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48-690: According to the Geographic Names Information System , the Rivanna has also been known as "Mountain Falls Creek" and "River Anna". The Rivanna River is formed in Albemarle County about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charlottesville by the confluence of two tributaries: Below this confluence, the Rivanna flows southeast through Albemarle County, skirting the eastern edge of Charlottesville and breaching

96-495: A "Concise" subset of the NGNDB that listed "major features", and a "Historical" subset that included the features that no longer exist. There is no differentiation amongst different types of populated places. In the words of the aforementioned 1986 USACE report, "[a] subdivision having one inhabitant is as significant as a major metropolitan center such as New York City ". In comparing GNIS populated place records with data from

144-588: A 1962 replacement of the "Nigger" racial pejorative for African Americans with "Negro" and a 1974 replacement of the "Jap" racial pejorative for Japanese Americans with "Japanese". In 2015, a cross-reference of the GNIS database against the Racial Slur Database had found 1441 racial slur placenames, every state of the United States having them, with California having 159 and the state with

192-694: A 2008 book on ethnic slurs in U.S. placenames Mark Monmonier of Syracuse University discovered "Niger Hill" in Potter County, Pennsylvania , an erroneous transcription of "Nigger Hill" from a 1938 map, and persuaded the USBGN to change it to "Negro Hill". In November 2021, the United States Secretary of the Interior issued an order instructing that "Squaw" be removed from usage by the U.S. federal government. Prior efforts had included

240-451: A feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier. The database never removes an entry, "except in cases of obvious duplication." The GNIS was originally designed for four major purposes: to eliminate duplication of effort at various other levels of government that were already compiling geographic data, to provide standardized datasets of geographic data for

288-422: A later phase). Generic designations were given after specific names, so (for examples) Mount Saint Helens was recorded as "Saint Helens, Mount", although cities named Mount Olive , not actually being mountains, would not take "Mount" to be a generic part and would retain their order "Mount Olive". The primary geographic coordinates of features which occupy an area, rather than being a single point feature, were

336-462: A mound postulated to be the site of ritual burial and of spiritual significance to the tribe, is located near the confluence of the two forks of the river and was documented by Thomas Jefferson in his 1781 work Notes on the State of Virginia . Several major population centers of the tribe were located along the Rivanna, including Monasukapanough , near the headwaters of the river, and Rassawek ,

384-412: A second Alaska file) data from the 1:100000 and 1:250000 scale USGS maps. Map names were recorded exactly as on the maps themselves, with the exceptions for diacritics as with the NGNDB. Unlike the NGNDB, locations were the geographic coördinates of the south-east corner of the given map, except for American Samoa and Guam maps where they were of the north-east cornder. The TMNDB was later renamed

432-735: Is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories; the associated states of the Marshall Islands , Federated States of Micronesia , and Palau ; and Antarctica . It is a type of gazetteer . It was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote

480-557: Is a source of drinking water to the Charlottesville area and Lake Monticello. Water supply management and planning have been somewhat controversial. In 2006 a plan to expand water supply by piping water from South Fork Rivanna Reservoir to an enlarged Ragged Mountain Reservoir gained wide endorsement from environmental organizations, the water authority, and permitting agencies. Subsequently, however, some citizens have criticized

528-443: Is or was human activity" not covered by a more specific feature class), "populated place" (a "place or area with clustered or scattered buildings"), "spring" (a spring ), "lava" (a lava flow , kepula , or other such feature), and "well" (a well ). Mountain features would fall into "ridge", "range", or "summit" classes. A feature class "tank" was sometimes used for lakes, which was problematic in several ways. This feature class

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576-563: Is said Jefferson at first refused, but the Commonwealth would not be denied, and the Rivanna became an integral part of the central Virginian transportation network. The route served a large community of farmsteads and plantations throughout Albemarle and Fluvanna counties. It also bore ever-growing numbers of industrial facilities, like those at Union Mills and the Charlottesville Woolen Mills . It

624-561: The Geographic Cell Names database (GCNDB hereafter) in the 1990s. The Generic database was in essence a machine-readable glossary of terms and abbreviations taken from the map sources, with their definitions, grouped into collections of related terms. The National Atlas database was an abridged version of the NGNDB that contained only those entries that were in the index to the USGS National Atlas of

672-579: The James River and Kanawha Canal , itself an altogether impressive work intended to connect Richmond with the Ohio River and the West. The series of locks which connected the two works lie just outside the town, and are mostly buried by sediment today. In the batteaux era Milton was the head of navigation along the river, but by the mid-nineteenth century horse-drawn canal boats were traveling all

720-581: The Southwest Mountains near Monticello . The Rivanna continues southeast through Fluvanna County , passing the communities of Lake Monticello and Palmyra ; it enters the James River at the town of Columbia . Monacan Indians were the inhabitants of the Rivanna valley at the time of first contact by Europeans . The locations of several sites from the period are known, and some have been explored by archaeologists . One in particular,

768-714: The Thematic Mapper of the Landsat program , researchers from the University of Connecticut in 2001 discovered that "a significant number" of populated places in Connecticut had no identifiable human settlement in the land use data and were at road intersections. They found that such populated places with no actual settlement often had "Corner" in their names, and hypothesized that either these were historical records or were "cartographic locators". In surveying in

816-548: The 1990s (still including tape and paper) to floppy disc , over FTP , and on CD-ROM . The CD-ROM edition only included the NGNDB, the AGNDB, the GCNDB, and a bibliographic reference database (RDB); but came with database search software that ran on PC DOS (or compatible) version 3.0 or later. The FTP site included extra topical databases: a subset of the NGNDB that only included the records with feature classes for populated places,

864-598: The City of Charlottesville), resource management agencies (Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District) and quasi-governmental organizations (Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission). 37°45′04″N 78°09′49″W  /  37.75098°N 78.16361°W  / 37.75098; -78.16361 Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System ( GNIS )

912-572: The GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The usual sources of name change requests are an individual state's board on geographic names, or a county board of governors. This does not always succeed, the State Library of Montana having submitted three large sets of name changes that have not been incorporated into the GNIS database. Conversely, a group of middle school students in Alaska succeeded, with

960-593: The Rivanna Conservation Society and StreamWatch merged into a single nonprofit: The Rivanna Conservation Alliance (RCA). In 2006 The Nature Conservancy raised funds and approached local governments to successfully facilitate the establishment of the Rivanna River Basin Commission, a multi-jurisdictional body composed of local elected officials, Soil and Water Conservation District representatives, and citizens. In 2008

1008-536: The Rivanna River Basin Commission Technical Advisory Committee identified altered hydrology and sediment pollution as principal threats to the health of the system. (In general, altered hydrology refers changes in flow regime due to impervious land cover, withdrawals, and dams. The Technical Committee’s findings regarding the Rivanna were limited to land-cover mediated hydrological alteration). The Rivanna

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1056-471: The Rivanna basin as “one of the finest remaining freshwater river and stream systems in the Piedmont .” In 2002 a local scientist, John Murphy, founded a community-based monitoring program named StreamWatch . The StreamWatch benthic water quality monitoring program created a watershed-wide intensive data collection at permanent stream monitoring sites throughout the Rivanna and its tributaries. Note: In 2016

1104-466: The United States , with the coördinates published in the latter substituted for the coördinates from the former. The Board on Geographic Names database was a record of investigative work of the USGS Board on Geographic Names ' Domestic Names Committee, and decisions that it had made from 1890 onwards, as well as names that were enshrined by Acts of Congress . Elevation and location data followed

1152-905: The United States, a "Corner" is a corner of the surveyed polygon enclosing an area of land, whose location is, or was (since corners can become "lost" or "obliterated" ), marked in various ways including with trees known as "bearing trees" ("witness trees" in older terminology ) or "corner monuments". From analysing Native American names in the database in order to compile a dictionary, professor William Bright of UCLA observed in 2004 that some GNIS entries are "erroneous; or refer to long-vanished railroad sidings where no one ever lived". Such false classifications have propagated to other geographical information sources, such as incorrectly classified train stations appearing as towns or neighborhoods on Google Maps. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U.S. geographical features through The National Map Corps . The general public can make proposals at

1200-574: The broadcasting masts for radio and television stations, civil divisions, regional and historic names, individual buildings, roads, and triangulation station names. The databases were initially available on paper (2 to 3 spiral-bound volumes per state), on microfiche , and on magnetic tape encoded (unless otherwise requested) in EBCDIC with 248-byte fixed-length records in 4960-byte blocks . The feature classes for association with each name included (for examples) "locale" (a "place at which there

1248-426: The coordinates were taken to be those of a primary civic feature such as the city hall or town hall , main public library , main highway intersection, main post office, or central business district regardless of changes over time; these coordinates are called the "primary point". Secondary coordinates were only an aid to locating which topographic map(s) the feature extended across, and were "simply anywhere on

1296-424: The entire United States and that were abridged versions of the data in the other 57: one for the 50,000 most well known populated places and features, and one for most of the populated places. The files were compiled from all of the names to be found on USGS topographic maps, plus data from various state map sources. In phase 1, elevations were recorded in feet only, with no conversion to metric, and only if there

1344-629: The establishment of the Rivanna Trail, a greenbelt trail that encircles the city of Charlottesville. As its name suggests the trail was originally envisioned as a river-front promenade , after the San Antonio River Walk , but the plan was soon enlarged under the guidance of the Rivanna Trails Foundation. It now takes hikers all the way around Charlottesville, passing through many of the city's parks and

1392-423: The feature and on the topographic map with which it is associated". River sources were determined by the shortest drain, subject to the proximities of other features that were clearly related to the river by their names. The USGS Topographic Map Names database (TMNDB hereafter) was also 57 computer files containing the names of maps: 56 for 1:24000 scale USGS maps as with the NGNDB, the 57th being (rather than

1440-407: The first generation (through approximately 1830) were sluice cuts, small dams , and batteaux locks. Second generation (approx. 1840-1870) improvements had long stretches of canal , serviced by large locks , many of which are still visible along the river today. Shortly after the completion of the initial Rivanna navigational works, Virginia requested that the river be opened to public usage. It

1488-439: The government and others, to index all of the names found on official U.S. government federal and state maps, and to ensure uniform geographic names for the federal government. Phase 1 lasted from 1978 to 1981, with a precursor pilot project run over the states of Kansas and Colorado in 1976, and produced 5 databases. It excluded several classes of feature because they were better documented in non-USGS maps, including airports,

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1536-585: The help of their teachers, a professor of linguistics, and a man who had been conducting a years-long project to collect Native American placenames in the area, in changing the names of several places that they had spotted in class one day and challenged for being racist, including renaming "Negrohead Creek" to an Athabascan name Lochenyatth Creek and "Negrohead Mountain" to Tl'oo Khanishyah Mountain, both of which translate to "grassy tussocks" in Lower Tanana and Gwichʼin respectively. Likewise, in researching

1584-565: The late 1990s the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission convened an EPA-funded multi-stakeholder conservation planning effort, and in 1998 this Rivanna River Roundtable published its State of the Basin report identifying key management and conservation needs. In 2001, The Nature Conservancy, noting its many endemic and rare species including the endangered James River spinymussel , identified

1632-425: The location of the feature's mouth, or of the approximate center of the area of the feature. Such approximate centers were "eye-balled" estimates by the people performing the digitization, subject to the constraint that centers of areal features were not placed within other features that are inside them. alluvial fans and river deltas counted as mouths for this purpose. For cities and other large populated places,

1680-717: The most such names being Arizona. One of the two standard reference works for placenames in Arizona is Byrd Howell Granger's 1983 book Arizona's Names: X Marks the Place , which contains many additional names with racial slurs not in the GNIS database. Despite "Nigger" having been removed from federal government use by Stewart Udall , its replacement "Negro" still remained in GNIS names in 2015, as did " Pickaninny ", " Uncle Tom ", and " Jim Crow " and 33 places named "Niggerhead". There were 828 names containing "squaw", including 11 variations on "Squaw Tit" and "Squaw Teat", contrasting with

1728-667: The plan on the basis of cost, and have encouraged further research about dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. In most respects, Rivanna management and conservation efforts have been marked by significant cooperation among diverse stakeholders. The Rivanna River Basin Commission and the community monitoring program (StreamWatch) feature substantial participation by citizens, the conservation community ( e.g. Rivanna Conservation Alliance), local governments (Albemarle County, Fluvanna County, Greene County, and

1776-604: The point where a dam is thought to be". The National Geographic Names database (NGNDB hereafter) was originally 57 computer files, one for each state and territory of the United States (except Alaska which got two) plus one for the District of Columbia. The second Alaska file was an earlier database, the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names that had been compiled by the USGS in 1967. A further two files were later added, covering

1824-479: The principal town of the tribe, located at the confluence of the Rivanna and James rivers. In the late eighteenth century the river was made navigable , partially by the efforts of the Jeffersons who owned much of the lands along its upper course, including Shadwell where Peter Jefferson had built a small mill complex on the river, overlooked by a lofty hill now known as Monticello . Improvements included in

1872-412: The same rules as for the NGNDB. So too did names with diacritic characters. Phase 2 was broader in scope than phase 1, extending the scope to a much larger set of data sources. It ran from the end of phase 1 and had managed to completely process data from 42 states by 2003, with 4 still underway and the remaining 4 (Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, and New York) awaiting the initial systematic compilation of

1920-455: The sources to use. Many more feature classes were included, including abandoned Native American settlements, ghost towns , railway stations on railway lines that no longer existed, housing developments , shopping centers , and highway rest areas . The actual compilation was outsourced by the U.S. government, state by state, to private entities such as university researchers. The Antarctica Geographic Names database (AGNDB hereafter)

1968-458: The standardization of feature names. Data were collected in two phases. Although a third phase was considered, which would have handled name changes where local usages differed from maps, it was never begun. The database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for

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2016-411: The use of "Nipple" in names with non- Native American allusions such as "Susies Nipple". Milton, Albemarle County, Virginia Milton is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County , Virginia . In the batteaux era Milton was the head of navigation along the river, but by the mid-nineteenth century horse-drawn canal boats were traveling all the way upstream to Charlottesville , where

2064-533: The way upstream to Charlottesville , where the head of navigation was located at the very point where the Fredericksburg Road (now VA 20 ) and Three Chopt Road ( U.S. Route 250 ), the primary road to Richmond (before the construction of Interstate 64), meet and enter the city over the Free Bridge, establishing the city as a major commercial hub. During the late twentieth century the river saw

2112-488: The wooded lands surrounding it, totaling over 20 miles (32 km) in length. The Rivanna River is the focus of considerable conservation efforts. In the early 1990s a group of concerned citizens (Roger Black, David Carter, Chet Maxey and Steve Pence) joined together to create the Rivanna Conservation Society, (RCS) a nonprofit with the mission of preserving the Rivanna’s scenic, cultural, historic and ecological attributes. In

2160-757: Was added in the 1990s and comprised records for BGN-approved names in Antarctica and various off-lying islands such as the South Orkney Islands , the South Shetland Islands , the Balleny Islands , Heard Island , South Georgia , and the South Sandwich Islands . It only contained records for natural features, not for scientific outposts. The media on which one could obtain the databases were extended in

2208-449: Was an actual elevation recorded for the map feature. They were of either the lowest or highest point of the feature, as appropriate. Interpolated elevations, calculated by interpolation between contour lines , were added in phase 2. Names were the official name, except where the name contained diacritic characters that the computer file encodings of the time could not handle (which were in phase 1 marked with an asterisk for update in

2256-537: Was the construction of these larger mills which prompted the great "second generation" improvements to navigation which were coordinated by the Rivanna Navigation Company . Union Mills alone featured a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) canal and towpath , one upper and two massive lower locks , all directly upon the river. Where the Rivanna meets the James River at Columbia so too did the 4.5-mile-long (7.2 km) Rivanna Connexion canal merge with

2304-568: Was undocumented, and it was (in the words of a 1986 report from the Engineer Topographic Laboratories of the United States Army Corps of Engineers ) "an unreasonable determination", with the likes of Cayuga Lake being labelled a "tank". The USACE report assumed that "tank" meant "reservoir", and observed that often the coordinates of "tanks" were outside of their boundaries and were "possibly at

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