Geography is the history of the world; it’s the story of what we humans have done to the world.”

– Desmond Tutu

One night during the summer of 2020 I was sitting on my deck off the back of my house listening to the birds and having a drink. I was looking out at the 1/3 acre backyard which just had a few trees cut down. I had previously watched all the tree maintenance guys bring in equipment to cut the trees, grind up the stumps, and tear out all the old shrubs and other unwanted landscaping.

Before the new grass was laid down, the Earth was briefly exposed to the sky for a few weeks. As I sat there and looked at the dirt section of my back yard, I had this odd thought cross my mind. This is pretty typical for me, and probably why I have so many diverse hobbies and interests. I had wondered if somewhere in the dirt there was items from the previous owner of my house. Maybe toys from their kids, or lost tools or maybe even construction materials like nails or screws tthat had gotten burried.

I could probably have bought myself a metal detector and answered some of my own questions. But my thoughts quickly shifted to something far broader…

What was on this land before my house was?

Kind of a strange thought because I already knew that my neighborhood was built on previously unused land, or at least that’s what I was told. So, what does that mean? It was wooded and not developed? Or was it just a large field that someone owned? Was it a farm that just went abandoned and not worked anymore?

My property, like most of the other lots in my neighborhood, is quite small. I started wondering about the entire neighborhood. What was here before we all were? What did it look like when it was being built? What did it look like in 1940? Did the topography of the land have to be altered to accomodate roads / sewers / water mains? What did the creek flowing through our neighborhood look like before all of this was built?

Lots of questions that are a combination of history and geography. Time and space questions. What did this space look like at a different time. Very appropriate considering I’m into SciFi stuff like time travel.

I already had a background in researching “Then & Now” material as it relates to abandoned buildings in downtown Detroit. I would research pre-Depression architecture that was still standing, find old photos, and then embark on “urbex” adventures into the buildings to photograph them in an attempt to get a matching photo from modern times.

All of this curiousity started me on a path of researching the history of the land around my neighborhood. Just using resources available on the Internet, I was able to find out quite a lot of information including historic aerial photos going back as far as 1938. I have absolutely no background in surveying land, topology, or how to read legal documents regarding land ownership, but all of this research gave me a basic understanding of those items, and quite a lot more.

I’ve disovered and used many online tools like GIS databases giving you access to deed / plat / lien information, historic photo collections, and mapping software for satellite / street view / fly-over photography. As I answered all the questions I had about my own neighborhood I began to branch out to areas around it. My collection of information was growing.

I started to realize that there might be benefit for other people in my neighborhood that had similiar curiosities. It didn’t seem to make sense to me to keep all this information locked up on my hard drive only visible to me.

So, I decided that I’ll publish some of the work I’ve been doing on a blog so it’s avaiablle to people that have an interest in this stuff. Enjoy!