In 2000, a Rapid City, SD photographer sought to give an exact contemporary view of the photos taken during Custer's 1874 expedition to the Black Hills. You are immediately impressed that the photos taken in 2000 showed extensive forests where the 1874 photos showed empty meadows and prairie. The reason is decades of reforestation and extinguishing forest fires. See sample photos from the book
here In 2000, a Rapid City, SD photographer sought to give an exact contemporary view of the photos taken during Custer's 1874 expedition to the Black Hills.I did this in Colorado back in 1996-97. I would go to a library that had historical photographs, and go find the spot and take a picture. Almost invariably, the environment was a lot more green in 1996 than 100 years previously.
I got the idea from a dry more academic book from someone who had done that a few years previously by using old picture from the US Geological survey, which were some of the first photographs of the area. Since then, a well known Colorado photographer has done the same thing and made a book out of it as well.