3 mile radius around the Cities of Beloit and Janesville, and 1.5 mile radius of the remaining incorporated municipalities (including municipalities not within Rock County) for the determination of Extraterritorial Plat review as defined is Wisconsin State Statute 236.15. Overlapping jurisdictions between the Cities of Janesville and Milton, and Janesville and Beloit have been agreed upon by the respective municipalities.

Project Name: Gast Farm Project Location: Iowa, United States Project Date: 2016

Gast Farm is a 13-hectare archaeological site located in the Mississippi River valley in southeast Iowa. Gast Farm is one of the largest and best-preserved Woodland sites in the region, with both Middle Woodland (Havana Hopewell, ca. 50 B.C.–A.D. 250) and initial Late Woodland (Weaver, ca. A.D. 350–500) deposits. Additionally, a large mound was once present, and remnants of geometric earthworks also suspected. The PIs research seeks to is to understand the interanal structure and layout of the Woodland communities at Gast Farm, which can contribute to knowledge of Middle and Late Woodland domestic and corporate-ceremonial spheres, i.e., residential as well as sustainable and symbolic communities. PI William Green collaborated with SPARC researcher Adam Barnes to produce orthorectified images and a digital elevation model (DEM) of the Gast Farm site from aerial imagery collected in 1990, using AgiSoft Photoscan. The orthophotos reveal distinct soil discolorations because the original photos were taken after the field had been disked, planted, and rained on, and only a few days after row crops (corn) had emerged. Soil discolorations indicate large-scale cultural features such as middens (dark colors) and a mound and possible geometric earthworks (light colors). The orthophotos also show a series of narrow linear discolorations exactly 10 m apart that represent the paths created during the controlled surface collection that was underway at the time the photos were taken. The DEM produced by orthophoto rectification has a 50-cm resolution, which is unfortunately is not sufficiently sensitive to detect possible mound or earthwork features after they have been leveled and plowed.

This work is part of a larger 2016-2018 project at Gast Farm, which combined GIS development, aerial imagery analysis, and geophysical survey. Defining community organization, locating any subsurface traces of the mound, and determining the reality of the suspected earthwork constituted key research objectives. Over the course of the project, the Gast Farm team (1) identified the Middle Woodland (Havana-Hopewell) community plan, (2) determined no geometric earthworks were present but discovered six additional mounds, and (3) confirmed and expanded the Late Woodland (Weaver) community plan. In the process of obtaining these results, the project also accomplished several methodological advances: it (1) demonstrated the viability of magnetic gradiometry for identifying Woodland residential and mortuary features in Mississippi Valley alluvial fans, (2) showed how to incorporate legacy oblique aerial photography in a georeferenced GIS, (3) indicated the promise of drone-based photogrammetry in identifying cultural features beneath crop cover, and (4) modeled the virtual reconstruction of leveled mounds.

Fieldwork and analyses were conducted in 2016-2018 through a grant from a National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration (project 9938-16). This research was also supported by a SPARC Data & Analytics Award. The SPARC Program is based at CAST at the University of Arkansas, and is funded by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS #1519660). Additional support for project archiving was funded by the SPARC Program in 2020 (BCS #1822110). A Beloit College Keefer Senior Faculty Grant and a developmental leave from Beloit College supplemented the NGS and SPARC support. Research was also aided by effort provided by Beloit College students and individuals at several partner institutions, notably the Midwest Archeological Center of the National Park Service (Lincoln, NE; MWAC), the Office of the State Archaeologist of the University of Iowa (OSA), and Arizona State University. The DigitalGlobe Foundation also provided access to satellite imagery (not included in this archive).

This map is to help end users determine eligibility for Farmland Preservation Tax Credits. It contains the Farmland Preservation Plan Map as created by Rock County, as well as Town Zoning as supplied by the Towns.Each town has their own Farmland Preservation Zoning. Parcels deemed eligible in the Plan map AND that are zoned Farmland Preservation may be eligible to receive tax credits.Questions about the Farmland Preservation Income Tax Credit can be directed to Anne Miller in the Land Conservation Department. Rock County residents interested in the program should contact the Rock County Land Conservation Department (608-754-6617 ext. 3). This map contains zoning which is a compilation of Town Zoning in Rock County as received from the towns. Town zoning records are the authoritative records and take precedence over County records. You must contact the respective municipalities for zoning information in: all cities and villages; and the Towns of Beloit and Newark. This map is updated nightly, however, there is a lag between the time the Town approves a zoning change and the time it appears on the map.Please note: Farmland Preservation Tax credits are not available for the Town of Newark.This map is for advisory purposes and is not a substitute for an actual field survey.