Our city has so many talented, dedicated scholars, teachers, artists and other creative people, how could anyone want to live anywhere else? I'm honored to be one of the first communicators to tell you of a very modest person who embodies all aforementioned qualities, Dr. T. H. Milby. He and his wife Kathy make this town richer by their presence.

"Oklahoma Landscapes: A Century of Change," co-authored by T. H. Milby and Forrest L. Johnson, has just been published by The Oklahoma Heritage Association in its Oklahoma Horizons Series. This book is destined to be read for pleasure as well as a reference by anyone interested in the history of Oklahoma, its diverse ecosystems, topography, peoples, plants, railroads, rivers, falls, dwellings, etc.

"The photographs in this book depict these uses in ways far more poignantly than text alone ... The earliest photographs of identifiable locations that we found are those of William Soule who was in the Fort Sill area from1869 to 1875."

The authors divide Oklahoma into five sections: N.E., S.E., S.W., N.W. and the Panhandle. Some sections may not be equally represented because they could not find photos for many of Oklahoma's 77 counties.

In nearly all cases the old photographs were in such bad shape that they could not be published as is. "We owe an immeasurable debt to Gregory Strout of the Samuel Roberts Noble Electron Microscopy Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma for enhancing archival photographs and restoring them to publishable quality," the authors wrote.

Much of the appearance of the prairies, hills and creeks, dwellings, etc. of the time before the 1889 Land Run landscapes is captured in the writings of early travelers through lands which later became Oklahoma. Some of these better-known early travelers across our prairies, streams and hills are from the diaries and official reports of Thomas Nuttall; Dr. Edwin James; the noted author, Washington Irving's tour of the prairies in 1835 and Dr. Samuel Woodhouse, the surgeon-naturalist for the Creek Boundary Survey in 1849 and 1850.

The natural landscape was little affected by the early nomadic hunters and gatherers who roamed the Oklahoma hills and valleys. The next wave of peoples ? the Spiro mound builders ? left burial and ceremonial mounds that sometimes reached 50 feet high. With the removal of several Indian tribes, Caddo, Wichita and Quapaw tribes who followed the mound builders left little permanent imprint on the land along the Arkansas and Red Rivers where they settled.

The Cherokee forcibly removed from their homes in the east by the U.S. government brought with them European practices of farming, raising cattle and business practices from their former neighbors, still left negligible marks on native flora and fauna.

Changes to the landscape changed fast and furious with the introduction of Europeans into the "unassigned lands" almost instantaneously after the April 22, 1889 Land Run for former Indian territories. Oklahoma City, for instance, had grown to 12,000 within a few days. Tents, shacks and well-built wooden buildings appeared brought great change to the Oklahoma prairie, forever changing the prairie land.

I encourage you to purchase this valuable book. It can only increase in price and prestige in the coming years. When Dr. Milby brought the book to me, I was instantly intrigued. That night, when I sat down to rest from my chores, I picked up the book and hardly moved until about 1 a.m. my eyes betrayed me by insisting on sleep. Books about the past often leave me less than enthusiastic, however, the lively style, lucent prose, cliff-hanging intrigue and terrific pictures from the past and the comparison with those same scenes in the late 20th century kept me reading for hours.

The picture that accompanies this article is one I had taken of Turner Falls a couple of years ago that almost perfectly matches the 1988 photo in Oklahoma Landscapes." Since Dr. Milby didn't have the files of the book's photos, I asked him if he would mind if I used the one I took in 2005. He gave me permission to use it.

About the authors: Johnson and Milby were friends from the moment they met, Prof. Milby told me. Johnson received his undergraduate education in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University followed by a brief career in industry. He then earned his doctorate in Botany at the University of Oklahoma after which he was appointed research scientist at the Oklahoma Biological Survey. He has published extensively in the various fields of Botany and Bibliography.

Milby and Johnson spent their professional careers at OU and the Oklahoma Biological Survey. Dr. Milby received his undergraduate education in Agriculture and Forestry, and later earned a graduate degree in Library Science from Louisiana State University. He received his doctorate in Botany from OU, at the time he served as a science librarian, professor of bibliography and professor of botany. Sadly, Dr. Johnson did not live to see "Oklahoma Landscapes" published.

"Oklahoma Landscapes," may be obtained from the Oklahoma Heritage Association: 888-501-2059 or www.oklahomaheritage.com. Ask for it at your local bookstore. If they don't have it yet, ask them to order it for you.