Spearfish Sample Database

The spearfish sample database is being distributed to provide users with a solid database on which to work for learning the tools of GRASS. This document provides some general information about the database and the map layers available. With the release of GRASS 4.1, the GRASS development staff is pleased to announce that the sample data set spearfish is also being distributed. The spearfish data set covers two topographic 1:24,000 quads in western South Dakota. The names of the quads are Spearfish and Deadwood North, SD. The area covered by the data set is in the vicinity of Spearfish, SD and includes a majority of the Black Hills National Forest (i.e., Mount Rushmore). It is anticipated that enough data layers will be provided to allow users to use nearly all of the GRASS tools on the spearfish data set. A majority of this spearfish database was initially provided to USACERL by the EROS Data Center (EDC) in Sioux Falls, SD. The GRASS Development staff expresses acknowledgement and thanks to: the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and EROS Data Center for allowing us to distribute this data with our release of GRASS software; and to the U.S. Census Bureau for their samples of TIGER/Line data and the STF1 data which were used in the development of the TIGER programs and tutorials. Thanks also to SPOT Image Corporation for providing multispectral and panchromatic satellite imagery for a portion of the spearfish data set and for allowing us to distribute this imagery with GRASS software. In addition to the data provided by the EDC and SPOT, researchers at USACERL have dev eloped several new layers, thus enhancing the spearfish data set. To use the spearfish data, when entering GRASS, enter spearfish as your choice for the current location.

This is the classical GRASS GIS dataset from 1993 covering a part of Spearfish, South Dakota, USA, with raster, vector and point data. The Spearfish data base covers two 7.5 minute topographic sheets in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. It is in the Universal Transverse Mercator Projection. It was originally created by Larry Batten while he was with the U. S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center in South Dakota. The data base was enhanced by USA/CERL and cooperators.