Since the Mushroom Rocks first were reported in the scientific and popular literature of the 1860s, they have captured the curiosity and imagination of geologists, travelers, and illustrators. It was a likely landmark of interest as well to indigenous peoples of the region for centuries before. Alexander Gardner made the first photographs there the fall of 1867 in the commission of the Kansas Pacific Railway. Though the years, other photographs and reports record and illustrate changes since that time. These changes are not geologic, although the rocks have clearly been impacted by the many years of visitors. But the landscapes around these outcrops, natural and domestic, flora and fauna, as well as the human inhabitants, have been completely transformed. The reports and photographs of this location provide a record of the changes and the processes, natural and human, which have brought about this transformation.