arkansas Geological Commission.
Old Independence Regional Museum, located at 380 South Ninth Street in Batesville, is a private, non-profit institution. It serves 12-counties in north central Arkansas. The Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for seniors and $1.00 for children. The museum is located at 380 South 9th street, between Boswell and Vine Streets in Batesville. Call 870-793-2121 for more information.
