From Keynote in Brisbane Australia to Rye, Arizona via a Wikipedia enabled rabbit hole

Stay with me intrepid, devoted, or robotic scraping readers. I’ve got an associative trails journey to lay out here, all of which is made possible by the free, open web, the people who build onto it chunk by chunk, and the sheer joy of exploration.

A highlight for me from last month’s OEGlobal 2024 Conference was the second day keynote by Siobhan Leachman, From Passive Absorption to Empowered Co-Creation. As it was one of the sessions live streamed, the recording is sitting there for you to enjoy later.

Siobhan’s energy and enthusiasm radiated from the stage, more so than the typical script read slide flipping talks. I was fortunate to have hosted a pre-conference preview of her session as part of our OEG Live webcasts.

As a small note I spotted an interesting thread, or braid if you will, with the opening keynote in which Robert dhurwain McLellan describe an approach to openness with respect cultural data of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” Siobhan had mentioned the mission of the  Auckland War Memorial Museum T?maki Paenga Hira to open access as “open by default, closed by exception.” No, it’s not the same, but still these are more nuanced yet still open approaches to openness.

But what I found interesting was Siobhan’s entry into openness in her taking on transcribing the field notes of one Vernon Orlando Bailey a naturalist who studied in the field of the American West in the late 1880s and early 1990s. It was the way she described in reading his poorly handwritten notes:

I was immediately sucked in by his spare writing, his pen sketches, the surprise of the occasional photograph or a lyrical prose description of his surroundings. I kept transcribing because I desperately wanted to know what happened next. So much so I was prepared to read the instructions for the project in order to double check what I was doing was correct.

This long dead man with horrendous handwriting became real to me, almost like a friend. Even now, every time I think of him, I feel a wave of affection. And by transcribing his journals he taught me so much. It turns out you don’t even have to be alive to be a great educator.

Siobahn Leachman’s speakers notes for slide 7

But the journey here was triggered when Siobhan mentioned her entry into creating Wikipedia articles, that one of the first ones she created was for another American naturalist, Rose E Collom:

While transcribing that catalogue, I noticed that many of the names I was transcribing were women. Women who were contributing to science in the early 1900’s by collecting and sending in specimens. So many more women than I had expected to see. I got curious about these women and again couldn’t resist researching them. As an example here is the marvellous Rose E. Collom. She was a prolific collector of specimens, the first paid botanist of the Grand Canyon National Park and supported the establishment of the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona. If you want to know more about this amazing woman see her Wikipedia article.

Siobhan Leachman keynote notes for slide 16

You can even find this, because Wikipedia excels at more than collaborative written articles, it preserves it’s own history. So I can go to the first page of edits and see that on November 23, 2014, a user named Ambroisa10 (aka Siobhan Leachman in Wikipedia) created the first stub of Rose Collum’s Wikipedia article. Note again- edit history and attribution as key features of Wikipedia,all lost when scraped for AI.

Now this sparked my ears because I lived for quite a while in Arizona, with many trips to the Grand Canyon, but also the marvellous Desert Botanical Garden in central Phoenix. So right away I was off looking at that fully developed Wikipedia Article on Rose Collum. My curiosity was more elevated when Collum’s early life in Arizona is described:

She became interested in Arizona flora when she moved to Gila County with her husband in 1914. They lived in an isolated area in the foothills of the Mazatzal Mountains where her husband worked a mine on the Collom property.^[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_E._Collom#Plant_collecting

Like I said I know this area well, both from living in Phoenix and later up on the Mogollon Rim- the Mazaztal mountains (here is your quiz, try either of the accepted pronunciations, or ask me), I passed this range often driving through Payson on the way to Phoenix and back, and also hiked up there many times.

This photo is right off of the Beeline Highway, or AZ87 and is definitely not Collum’s homestead.

It is a rugged place now, so imagine more being moved there as wife of a miner. She thus filled her time with walking and exploring the land around her, collecting seedlings for her garden, and self teaching herself from books and articles. Her hunger for learning and interest in natural must have been huge, as she became a recognized specialist in Arizona plants. That’s all in the article.

But I could not let go my wondering of where the location was. The “base” of the Mazaztal mountains is a huge area. I’d guess it is on the eastern flank as the modern AZ87 highway was an older wagon road, plus knowing there was mining activity in these places.

The reference for this part of Rose’s life was lacking link — “Woman of the Wilderness”. Arizona Producer: 4–5. 15 September 1930″ And I could not find that source anywhere online. I did some searching on that phrase, and as the web can still work I found more information in a 2015 blog post from BSBI News and Views on Rose E Collom: a Botanist of the Arizona Wilderness. The author had discovered Siobhan’s efforts via Twitter (the name I will only use for that space), and the post referencing Siobhan’s knowledge is much of the same content in the Wikipedia article. I took note of another reference also in Wikipedia to Collom’s alma mater, again sans link.

Lindenwood College Bulletin, (1930), “Woman of the Wilderness”, Lindenwood College Bulletin, Vol. 104, No.6, p. 10

It did not take too much old fashioned web searching to locate this issue from the Lindenwood College Digital Commons

Now on pages 10-11 is a better summary of that unfindable article from Arizona Producer:

She lives with her husband, at the Silver Butte mine in the rugged foothills right up against the mighty Mazatzals, six miles from a highway and the same distance from their nearest neighbors.

….

Her garden is watered with a stream that trickles out of Mr Collom’s mine tunnel, and tho plants transplanted haYc far exceeded what they were in a wild state. The Arizona writer says he cannot compass the vast variety or her garden. “There is nothing conventional or even faintly artificial about it.” She lives at an altitude of 4000 feet, but has brought down plants from a height even of 7000 feet, and proved that they will adapt themselves. She has sent seeds and plants to scientists and laymen an over the world.

She has about 150 peach trees, all seedlings. She has from year to year gained many State Fair prizes for her jellies, jams an<l preserves, and among these arc the conserves from wild fruits – the manzanita and algerita berries, and Oregon grapes. It is mentioned also that Mrs. Collom was the inspiring force back of certain acts of protective legislation for the native growing things of the; State. All of this, the writer says, is “because of a woman: a bright-faced, gray-haired, tiny woman who weighs scarcely more than 100 pounds.”

Lindenwood College Bulletin, 1930, p10

Here is a key clue — the name of the mine her husband worked at, the Silver Butte Mine, plus that it was six miles from the highway, which would have been the original Beeline before it was a highway.

It again was easy to find an entry for the Silver Butte Mine, and it is listed in Mindat with the additional name “Collum Property” — Bingo!

A former underground Cu-Ag-Pb-Au mine located in sec. 4, T9N, R9E, on the E slope of the Mazatzal Mountains, at the foot of North Peak (about 1¾ miles NE of North Peak summit), about 9¼ miles SW of Payson, on National Forest land. Discovered in 1895.

https://www.mindat.org/loc-54341.html

The linked latitude and longitude leads to this location, indeed at the foothills of the Mazatzals and equidistant from Payson and Rye, Arizona.

Another entry for this mine in the claims site Diggings places it’s location as Rye, Arizona

The Silver Butte Copper Mine is located near Rye, which is a town in Arizona. The mine is historically associated with the Green Valley Mining District, which is now part of the Tonto National Forest. The discovery of the mine dates back to 1895. The mining operations at Silver Butte Copper Mine primarily involve underground workings, with one known shaft. The depth of the underground workings can reach up to 155 meters (510 feet). The mined ore predominantly consists of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and tetrahedrite. The specific dimensions of the linear ore body are not known. The geological context of the mine area is characterized by granite rock formations, which belong to the Neoproterozoic era and are estimated to be around 1.00 to 0.54 billion years old. The surrounding area’s geomorphology is influenced by the Mexican Highland, which is part of the Intermontane Plateaus region.

https://thediggings.com/mines/usgs10027284

If I was living still in Strawberry Arizona, you bet I might try to bushwhack out to this mine and see if there are remnants of the Collum homestead, which was evidently at the mine. But I can do much from here, I tried to explore in Google Earth, but the terrain detail is blurry. I can see to the west the forest service road that would be closest access, and maybe a hint of a clearing, perhaps the shadow of a building?? Looks like I have more to add to her article, so I am dusting off my Wikipedia editing chops.

I did notice from the Wikipedia article on Rose Collum that the link her entry in the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame (footnote 4) was a dead link, so I did my minor diligence to update that reference to the Internet Archive capture— again giving her well deserved credit.

Although self-taught, she was the Grand Canyon National Park’s first paid botanist from 1939 until 1954. During her tenure at the Grand Canyon, Rose collected more than 800 plant specimens. She also collected and contributed hundreds of plant specimens to the U.S. National Herbarium and other institutions to further the study of Arizona’s flora.

https://web.archive.org/web/20171017083440/https://www.azwhf.org/inductions/inducted-women/rose-collom-1870-1956/

I found as well a bad link for the reference to a video of her induction into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame, but it will take more digging in the internet mine to find it. I did also come across a video summary of Rose Collum’s contributions as the botanist for the Grand Canyon (Siobahn Leachman is credited in the notes as a sourcve)

Okay I have definitely wandered a bit as my posts do. I am paying attention to that I readily found footholds of interest in Siobhan’s keynote presentation, I was looking things up during and after. Our other two keynotes were important topics, and I recall looking up as well some mentioned resources. But I did not find myself connected to the topics as much. I felt myself much less interested, who’s to credit/blame?

Given this is very much a dynamic one might make parallels with as a keynoter as presenter/teacher and me as audience/student, it’s not all at the feet of the former- it is also what I bring as the latter. I just felt more connected to this keynote session, do we always have to identify a specific reason?

Regardless, I am most thankful for this bit of exploration of a journey from a keynote at a conference in Brisbane, Arizona, that led me to digging and investigating to a location I knew well in Arizona. And it was through the affordances of Wikipedia, something som familiar perhaps we do not give it as much credit as it deserves. I dusted off my editing skills, and fixed a reference, and am ready to add to an existing article. Plus I was also inspired to do more contributing with photos to iNaturalist, which I did not even mention.

Here’s to rabbit holes.

At this point I was loving the Transcription work so much I would rather transcribe than watch TV or read novels. My favourite part was the serendipitous research rabbit holes I’d fall down. I’d make discoveries that I would share with other volunteers and the project managers on social media or email.

And because I had learned about the impact of the reuse of information, I started to realise I could share some of the results of these research rabbit holes with OTHER institutions. I hoped by doing so that the discovered data would make its way onto their databases and collections. This would in turn make it easier for the next person who fell down that particular research rabbit hole to find relevant content or data.

This was the very start of me considering reuse as part of my workflow, what I now describe as openness of personal and professional practice.

Siobhan Leachman’s presentation notes for Slide 12, Research Rabbit Holes

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Featured Image: A composite collage of which GenAI cannot do– IMG_2686.jpg flickr photo by OE Global shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license (my photo) plus a screenshot of the top portion of the Wikipedia article on Rose Collum (license CC BY-SA) superimposed on Moon Over Mazaztal Mountains flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) — the entire image can thus be shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license.