Author Description

"In On the Road Again, William Wyckoff explores Montana's changing physical and cultural landscape by pairing photographs taken by state highway engineers in the 1920s and 1930s with photographs taken at the same sites today. The older phographs, preserved in the archives of the Montana Historical Society, were intended to document the expenditure of federal highway funds. Because it is nearly impossible to photograph a road without also photographing the landscape through which that road passes, these images contain a wealth of information about the state's environment during the early decades of the twentieth century. To highlight landscape changes--and continuities--Wyckoff chose fifty-eight documented locations and traveled to each to photograph the exact same view. The pairs of old and new photogs and accompanying interpretive essays presented here tell a vivid story of physical, cultural, and economic change. A close, thoughtful look at these photographs reveals how crops, fences, trees, and houses shape everyday landscape. The photographs offer an intimate view into Montana, into how it has changed in the past eighty years and how it may continue to change in the twenty-first century. This is a book that will captivate readers who have, or hope to have, a tie to the Montana countryside, whether as a resident or visitor. Regional and agricultural historians, geographers and geologists, and rural and urban planners will all find it fascinating."--Back cover.