Rangeland

On Saturday afternoon our spray crew convoy departed the fertile cropland west of Alliance, Nebraska, for the vast rangeland of Wyoming. Another series of afternoon thunderstorms had cropped up putting incredible hues of blue in the sky above the fluorescent green carpet in front of us. Somewhere near Crawford a huge valley of grassland lay before us, shadows of clouds dancing across the floor with sheets of blue creating a perfect background; pronghorns grazed in the ditch, oblivious to the traffic flowing by. Eventually we caught up with the blue sheets, enveloping us in a rain squall so thick it became impossible to even see the road. Within 10 miles it would again be clear and sunny.

On our way to our new temporary home in Newcastle, WY, one road we took cut across the far southwest corner of South Dakota. Now this was a state highway, but it must be one of the last in the street that's still gravel. I thought they had all long since been paved. This road also took us through one of the strangest towns I've ever been through, Rumford, SD. The only thing that made this town strange is the fact that there is nothing in it. Now when most people say there is nothing in a town, there usually is a building or weed covered street, however Rumford had nothing. There were no buildings, or even re

mains of them, no streets, nothing. Just the highway, the railroad line, and a "Rumford" sign. It's as if the town existed without ever really having existed.

Our new territory has put us on BNS

F's Black Hills Subdivision. Unfortunately this line does not actually traverse the geological wonder of a destroyed volcano but instead lives in the shadow of it, just grazing the west side. The scenery is 

still wonderful, cutting through the wonderfully sparse grasslands where the pronghorns far outnumber people. Roads are nearly nonexistant and if not for the oil and coal all settlements would probably be the same way.

As a final thought, things are a little different west of the Missouri. Cattle become the cash crop and baseball caps are replaced by cowboy hats. Trees are far and few between and towns seem to be laid out more haphazardly, fitting in streets and buildings wherever they fit into the landscape. And most importantly, the skies do seem bigger!

Below is a photo of one of the man

y BNSF coal trains heading timetable east with more Powder River Gold. In the background are the Elk Mountains. The Elk Mountains is also the subject of another photo. Across the street from our hotel is the Howdy Drive-In.