Explorations in Time & Spaceearly results
With these pieces in place, I had enough to test. The demonstration project proved successful in that it, first, demonstrated an inconsistency in the eyewitness’s testimony and, second, promised to sensitize students to other possibilities in which thinking about spatial relationships in the trial transcript and recreating them—if only by sketching—might prove useful. The demonstration also showed that students might become more attuned to finding and using other visual media that added to their analyses and interpretations.
One of the issues or problems that the project revealed is that a designer should have a good command of Photoshop and image editing. For example, while the back of the house mirrored the house’s front window placement, recreating the opposite side of the house required making another image which “removed” the door and “reshingled the wall.” Second, both Bryce and Canoma use non-standard interfaces. It takes a designer a bit to sort out their exotic interfaces and tool representations. Once acclimated, a designer will quickly see how intuitive the interface is. There is also more to be done and problems to solve. I adapted a contour map for use in Bryce but quickly learned that accuracy became a problem. DEMs promise to rectify this situation. There is also the question of the “correct” vegetation. Bryce’s botancial and tree catalog is limited and, although the island does not have much in the way of shrubs and so forth, they are there and need to be correct.
Like most projects in the digital world, it is problematic how the Smuttynose Project might be used as a pattern or template for others. On the one hand, that it uses off-the-shelf, reasonably-priced software within the expertise of an intermediate designer speaks in its favor. On the other hand, that even a solid intermediate designer will need to devote time and effort speaks against it. If, however, an adventurous historian wants to venture into the world of 3-D, Bryce and Canoma furnish easy entry points. Meantime, I am building the breakwater between Smuttynose and Star Islands, learning how to use DEMs, and grappling with a new terrain generator to show how the accused murderer might have managed to land on Smuttynose undetected. I suppose that I could be learning XML, but recreating worlds is, in all candor, much more interesting than some things that I can think of.
follow-up results
And so matters stood at the end of the project. I continued to work on experimenting with DEMS but discovered Smuttynose Island is far too small to serve as the basis for a decent terrain map. (Lack of DEM detail is true for islands in general; they are simply too small and lack sufficient variation in elevation to make a decent topographical map. Smuttynose for example is ten feet above sea level; its highest point is twenty feet above sea level.) In the interim, Canoma vanished from the marketplace. I tried several different products: Natural Scenery Designer, Vue d'Esprit, SketchUp, and so on. SketchUp, an architectual program, allowed me to return fully to 
fig 1: Hontvet House SketchUp Modelthe project and recreate the Hontvet house (see fig. 1) as a fully functional structure. In addition to pinning the photographic texture to the building, it is possible to walk through the house and obtain a very good idea of the spatial relationships. The application also permits construction of the island topography with enough detail to be truly useful.
So, does all this work yield dividends in terms of historical analysis? Yes, while some of the insights are relatively insignificant, 
fig 2: Haley House Incorrect Orientationothers are not. First, there are small things. For example, the image of the Haley House, the dwelling next to the Hontvet residence, that has been published so often has been reproduced incorrectly these many years. (This “mirroring” is quite common in historical photographs. Probably the most famous example is the ferrotype of William “Billy the Kid” Bonney that showed him as left-handed, although other evidence argued that he was right-handed. Once the ferrotype was reversed, it showed Bonney as he appeared in life and right-handed.) The photograph of the Haley House and the Hontvet House, moreover, 
fig 3: Haley House Correct Orientation were probably made by the same photographer on the same day. Note Appledore Island’s terrain in the background and the telltale object on the rocking chair on the porch in the Hontvet House photograph (see fig. 3) and the same object on the porch in the Hontvet House photograph’s background (see fig. 2). The sitters' gaze is also improved by “flipping” the image.
Second, there are the larger historical issues. Foremost among them, are the major inconsistencies manifested in Maren Hontvet’s testimony. There were her statements about the proximity of the assailant. The window was much to high for Wagner to have rested his elbow on window sill as Maren described. And there is Maren's testimony regarding her escape from the house. It was a considerable drop to the ground from the window to a rocky, uneven area underneath the window. Finally, there is her recapitulation of the Karen's murder. Although the door between the bedroom and kitchen was shut, Maren was able to recount events and details (the clock's time) out of her sight. It is only by being able to “explore” the house and move through the building’s space, however, that it becomes evident that Maren Hontvet could not have seen what she said she did.