Cooperative Park Studies Program
Cooperative Park Studies Program
Principal Investigators:
Dorothy
H. Anderson, Department of Forest Resources and CPSP, 612-624-2721
Project Personnel:
Greg
Massaro, Research Assistant, Department of Forest Resources
Project Duration:
September
1999 – December 2002
Funding:
Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Recreation
Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station
Summary:
Each year, lands in Minnesota
containing cultural resources become available to the MNDNR, Division of Parks
and Recreation for possible inclusion in the state park system. Seventy-one state parks and recreation areas totaling 258,291 acres make
up the current state park system. Native
American villages, traditional land uses, buffalo jumps, earthen mounds,
historic habitations, military forts, battle sites, transportation routes,
modern land uses, and a lighthouse are examples of the types of preserved
cultural resources in the current system. Before such lands can be added, the Minnesota state
legislature must decide which lands merit inclusion. The MNDNR, Division of Parks and Recreation assists state legislators in
this decision making process. This
project outlines a process for determining which Minnesota cultural resources
are absent from the existing Minnesota state park system and whether potential
state lands that contain such cultural resources should be protected/preserved
within the state park system in the future
Data was extracted from two databases on Minnesota’s documented cultural resources. Both databases were acquired from the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). These databases included the location, types, and time period of cultural resources found in Minnesota. Data analysis began by grouping similar types of cultural resources into cultural resource themes. Once cultural resource themes were established, their geographic distribution across Minnesota was mapped using ArcView3.1.
Large ecosystem boundaries were used as landscape regions to subdivide Minnesota into ten sections. By law, the Minnesota State Park System must contain appropriate cultural resources that represent Minnesota’s different landscape regions. These landscape regions were derived from the Ecological Classification System (ECS) sections in Minnesota. The geographic distribution of the cultural resource themes were overlaid onto the ECS sections.
A total of 174 cultural resource gaps were defined for Minnesota’s state park system. These gaps occur across all ten of Minnesota’s ECS sections. Results show that compared to other parts of the state, cultural resources are not as preserved within the current state park system in northwestern portions of the state.
Results also illustrate that some cultural resource themes are not preserved anywhere in the current state park system. A relationship exists between number of state parks in an ECS section and number of cultural resource gaps. Creating new state parks in ECS sections with few state parks may reduce the number of gaps within the section. Placing priorities on land parcels in areas with few state parks would increase the opportunity to discover cultural resources to fill one or more of the existing gaps.
The map illustrates the cultural resource gaps identified by Minnesota ECS sections. The darker the shading, the more cultural resource gaps identified in the section.
Cultural resource gap analysis is a promising tool for determining which Minnesota cultural resources are absent from the existing Minnesota state park system and identifying potential lands, that if incorporated into the state park system, would fill those gaps.