I recently had the opportunity to use some of the newer resources
available to look at archaeology potential, the USGS National Map,
NASA's World Wind, and Google Earth in Warren County, NY Warrensberg,
NY the birthplace of Floyd Bennett,  (United States aviator who (with
Richard E. Byrd) piloted the first flight over the North Pole
(1890-1928)  Admiral Byrd was also "Explorer and United States naval
officer; led expeditions to explore Antarctica (1888-1957)) for a
property in North Creek, NY which also has a grass airfield Bennett
Field. The county also recently won some awards for implementing an
aerial property plat map system for the taxpayers using pretty high
resolution aerial photography. North Creek, on the upper Hudson River,
in the Town of Johnsburg, is where Theodore Roosevelt found out he was
then President after William McKinley passed away eight days after he
was shot at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, NY.

Way back in 1983 or so the Army Corps of Engineers had a study of the
100 miles of the Passaic River in New Jersey, that was "pixel" tested
based on archaeological models (high medium and low probabilities,
randomly selected). Transferred from screen units to 1" to 200' maps
from recent aerial surveys for shovel testing, sometimes it was found
we were "too late" both because that had already been developed in the
then last few years and because the time of the survey coincided with
a flood event, which was the purpose of the study itself.

I have also used aerial photos to integrate data on some EPA National
Priority Superfund sites, with historical data, using Idrisi, AutoCad
and some other software as they were developed up til about ten years
ago. Close-range photogrammetry is taken from the science of aerial
photography and brought to earth so to speak, and I had the experience
of being in part of the the development of the Rolleimetric system,
before laser scanning, I attended an upgrade at Schneider (maker of
photography lenses and filters) on Long Island, NY where the head of
monuments in Mexico was purchasing the Rollei 35mm system to try to
get a handle on the architectural movements in the blocks of the large
city cathedral in Mexico City. Interesting history, it started by
trying to map a mountain for example with a camera rather than having
to "climb every mountain"!

George Myers