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Activities > Repeat Photography of Ghost Towns and Mining Sites

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[ || Soil Moisture || Geology & Soil Texture || Biological Soil Crusts || Fire || Vegetation Dynamics || Soil Compaction || Wind Erosion || Climate || Repeat Photography || Land Use History || Spatial Modeling || ]

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Late 19th and early 20th century settlers in the Mojave Desert were more concerned with mineral extraction than in maintaining permanent settlements. Several areas were settled and then abandoned and have remained unused. These ghost towns and mines provide sites to study vegetation recovery over periods of as much as 100 years. Use of repeat photography to document changes from the heyday of the settlements to the present shows vegetation recovery from the disturbances caused by settlement and mining operations. The USGS is indebted to the Arizona Historical Foundation, the Nevada Historical Society, the Bureau of Land Management, Death Valley National Park, and Sidney Norman Weight for use of their historical photography of ghost towns and mining sites. Raymond M. Turner, emeritus of the USGS, taught RVDE scientists how to use repeat photography as a tool.

View repeat photography used in Mojave Desert Ghost Towns and Mining Sites

Map of the western United Sates and Mexico showing the distribution of photographs taken by USGS RVDE scientists and collaborators. There are approximately 6,000 matches with historical photographs. For more information on these photographs, contact Robert Webb at rhwebb@usgs.gov.

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References

Webb, R.H., Boyer, D.E., and Berry, K.H., 2001, Changes in riparian vegetation in the southwestern United States: Historical changes along the Mojave River, California: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-245, 1 p.

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