Welcome

While I have many hobbies and interests, one of my biggest is transportation history. I author and maintain three websites with complete details on the highway systems of three Great Lakes area states/provinces. Jump to them directly:

At the "end of the trail" at scenic Black Lake, deep within Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, September 2010. (Yes, that's a trail map in my back pocket...)

• Michigan Highways
• Wisconsin Highways
• Ontario Highways

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoy the cartographic arts. Anyone who knows me knows my love of maps and all things geographic-, cartographic- and transportation-related. While my wife, Linda, has always been more than tolerant of my hobby, my daughter, Rachael, ripped the first one of her daddy's maps when she was just over a year old. I found out quickly that I needed to make sure my maps were out of her reach... but only until she started showing she shared her father's interests in them! By the time she entered elementary school, Rachael had her own collection of maps, too.

I am the GIS Coordinator for Kalamazoo County, Michigan, coordinating all County GIS activities for both internal and public users. Previously, I was the GIS Analyst with the Allegan County Land Information Services (LIS) Deapartment and, before that, a GIS Specialist with REGIS in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I actually get paid to play with GIS data and make maps all day. Of course, my career is much more complex than that, but from the age of four I vowed I'd someday make maps for a living. Helping manage massive databases, making maps, giving presentations, coordinating user support, creating documents and publications, and being a webmaster, though, wasn't something I thought of while growing up in Howell, Michigan!

This is a website created, authored and maintained by Christopher J. Bessert as a portal for information about him, his GIS, mapping, cartography, transportation-planning and webmastering projects, as well as a home for his resume, portfolio and a listing of many of the computer technologies and softeware he knows how to use.