Ohio State botanist Transeau and his students mapped the pre-settlement vegetation of most Ohio counties in a series of ongoing projects culminating in the publication of Gordon's 1966 map, "Natural Vegetation of Ohio at the Time of the Earliest Land Surveys."  Licking County was omitted from the Ohio State projects and the county information interpolated for the state-wide map.  We created a digitized map of Licking County to characterize the county's pre-settlement vegetation and to allow for analysis of relationships between vegetation and physical features using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).  General Land Office records of over 5000 “witness trees” recorded between 1798 and 1830 during Licking County surveys were digitally transcribed onto point themes in Arcviewtm using a Digital Raster Graph compilation of county 7.5” topographic maps as a backdrop.  Vegetation types from this map were then compared with two previously created maps of Licking County presettlement vegetation to assess the advantages of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in such an application.  Because important differences existed among the maps, an analysis of species-site relationships was conducted in an attempt to support one or more of the maps. We concluded that GIS can contribute valuable new information to understanding historical vegetation patterns, but strong evidence to refute the classifications of previous authors was not found.  GIS, although useful, might not replace the ability of an experienced botanist to make inferences, especially in areas of the county where data are sparse.