Frequently Asked Questions

Vision

The vision of the 4-H History Map team is a national atlas of the United States to be posted on the Internet after the first of the year. This map can then be accessed using desk top computers, as well as portable units such as laptops, smart phones and tablets. As a 4-H family travels, they can search in advance for locations near where they will travel or use their portable device when on the road. Curious as to where this idea came from? Every July, a team of youth and adults known as the 4-H Geospatial Leadership Team work together for a week in San Diego, California. Each year, this team provides guidance and recommendations to 4-H National Headquarters and National 4-H Council for new efforts to advance learning about GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing technologies. As a part of this recommendation, the youth/adult team suggests a project that will help introduce the use of geospatial technology to 4-H families. Jim Kahler and Tom Tate, of the 4-H History Preservation Team, also served as members of the 4-H Geospatial Team.

When

Beginning April 2021, 4-H members, staff and volunteers will be able to nominate important places in their 4-H History and post them on a National 4-H History Map.

4-H'ers in West Virginia identified the state’s historical camping locations, including the first state 4-H camp in the country, Jackson's Mill, in Lewis County. West Virginia plans to map all 4-H camps, past, current and planned, and add them to an interactive map on the Internet, where 4-H'ers nation-wide can discover and explore warm 4-H memories that occurred at camp. What other categories can be included? 4-H camps are just one type of location that can be added to the National 4-H History Map.

Other historical 4-H locations could include:

• Early or current county/state fair-grounds
  
• Early or current county/state 4-H offices
  
• Birthplace of important 4-H pioneers
  
• 4-H center sites or current buildings
  
• Sites where the first club was founded in your county/state
  

Nominations will be reviewed by the National 4-HGIS Task Force. It is created and managed by the National 4-H Geospatial Leadership Team, made up of youth from Tennessee, North Carolina and New York. Please join them by nominating the location of your favorite 4-H memory in your state or county.

The form for beginning this process can be printed out at http://arcg.is/1bvGogV

Where

The 2021 4-H Geospatial Team’s recommended two-year project is this 4-H History Map, which will provide members, leaders, alumni, staff, and volunteers a tool for documenting historically significant 4-H locations/people/events in their own community, county or state. Some important examples include: West Virginia’s first 4-H camp, Jackson’s Mill; Georgia’s Rock Eagle camp; birthplaces of Hoke Smith and A. F. Lever, designers of the Smith-Lever Act; South Carolina’s first Girls’ Tomato Canning Club; and others from communities like yours.

At the NAE4-HYDP meeting in Memphis, the National 4-H Geospatial Task Force appointed a team to provide guidance to the National 4-H Map effort at the state and local level. A 4-H Educator in New Jersey, will chair the NAE4-HYDPA Geospatial Task Force effort for the mapping project.

How

The Project will be conducted in four phases:

1. Get each county/state to nominate potential 4-H Historical locations. Anyone in the 4-H family can make nominations on the forms located on the website at http://arcg.is/1bvGogV
   
   
2. Geospatial Leadership Team reviews submissions and posts those that are complete and ready for entry into the online 4-H History Map. The Geospatial Leadership Team will follow-up nominations that require more information before they can be posted.
   
   
3. Monthly posting of the most recently reviewed and selected sites to the publicly viewable National 4-H History Map.
   
   
4. Use of the National 4-H History Map by 4-H families as they travel the nation.
   
   

Please direct questions to:

     Tom Tate, National 4-H Geospatial Leadership Team
          or
     Michelle Teitsma, NAE4-HA Geospatial Task Force

Why

2021 Re-launches National 4-H History Map; Includes Your "First" or "Most Famous" 4-H Sites Every County and State in the country has a "first" or "most famous" 4-H event, person or place. This is your opportunity to "Put it on the Map!"

For years, 4-H'ers have been asked "Where was the first 4-H club in the US? Where is the longest continuously-active club in the country? Where was the first African American 4-H Camp in the sun state? Where was the first Native American 4-H Swine Club in America?" and so on. Now those 4-H History Landmarks can be recorded and tracked as a result of the National 4-H Geospatial Leadership Team’s National 4-H History Map project. This will give every county a chance to nominate the "first" and "most important" 4-H places, people and events (we’re calling all of these "sites"). How do you nominate a historically significant 4-H location/person/event in your community? Fill out the data collection form right on the website. If you don’t have all of the data requested, fill out what you can and a Geospatial Team member will contact you.

We look forward to seeing historically significant 4-H sites you identify in your community.

Principal author: Tom Tate