Vol. 53, No.1 , Spring/Summer 2015 - "History and Geography in Pennsylvania"
(pp. 3 - 24)
Stacey Wicker
Department of Geography and Regional Planning
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, American writer Edward Abbey (1927-1989) is most widely associated with the desert landscapes of the American Southwest. Acclaimed as a nature writer, environmentalist and defender of wilderness, Abbey’s writings reveal an individual with a highly developed sense of place; in particular, the idea of home as place. Through a critical analysis of Abbey’s published writings, interviews, personal correspondence and private journals, this paper seeks to further understand the place of home in shaping the human experience. Abbey’s extensive and often complex musings on home are a crucial component in centering his self-identity, especially as a means of expressing his profound love for the American Southwest and his feelings of alienation from his native western Pennsylvania. Ultimately, Abbey ideas of home serve as a framework for articulating his deep commitment to environmental preservation and wilderness defense.
THE HISTORY OF BEER IN PENNSYLVANIA AND THE CURRENT GROWTH OF CRAFT BREWERIES
(pp. 25 - 43)
Alison E. Feeney
Department of Geography and Earth Science
Shippensburg University
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Beer has been part of agricultural societies for thousands of years, and it certainly played an important role in the dietary and social life of settlers in North America. Styles, production, distribution, and consumption is closely connected to the technology and economies of the times and the cultural practices of its population. Pennsylvania traditionally led the country in the number of breweries but declined along with the rest of the country by the mid- 1900s. This study uses GIS to map the 166 craft breweries that have recently pushed Pennsylvania into a new era of small, local, but distinguished consumption practices. Spatial joins and hotspot analysis show the state’s overall distribution of breweries align with total population, influenced by historic immigration and beer drinking traditions and secondly with transportation corridors. Finally, craft breweries typically target a specific market and in Pennsylvania, brewery locations are statistically correlated with a well-educated, higher income consumer.
EXPLORING THE GEOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM MORRIS DAVIS’ PENNSYLVANIA ROOTS
(pp. 44 - 65)
Eric Clausen
Department of Geoscience
Minot State University
Minot, North Dakota
Abstract
William Morris Davis who is often considered the “father of American Geography” began his life in Pennsylvania. His biographers neglect many aspects of Davis’ Pennsylvania life, but provide clues useful in determining Philadelphia and other locations Davis would have known. A remarkable family raised Davis in and near Philadelphia and provided him with unusual educational opportunities and experiences. Landscapes he observed near his home in Cheltenham Township along the Philadelphia-Montgomery County border probably contributed to the development of his geographic cycle hypothesis. A trip to visit a family owned coalmine in Bradford County, which W.M. Davis probably made as a teenager may have contributed to ideas later expressed in his classic “Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania” paper. After W.M. Davis earned a Harvard University Master’s degree in mining engineering what may have been a behind the scenes effort to interest him in helping to develop coal deposits on his family’s Kentucky landholdings instead led him back to Harvard University where he began his geography teaching and research career.
(pp. 66 - 93)
M.E. Folkoff and Daniel W. Harris
Department of Geography and Geosciences
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland
Abstract
Céréghino et al. (2008) and Oertli et al.’s (2009) extensive review of the small lake and ponds literature, landscape features frequently called small water bodies (SWB), indicated a growing interest in SWB research reflected by an increasing awareness of their importance to the physical environment. Oertli et al. (2009) found a seven fold increase in worldwide peer-reviewed publications between 2000 and 2008, from 10 to 70, which while indicative of increasing interest, is still only a modest research effort. Lehner and Doll (2004) reviewed earlier studies of the global distribution and physical properties of SWB and found that many water bodies, especially the smallest features were not counted nor were they categorized or mapped in a systemic way. Most research examines SWB at either the continental or watershed scale and few large scale studies have sought to inventory or categorize SWB, a significant lacunae given modern geospatial mapping techniques. Although SWB are common in humid regions, including Wicomico County, Maryland as well as the rest of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, little is known about their role in the environment, including their basic physical characteristics, such as numbers and area, as well as their interaction and interconnectedness with each other and the surface hydrology (Downing 2010). This research is an initial effort to determine the number of SWB, derive an initial classification by functional type and examine SWB spatial patterns, using Wicomico County as a model for SWB in rural counties on the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.