10/21/2009

Just in time for Halloween, there’s a new map available showing the locations of historic ghost towns of Saline County, as well as cemeteries and burial plots and pioneer schools.
The county’s Geographic Information Systems department created the map, which was inspired by a mural in the Saline County Sheriff’s Office painted by a former jail inmate.
Judy Palenske, GIS technician, did extensive research on the locations, Linda Siebert, GIS coordinator told Saline County commissioners at their weekly meeting Tuesday.
“We elaborated (on the mural) and found a few more. We also found the cemeteries and the schools,” Siebert said.
In some cases there was conflicting information about the location of certain features. In those cases both locations are shown and noted, Siebert said.
The map won first place in the 2009 Kansas Association of Mappers Map Gallery contest, held in conjunction with the association’s conference Sept. 28-Oct. 1. Siebert said plans are to enter the map in a regional GIS conference in April.
Copies of the map are available for $20 on regular paper and $50 for glossy photo paper in the county’s GIS office, Room 108 of the City-County Building, 300 W. Ash. For more information, call 309-5801.