By 1850-1870, you have a technological factor to consider.  Were the
people you are studying traveling by foot or with animal-powered
transportation, or by rail?  If on foot/with animal power, they were
probably making less than 20 miles a day, much less, if they were not
traveling on an improved road.  By rail, they could move 100-200 miles a
day (on a mid-19th century railroad, probably closer to 100 than 200
miles), on days that they were moving, not sitting in a yard, etc.
Stopping and waiting would need to be figured into either mode of
travel.

D. Babson. 


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MARY
NIENOW
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 1:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Competing Destinations Modeling - Historical Distances question

Hello fellow list members,

I am curious if anyone has done any work in Competing Destination Models
(or gravity models) within an Archaeological/ Historical Archaeological
setting?

Similarly, has anyone heard of using Institutional Diversity at a
settlement as a gage of settlement success?

Finally, I am working with Historic Period (1850-1870) distance factors,
has anyone done any research into the distance an individual/family/etc.
can travel in one day within a Frontier Setting - based on historical
accounts?

Please feel free to either post here or email me directly
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Jeremy Nienow
PhD Student
University of Minnesota