BANGOR TOWNSHIP, MI -- A Saginaw Valley State University geography major is building an interactive map of the Bay City State Recreation Area and he needs your help.
Mark Alfini, an intern with Bay County's Environmental Affairs and Community Development office, is creating a digital map of the park and its beach designed to give the public a historical perspective on its value as a public space and natural resource.
The map is to include a series of aerial photos dating back to the 1960s to show the public how the area's marshes and beachfront have changed over the years. It's also to include historical photographs placed across the map that the public can view.
That's where Alfini needs your help.
"We just need photos to keep rolling in as the map progresses," Alfini said. "Any amount of joy that you've had from the park, I'd like to collect that in a photo."
The public can submit photos directly by bringing them to the environmental offices on the fifth floor of the Bay County Building, 515 Center Ave., or submitting them via email to Alfini at mralfini@svsu.edu.
The map, made with ArcGIS, an industry-standard mapping program, will be presented in an online format called Story Maps. Users can use the aerial photographs as a map and click on different points of the map to view historical photographs taken at each spot.
Alfini hopes this presentation format strengthens the public's association between the current park and memories they've made there.
"People think that geography is just maps, but it isn't," Alfini said. "Geography tries to take two different things and spatially relate them.
"When I first started I didn't know the history behind the area. This was a booming center of economy and family life."
Laura Ogar, the department's director, says the historical perspective will help county residents appreciate the recreational potential of the park.
"While local residents know this as a beachfront, the regulators don't recognize this as a beach," Ogar said. "The wetland is here today and that's a fact... but that's not the way it used to be."
In its heyday, Ogar says, the beach was a standby for summer activities and relaxation.
"People would get dropped off early just to save a spot," she said.
Now that water quality has improved and the area sees growing hope for future development, Ogar hopes the map can help spur resurgence in summer recreation and appreciation of the park.
As Alfini builds a composite map from half a century of aerial photographs, he's begun to move on to collecting, digitizing and placing photos on the virtual map.
Alfini said he hopes to have the map published online in its final format by the end of his internship with the county at the beginning of May.