Recreation site plan development of Bureau of Land Management's Pony Express trail area using airborne videography

The Bureau of Land Management's Pony Express Trail Project uses remote sensing to identify the areas along the historic Pony Express Trail that would be suitable for placing a network of rest stops to serve the public visiting the area. Part of the project will consist of using the available video film data of the area and the Map and Image Processing System (MIPS) from Microlmages, Inc. to transfer the video data into usable and readable format, i.e. "mosaics". MIPS allows manipulation of images to make their storage, retrieval, and interpretation easier and more accurate. Along with learning the technical aspects of the process, the project will also allow for historical research and interpretation. The origins of the Pony Express Mailing Co. will be studied and each station will be analyzed for its historic and present locations. This paper outlines the aspects of the MIPS software and historic information that I learned while working on the project. It is expected that this report will provide useful background for anyone wanting to use the MIPS software for similar applications in the future.