The Great Chicago Fire

This first assignment for GIS Applications in Archaeology explored some historical data from before and after Chicago's Great Fire of 1871.  In this assignment, we looked at historical buildings built prior to 1871 and how they were affected by the fire.  We could see that none were actually built in the fire zone.  However, after the fire (which burned 4 square miles of the city) we see a large number of buildings popping up in what must have been a largely vacant area of the city.  Also interesting to note is that we can tell the directly of the wind during the fire as origin point is known.  We can clearly see the fire being blown northeast by a wind from the southwest until the fire runs into the shore of Lake Michigan.

Technically, this was largely a review week, as all the tools and processes were ones that we covered in the first semester. Still, I am very excited about this class. It will be great to focus specifically on the use of GIS tools for archaeology.