Using historical GIS to map segregation in the company town of Weed, Siskiyou County, California during the 1930 United States census

Several locals who have lived in Weed for over fifty years claim it was Long-Bell Lumber Company's practice to segregate workers by racial, ethnic, and occupational categories; this belief was tested using historical GIS (Geographical Information System). After importing the spreadsheet of the 1930 census and a digitized version of the 1928 Sanborn fire insurance map of Weed, California, into ArcMap 9.3.1, workers were mapped by race, ethnicity, and occupation using data queries. The resulting maps clearly illustrate that Long-Bell Lumber Company segregated its workers. This study shows that local knowledge is useful to the historian. It also illustrates that using historical GIS with two widely available sources, namely Sanborn fire insurance maps and U. S. census data, allows the historian to view and analyze spatial patterns that may not otherwise be readily apparent.