Calling all Citizen-Historians

August 1, 2005 6:12 PM

The Grande Vista Sanitarium (also known as the Belgum Sanitarium after its founder) has been in ruins for decades, Dr. Belgum having himself become a recluse after working so long in that isolated location. The East Bay Regional Park District, the site's owner since the 1970's, fails to mention the sanitarium in its online park history. InfoWorld columnist and mountain biker Chad Dickerson was the first to document these ruins on the web, and his #1 Google ranking turned him into a de facto authority. He uses the experience to kick off a meditation on how "citizen-journalists" might also become citizen-historians.
posted by expialidocious (9 comments total)

I've been on that hike myself - it may be the only place you can see a cow grazing under a palm tree with a stunning view of San Francisco in the background.
posted by expialidocious at 6:21 PM on August 1, 2005

mountain biker Chad Dickerson was the first to document these ruins on the web, and his #1 Google ranking turned him into a de facto authority.

Do you write for Wired?
posted by The Jesse Helms at 6:31 PM on August 1, 2005

It is a nice hike. Those crazy rich people had quite the view.
posted by Moral Animal at 7:03 PM on August 1, 2005

I can't find anything but a picture of some goddamn palm trees.

"citizen-historians?" as opposed to what? What ever happened to, you know, actually training to be a journalist or historian?
posted by keswick at 7:19 PM on August 1, 2005

"citizen-historians?" as opposed to what? What ever happened to, you know, actually training to be a journalist or historian?

I think he means "amateur historian" as opposed to a "professional historian". "Citizen-historian" is a stupid way to say it, though.

Amateur historians tend to put out fascinating local history texts, focusing on areas that professionally trained historians ignore.
posted by cmonkey at 8:22 PM on August 1, 2005

The reason they ignore it is because there is no money in it. When your a professional it means you do somthing for an income. There are a few local professional historians (Whitehouse historian etc..). Other than that, "amateur" conveys lower-quality work which is not always the case. Citizen is a nice description.
posted by stbalbach at 11:05 PM on August 1, 2005

The vast, vast majority of 'historic preservation' work out there now is being done by citizen-historians. The difference now, of course, is that they can publish on the web, whereas twenty or thirty (or sixty) years ago they would just publish a small pamphlet with grainy photos that would be lost in the back shelves of the local public library. Chad Dickerson follows in a proud tradition of many generations before him.
posted by anastasiav at 5:32 AM on August 2, 2005

stbalbach: I think there are a lot more than a few professional historians out there. You might know them as "history professors."
posted by absalom at 3:59 PM on August 2, 2005

few local professional historians.. historians who are paid to do local history.
posted by stbalbach at 8:40 PM on August 3, 2005