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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 9
where they had lived. Since many areas on the arsenal are closed test areas, one cannot take a group of elderly ladies and go exploring. The results of the trip were anticipated. However, the ladies had seemed to enjoy their outing, and the researcher considered the time investment a courtesy that should be extended to the women because they had given her their time by participating in the interviews. Interviews with some former residents who live outside of the State of Alabama were conducted by telephone. The duration of the interviews was equal to the endurance of the person called. These telephone calls generally lasted about a half an hour. The researcher judged from the voice (sounds of weariness) of the respondent when she should end the interview. She sometimes paused to ask if the person wanted to “talk a little longer,” providing the subject the opportunity to politely end the call. Additional Research In order to better understand the people and the communities of the pre-arsenal land in the setting of the early 1900's, and also the late 1800's during which time the subjects' parents or grandparents lived, the researcher scanned books for information pertinent to the research area and read articles pertaining to that time period that were available in the Huntsville Madison County Library. In the library archives, she read newspapers from that era. The news of daily events and happenings, as well as the advertisements, gave insight to the past. Many hours were spent studying maps. This included old Madison County road maps, a 1909 county map showing property owners that was drawn by G.W. Jones, and the 1936 U.S.G.S.' 7.5 topographic maps for the Huntsville, Madison, Farley, and Triana quadrangles. The researcher went to the Cartography Laboratory of the Department of Geography the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and procured a digital copy of the 1937 Madison County highway map; it shows roads and houses. In addition, the Army real estate map was studied daily to gain an understanding of the geographical relationships between those who had lived on the land and what they were describing during their interviews. Through the constant study of the parcel map, neighborhoods were developing in the mind's eye. Historic researcher John P. Rankin was completing his voluntary research documenting the cemeteries on Redstone Arsenal. A few years before, John had asked permission to photograph the cemeteries. This was met with great enthusiasm by the RSA Cultural Resources team. John's work is quite professional. When John documents a cemetery, he does a rather extensive records search on the families whose names are on the existing monuments. He freely shared his research data on CD's. The researcher consulted John's data numerous times, reading census records, wills, and other documents that might provide further information about the people and communities of her study. Furthermore, she frequently talked with John about their shared research interests, and, at times, he contributed his time to digging for further information on historic land owners in a specific area or location. In addition, he put the researcher in contact with others in 9 - (4042)