Faithfully documented repeat photographs provide the context that helps us understand our beautiful and challenged mountain landscape. -Peter Z. Fule, Regents’ Professor of Forestry, Northern Arizona University In this eye-catching visual essay celebrating the San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff, watch more than 150 years unfold in over one hundred historical photographs and drawings precisely paired with their modern-day counterparts.

Ecologist, educator, and writer John L. Vankat reveals the telling details that bring the past alive. The result is an invitation to time-travel, appealing to anyone interested in nature, culture, or history.

In these striking landscapes at the apex of Arizona, humans have altered much of the natural environment, but the storied San Francisco Peaks remain a touchstone of beauty and emotion. Vankat gives us a chance to see and celebrate this special place as it was, to understand it today–and to consider what its past and present say about the future of the American West.

Engaging, historically revealing, and scientifically sound, this book sets the standard for documenting long-term regional landscape changes. -William Wallace Covington, Emeritus Regents’ Professor, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University