CENTER E FO Dedicated to the increase H R T L and diffusion of knowledge A N N O I D about how the nation’s T U A S T lands are apportioned, E RE The Lay of the Land INTERP utilized, and perceived. The Center for Land Use Interpretation winter 2011 “Interpretation is a seed, not a tree.” - from the Interpretive Development Program, National Park Service THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE DIGGING VERMONT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S GREAT MOUNTAIN PASS WHAT LIES BENEATH THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE Streams of transit through the Grapevine. CLUI photo CALIFORNIA’S RIDGE ROUTE WAS THE subject of an exhibit at the Center’s Los Angeles space in the latter half of 2010. The ex- hibit, Through the Grapevine: Streams of Transit in Southern Califor- nia’s Great Pass featured digital display panels describing different The grey rock that lies beneath the Green Mountains. CLUI photo aspects of this landscape of transition. Also on view was a landscan VERMONT MAY BE THE MOST uniformly scenic and pastorally of the region, a continuous shot of the landscape between the edge idyllic state in the union. Perhaps many imagine Vermont as roll- of Los Angeles’ sprawl and the beginning of the rural valley at ing hills with rushing brooks and snowy glens, peppered with the base of the Grapevine, shot by the CLUI and Ron Chapple whitewashed villages populated by DIY Yankees, back-to-the-land of Aerial Filmworks from a helicopter with a gyrostabilized high localists, and red barns full of fat happy cows making Ben and definition camera. continued on page 23 Jerry’s ice cream. As if it was designed by Olmstead, and inhabited by bread and puppeteers. While this is at least partially true, it is only part of the story. This most green state has a grey core. IN THIS ISSUE With a small population (625,000 people, only Wyoming has less), and no urban space to speak of (Burlington, population less than 40,000, is the smallest largest city of any state in the union), Ver- THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE EXHIBIT....................... 1 mont has the lowest Gross State Product in the country. The larg- STATE IN FOCUS: VERMONT......................................... 1 est component of the economy is government, not surprising for a CENTERS OF THE U.S.A................................................. 2 state with prominent “democratic socialists” like Bernie Sanders, and better than average services for the poor. CLUI REGIONAL FACILITIES REPORTS......................... 3 CLUI ARCHIVE INITIATIVES.......................................... 5 The second largest component of the state’s economy is real estate, 6 much of it from rents and leases for seasonal occupants. 15% of the SITE REPORT: CAPE CANAVERAL.................................. homes in the state are occupied seasonally or recreationally. In some OVER THE SIERRAS......................................................... 20 towns, like Ludlow, Stowe, and Manchester, as much as ¾ of the houses are second homes owned by people from out of state. Only CLUI EXHIBITS AND PROGRAMS................................ 21 Maine has a higher seasonal dwelling percentage (and, curiously, THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE BUS TOUR................... 25 Maine is the only state with a higher white person count than Ver- UNUSUAL REAL ESTATE LISTING #24213............. 33 mont, 98%). BOOK REVIEWS............................................................... 34 Yes, Vermont makes more maple syrup than anyone (a million gal- lons per year, and rising), but many of the state’s other industries are similarly monolithic, and singular. One high-tech plant near continued on page 13 CLUI REGIONAL FAcilitiES THE CENTERS OF THE USA THE CENTER IN THE USA EXHIBIT WILL MOVE TO OTHER CENTERS SOON NEWS FROM THE CLUI SITE NETWORK The CLUI trailer at the center of the continental USA. CLUI photo THE CENTERS OF THE USA, an exhibit produced by the Institute of Marking and Measuring and the CLUI, opened to visitors on August 14, 2010. The exhibit is inside a CLUI Unit temporarily The good ship TexHex, on its maiden voyage into the heart of darkness. installed at the center of the contiguous United States, north of CLUI photo Lebanon, Kansas, and it depicts and describes several of the “Cen- CLUI Houston ters” of the nation, such as the geodetic center, in Lucas, Kansas A NEW KIND OF INTERPRETIVE research platform has been de- and the geographic center, near Belle Fourche, South Dakota. ployed at the CLUI Gulf States Field Office inH ouston. Construct- ed over the last year by Simparch, with the support of the Mitchell The Centers of the USA is available for viewing by the public 24/7. Center for the Arts, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, and the Center A phone number on the door tells people where to call to get the for Land Use Interpretation’s Inland Waterways Initiative, the ves- access code for the keypad lock on the door, a technique used at sel is a floating workstation designed to support the production and several other exhibit facilities operated by the CLUI. The trailer, which has also been enjoyed as a shelter by members of the local presentation of creative interpretive projects on the nation’s inland highway department, has been visited by hundreds of people pass- waterways. ing through over the last six months. Though the site is in a sense a historic relic, as it is the center just of the 48 contiguous states, it Built on an aluminum pontoon base, the boat is named TexHex, is a popular spot for people trying to get to the heart of things. due to its Texas origins and the hexagonal shape that recurs in its form and concept, referencing such things as Fullerian polygons, The exhibit will be moving soon to provide interpretive scope at coastal fortifications, and petrochemical molecules. The boat con- other Centers. It’s next stop is expected to be the new Population nects to a modular polygonal raft structure that can be moved and Center of the USA, near Plato, Missouri. Every ten years a new reconfigured, like a small floating island, and a transition between population center of the country is determined by geographers ship and shore. at the Federal Census Bureau, using data from the latest recently completed national census. Announced just a few weeks ago, this new center has been located at a point that is half a mile southwest TexHex will be used as a live-aboard structure, to develop and refine of the town of Plato. A Platonic center indeed! self-contained and energy efficient living systems, including solar power and water treatment technologies. It will also be possible to The official Center of Population for theU SA is determined math- use the platform to produce and display audio/visual programs re- ematically as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and lated to research about the environment (such as the Buffalo Bayou, rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all the where the vessel is currently based). An integrated folding screen 310,570,000 or so residents counted in the 2010 census were of and projection system enables recorded and live video content to be identical weight. The previous official population center of the viewed while the boat is stationary or in motion. USA, based on the results of the 2000 US Census, is 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs, Missouri. It moved 35 miles west-southwest In 2008, while the CLUI was in residence with the Mitchell Center from a point near Steelville, Missouri (its position determined by for the Arts at the University of Houston, the CLUI and Simparch the 1990 census). The new Population Center, near Plato, is 25 miles southwest of Edgar Springs, reflecting the general migration started on the design of the boat. Simparch is a build-design group of population from the wintery urban northeast to the sunbelt of that works in the margins between art and architecture. For the the Southwest. Currently the federal government is working with past ten years, Simparch has been operating a sustainable living re- local representatives at Plato to determine a location for a monu- search facility supporting the CLUI Residence Program at a former ment to mark the new center in a place that is accessible to the bombing range on the salt flats ofU tah. The TexHex project brings public. Meanwhile, the CLUI is working on looking for a spot some of these notions and capabilities to an industrial aquatic en- nearby to place its exhibit trailer. ♦ vironment. This project is part of the CLUI Lines of Site thematic program, an ongoing series The CLUI Houston exhibit area is now open to visitors during the of presentations about surveying, cartographic lines, perimeters, and borders. It was made possible with the support of the Salina Art Center, Creative Capital, day. Information on getting to the Field Office, and into the exhib- the Hub Club of Lebanon KS, and the Institute of Marking and Measuring its, is on our website, www.clui.org. (IMAM). The Lay of the Land Winter 2011 Page 2 CLUI REGIONAL FAcilitiES The Desert Research Station The Center’s Mojave desert outpost experienced a year of protract- ed stagnancy punctuated by abrupt bursts of energy and transi- tion. Evolving observations of disintegration and decay were in- terrupted by invited and uninvited visitations. The use of the Desert Research Station as an adjunct to the Wen- dover Residence Program continued this year, with Wendover program participant William Lamson using the local dry lake bed for his research, after the consistency and composition of the playa at Bonneville proved inadequate. The higher organic content at the DRS and Harper Lake worked well with his rolling Fresnel lens apparatus, enabling the completion of a complete, 366-foot burn arc over the course of a day.