And Mr. Jones, I had an experience very similar to what you wished for as a child, that is removing all the foliage so you could see what was under it.
Several years ago I was on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County NY. It was late in the year and all the leaves were down from the trees so I could see what was on the ground in those woods. I was amazed.
There were all the stone walls from long-abandoned farms that went back to the 18th Century. Those walls were built from rocks cleared from fields farmed by the early colonists. It's one thing to read about all the sweat (and sometimes blood) that went into building this country, but to acutally see the evidence of the same was amazing and quite moving.
The lesson I learned was, who are we to critisize the people who lived in those days? We weren't there. We know nothing. Nothing at all.