Historical Landscape Change in Yellowstone National Park: Demonstrating the Value of Intensive Field Observation and Repeat Photography

Abstract

Although transportation and outdoor recreation are well‐recognized aspects of national parks, few studies have explored these aspects from the perspective of human geography as a means of analyzing historical landscape change. This paper offers an innovative synthesis of methods for studying cultural landscape change over time through a case study of the historical geography of transportation, tourism, and outdoor recreation along the Howard Eaton Trail (HET) in Yellowstone National Park. We conducted research through a field course that combined repeat photography, archival research, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and traditional field methods. Results indicate that a combination of repeat photography and other methods can create an effective means of evaluating cultural landscape change; even short field courses provide opportunities for students and faculty to conduct collaborative research that provides powerful, multidimensional, situated‐learning experiences; and repeat photography creates datasets that may benefit future research and teaching.

Paisaje cultural y revisitación geográfica. El lago de Pátzcuaro, México

“…Con todo lo anterior, puede considerarse que con este tipo de estudios se contribuye a la comprensión de los paisajes como lugares profundamente humanizados, cargados de sentidos y valores locales. Asimismo, se estudian y registran experiencias y emociones históricas vinculadas al lugar, que revelan expectativas sociales cambiantes en torno a la naturaleza (Meyer y Youngs, 2018). En este sentido, el método de revisitación geográfica mediante el uso de fotografías, es una forma directa y aplicada de aproximarse al paisaje cultural, que fomenta una mirada analítica y estimula el trabajo de campo como experiencias primarias de didáctica e investigación.…”