Chapter 1:

The first map showing the historical maps was built using a GIS Story Map Builder. I initially used Map Warper to ground each map to their real life location, thinking that I could build a map with more interactivity, allowing the user to click on and off each map, or perhaps slide through them to show how the town was built up. That being said, I ran into some technological difficulties with that, and struggled with user capabilities in allowing one to alter layers in GIS. This was the first of many times that I ran into this wall, and fell onto story maps as an easier way for me to present my information in a way that I could understand, and felt that a viewer would also.

While I think that this set-up is effective for the most part, I definitely think it’s not the most exciting way to display information that is pretty interesting. Also, because the images shift in a blink rather than fading into each other, the change is harder to visualize, which I think defeats some of the purpose of showing the transition.

Chapter 2:

I used the Cascade Story Map Builder on GIS to make this rephotography story map. This was the concept that I had from the beginning, and I think is one of my final pieces that most closely resembles what I had envisioned in the beginning. I overlayed images scanned from the Nerstrand: A History book to photos that I had taken with mirroring the perspectives in mind on Photoshop, and saved three versions as a JPEG; one with 0% opacity on the black and white photo, one with 50%, and one with 100%, and put all three in order onto the story map, in hopes that it would appear that the older photos faded into more clarity as one scrolled.

I actually think this is my most engaging map, and most effectively accomplishes the goals of deep mapping. It is community-built, as it required both the work of the Nerstrand Bicenntenial Committee in gathering the old photos, the person who took said photos originally, and my photos in order to construct this narrative. I also think in terms of look, it is also my favorite, as the three versions of each photo do create an effect of gradual fading that I think is pleasing.

Chapter 3:

For the first map, I used GIS to drop a pin on the area of Big Woods State Park, and used two layers; one of Minnesota parkland by Esri, and another by Austin Mason of ecological sections of Minnesota.
For the second, I used the Cascade Story Map Builder on GIS, along with information and photos from the Managing Landscapes in the Big Woods Ecosystem pamphlet from the state park. I also used accessible images on Flickr of the park for some backgrounds. I really struggled with conceptualizing this map; originally, I had wanted to do a kind of walk-through tour of the park, maybe showing different routes and sights, but time and technology were an issue. In hindsight, I could have done a kind of basic walk through tour and peppered in 360 degree photos to mimic a kind of sensory experience to go along with the information about conservation, because I do think that the map that I have now is rather content-heavy and not that fun to look at.