Evaluating the land: evolving perceptions of landscape in Gallatin Valley settlement, 1864-1918

Abstract

This study investigates how people have viewed the environment and the terrain of the Gallatin Valley through a cross section of time. The period during which the region was settled is explored for its impact on the present palimpsest of the landscape. The choices people made about where to farm and where to site their houses reveals much about their perceptions and attitudes towards the land. What people thought about its potential and its threats are reflected not only in their journals, but in the physical markings they have made in the form of buildings, fences, roads, and irrigation ditches.