Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, December 17, 2008

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Tyree Jones and Stephen Austin work together to record the GPS coordinates of the Man o' War historical marker at the Kentucky Horse Park.

It’s not quite an Indiana Jones quest, but students helping to map Kentucky’s historical markers are finding their task an adventure all its own.

“It’s been a neat experience to go out and do field work,” said Stephen Austin, a sophomore at Bryan Station High School. “I’ve seen markers all over town, but this was my first time to get out and read them.”

Nearly a dozen Fayette County schools are participating in the mapping project, organized by Morehead State University. Faculty and student representatives attended training at the Student Technology Leadership Program fall showcase last month, and each school received a free GPS. Their goal is to fan out across the county and catalog its more than 80 historical markers.

“We dived in right away once we got the equipment,” said Brett Owens, STLP coordinator at Bryan Station. “The history side is fantastic. I’ve learned a lot about these markers. You look at the marker, you can’t help but read it.”

His group has run into a few roadblocks along the way: They had trouble locating the old Mount Zion Presbyterian Church site downtown and found that the Waveland marker was missing (it was hit by a car about five years ago).

In the Mapping Kentucky History Project, students work with local historians to learn the stories behind the sites, then use global positioning systems (GPS) to pinpoint the markers’ geographical location. They also photograph each marker to capture the text. The information goes to the U.S. Geological Survey and the Kentucky Historical Society, and it’s compiled for an interactive Web map database.

“We input the location, inscription, basically everything we found out about it,” said Tyree Jones, a junior at Bryan Station, who notched three more sites one recent afternoon.

Jones, Austin and Owens ventured out during Owens’ planning period and made quick stops at markers off Iron Works Pike: the Man o’ War exhibit at the Kentucky Horse Park, Mount Horeb Presbyterian Church and a plaque celebrating a five-gaited saddle horse named Wing Commander.

“There’s a lot of history in Lexington and Kentucky as a whole,” said Jones, who is eager to share what he has learned with relatives who live in North Carolina.

Also participating in the mapping project are Eastside Technical Center, Henry Clay High School, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Tates Creek High School, Winburn Middle School, Yates, Squires, Clays Mill and Picadome elementary schools, and students in the Project Rebound program.

“I have four kids who are really involved, doing it on the weekends or after school,” said Tonya Varnish, STLP coordinator at Eastside. “I’m trying to get everyone on board because it’s a really neat project.”

The goal is for schools collectively to map all of the state’s sites by May, in time for the big STLP showcase at the Lexington Center.

Cecelia Armstrong, a toponymist (one who studies place names) with Mapping Kentucky History, raved about the project’s benefits.

“Students are able to combine a wide variety of practical hands-on and analytical skills,” she said. “This project offers an opportunity to bring together so many critical needs areas … a direct and real math and science application, history, teamwork lessons and even community building.”

Organizers also hope that schools will invite experts from their local historical societies to come and talk about the events and people that they are literally helping to put on the map.

For more information:

Contact district technology resource teacher Julie Gaskin, who is coordinating the project participants in Fayette County Public Schools.