The design and writing of material for web pages and the operation of a web server is a complex task. Unlike the traditional scholarly essay, web page editing is seldom an individual effort. The production of this web site required the dedicated work of a team of assistants, colleagues, and supporters. While the content of the pages is the work and responsibility of the author, the project as a whole involved many others whom I wish to thank and acknowledge.

The faculty of the University of the South is privileged to have the support and resources of a visionary computing program. From the wide availability of Macintosh personal computers to an advanced network system running over a campus-wide fiber optic grid, faculty, staff and students enjoy an excellent network of communications and support. The central figure in the development of this system has been university Associate Provost Laurence Alvarez whose vision has consistently sustained the advance of a classical liberal arts university into the digital age. His associate Peggy Green, the Director of Network Services, has kept my machines linked and supplied many hours of technical trouble-shooting support. Peggy and her staff supply the invisible but essential backing up of the thousands of files and documents in my systems. Geno Schlicting managed to get around my bookcases and filing cabinets and wired my ethernet connections.

The direct faculty support for computing comes from the office of Academic Computing. John Bordley, Sewanee's first Director of Academic Computing, provided me with one of the first Macintosh computers on campus and upgraded my machine every year. The current Director Susan McBee has supported my projects not only with enthusiasm but with major investments in my capacity to work. They have made it possible for a religion professor to work in the best possible context of technical and hardware support of any professor on campus. Academic Computing has provided excellent machines and above all the necessary RAM in these machines to allow my team to function efficiently as we designed pages and edited images. Susan McBee in particular has had an almost uncanny sense of the machine or monitor I would need for the next evolution of my work.

The direct funding and support for People and the Land has come from the newly created Center For Teaching under the leadership of Professor Sherwood Ebey. The Center has funded the internship for my webmaster, Andrew Gallian, and without this support the project would have taken much longer to complete. The Dean of the College, Professor Robert L. Keele, has directly supported my budgetary needs for equipment and supplies at several critical points. The offices of the University Provost and the Vice-Chancellor have supplied additional support and encouragement. Robert Bradford and Joe Romano in the Office of Communications have encouraged my work and have given my work public exposure as well as referring to me many contacts from colleagues at other universities. Yogi Anderson, Director of the Associated Alumni, has given me several excellent occasions to present my ideas to alums and donors.

The team in the Office of Print Services has also supported my work on an almost daily basis. They have scanned documents, customized files, cleared copyrights, and provided both hardware and software support. They have helped me with software bugs and helped process the photo-CDs that contain most of the images used in this project. This team has supplied sustained and enthusiastic support for my work without which I could not work.

Tom Watson's able team in duPont Library is also a partner in this project. Tom has encouraged my use of digital materials and has been partner to many discussions of computing philosophy. Steve Reas of Non-Print Services selected and installed the TV/VHS system I use. Sue Armentrout in Inter-Library Loans found dozens of books and documents for my research. Anne Armour in Archives helped me find many rare volumes on the natural history of North America.

My office is a wonderful, cluttered workplace of thousands of books, maps, photographs, leaf prints, gravestone rubbings, computers--and a revolving team of dedicated students who are the heart of this project. My greatest debt is to my first webmaster now graduate, Karl Ulbrich, who produced my first web page and who patiently led me to the Internet. Beginning with Karl, a critical mass of students began to work in my office including Matt Laney, Andrew Gallian, Rayid Ghani, and Chris Demaree. These students designed pages for me, kept our computers running when the conflicts of high demand and dozens of extensions led to almost hourly crashes, and maintained our web server. Most important of all, they have sustained a sometimes wild and always creative vision of the digital world that they have invited me into. In the spring of 1996 Chris Cudabac whose excellent Erasmus page runs on my server also began to work in my office. Other students or former students who have assisted in the research reflected in the historical material of this site include Patricia Matte, Susan Baskett, Grove Parsons, and Katie Cavert. Katie must also be credited with some of the photos used here. David Michael Bearden, former religion major, now a research assistant in the Office of Congressional Research found and supplied me with many of the environmental reports I have used.

Many faculty colleagues have supported this work through advice, collaboration and conversation . My greatest debt is to my long-time friend Robert Benson who has walked the fields and coves with me and whose counterpoint was the birthing tension of most of my views about the land expressed here. Tim Keith-Lucas of the Psychology Department provided many hours of flying time in his plane as I studied and photographed the fields and rivers of this area; his excellent skills as a pilot always banked my wing exactly right for the photographs I needed. Tim has been a talking partner of most of the ecological and land use concepts I have developed here. Another old friend, Ed Carlos, has sustained a long conversation with me reaching across nearly thirty years. George Ramseur, Harry Yeatman, and Henry Smith now all retired from teaching science were my first teachers in the ecology of the Cumberland Plateau. Bran Potter, Richard O'Connor, Jonathan Evans, Scott Torreano, Karen Kuers, Martin Knoll, John Willis, and Major McCullough have given me the colleagues' good gift of informed conversation. Mary Priestly graciously and quickly proofed the scientific names in my Tree Guide. Pradip Malde of the Fine Arts Department made his Nikon slide scanner available to me within an hour of my requesting it; his contribution made the work of image preparation much easier. Clay Ross of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department was my first computer instructor; it was Clay who started me on the long road from Basic to HTML.

I owe a great debt of friendship and hospitality to many people of the Elk River valley who have invited me into their homes, barns, and fields. Jimmy Gray and Bill Driver among dozens of others told me stories of farming and fishing and shared with me their hopes and frustrations as they saw the changes coming to the land they farmed. Others have invited me into their churches, clubs, and classes to speak. Bud Cunningham of Cross Creek Cove opened the world of the coves to me. Many residents of Sewanee have shared with me their ideas and fears about land use and development. Members of the Sewanee Environmental Network have sustained my ideas in an extensive email correspondence. Doug Cameron has been both friend and mentor in my environmental education. From all of these I have learned much more than I can acknowledge here.

My newest debts are to my grandchildren Alicia, Amber , and Samuel whose car naps often have been disturbed by my stopping to take pictures and who have enthusiastically cried out from the back seat such observations as "Corn, Papaw!" "Deer!" "Tractor, Papaw." "Look, ducks!" as they began to play my game of seeing and learning this land.