Soil Surveys: A Down-to-Earth Source of Cultural Information by Le Roy Barnett It is probably fair to say that few historians see soil surveys as potential tools of their trade. The truth is, however, that these publications offer a great deal of information that can benefit those who seek facts about the past. Soil surveys are designed to show the different types of earth that can be found in a certain (usually a county) area. It must be conceded that seldom is this data required in detailed or scientific form by someone interested in yesteryear other than perhaps an archaeologist seeking to ascertain and describe what happened long ago. In the course of characterizing the variable nature of the ground upon which we live, however, pedologists (soil scientists) also reveal a lot about an area that can be of value to those who delve into the historic past. For instance, nearly every soil survey contains textual segments dealing with the study area's climate, geography, agriculture, land use, population, and transportation facilities. These descriptions can serve as a good introduction to a particular locale or help define its status at a certain time. A soil survey's real asset is its accompanying map. These cartographic productions convey abundant details of potential interest to anyone seeking evidence about former cultural landscapes. For instance, the color lithographic maps in soil surveys generally show the location of such features as: Roads, trails, bridges, tunnels, and railroads Lakes, rivers, streams, fords, dams, canals, ditches, and springs Ferries, lighthouses, wharves, jetties, levees, and breakwaters Dwellings, schools, churches, forts, and cemeteries Mines, quarries, pits, bluffs, and escarpments Boundary lines, borders, and triangulation stations A few of these soils sheets are so thorough that they also include symbology depicting things like railroad stations, mine dumps and shafts, Michigan Historical Review32:2 (Fall 2006): 119-130 ?2006 by Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved. 120 Michigan Historical Review pipelines and power lines, oil wells, storage tanks, windmills, sawmills, and fire towers. The last Michigan soil survey to show its findings in true cartographic form came out in 1960. Thereafter, all differences in the rocks and dirt at our state's surface were portrayed on bound aerial photographs of the featured territory. Although this vertical imagery is usually not as helpful to historians as the traditional maps, remote sensing still offers researchers a useful picture of the landscape at a particular cross-section in time. Some readers may wonder why it is necessary to resort to soil maps for information about cultural features when such data are readily available on the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles. The answer lies in the different ages of the two reference tools. A number of the soil-survey maps predate World War II, thus showing the manmade landscape in selected counties during the 1920s and 1930s. On the other hand, only four counties (Ingham, Livingston, Shiawassee, and Wayne) had complete quadrangle coverage prior to 1945. Thus, in many cases the soil surveys are thirty or more years older than the alternative product offered by the federal government. Although a few soil surveys were prepared for Michigan shordy after the beginning of the twentieth century, the effort to systematically map our state's surface layer did not begin in earnest until 1920 when Michigan State University became involved in the project. By 1926 it was said that the attempt to classify the land across our two peninsulas was "more extensive than in any other state."1 Onsite work by the survey teams usually started inMay and ended in mid-November. One of the crew leaders, explaining the fall termination of outdoor activities, said, "We make it a point never to go traipsing through the fields and woods during deer hunting season."2 Michigan vigorously pursued the analysis and mapping of its land characteristics until 1934, when budget cuts due to the Great Depression forced the state to scale back this undertaking. Soil surveys of our state continued to be published thereafter in the 1930s, but they were often based upon field work done earlier. The program was not fully restored until well after the end of the Second...