Table Of Content

Journalofa Prairie Year This page intentionally left blank Journal of a Prairie Year Paul Gruclyow University of Minnesota Press ~ Minneapolis The John K. Fesler Memorial Fund provided assistance in the publication of this volume, for which the University of Minnesota Press is grateful. Copyright © 1985 by the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis MN 55414. Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Markham. Printed in the United States of America. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Gruchow, Paul. Journal of a prairie year. Bibliography: p. 1. Northwestern States—Description and travel. 2. Prairie Provinces—Description and travel. 3. Natural history—Northwestern States. 4. Natural history—Prairie Provinces. 5. Gruchow, Paul—Diaries. I. Title. F597.G82 1985 917.8'0433 85-16493 ISBN 0-8166-1425-3 ISBN 0-8166-1426-1 (pbk.) Photographs by Joe Rossi. The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. Contents Acknowledgments vii Prologue ix WINTER 3 SPRING 31 SUMMER 61 AUTUMN 97 Suggested Reading 127 This page intentionally left blank Acknowled0ments I am indebted to Marjorie Fader, who first encouraged me to think of myself as a writer; to Jim Brandenburg, who first taught me to see the prairie; to my business partners, James L. Vance and Owen Van Essen, who granted me a generous leave of absence at a critical stage in the writing of this manuscript; to my wife, Nancy, who never questioned the long absences the work entailed, even when she was baffled by my enthusiasm for the subject; to Katie Murphy, who typed the manuscript many times, and who told me when it was confusing; to William A. Wood of the University of Minnesota Press, who offered exactly the sort of gentle encouragement and criticism that every author prays for; to Victoria Haire, also of the Press, whose sharp and sympathetic editing made the book better in literally hundreds of ways; and to Joe Rossi, who shared many of the experiences in the book during our stimulating collaboration as writer and photographer. Portions of this book first appeared, in earlier drafts, in Min- nesota Monthly, Great River Review, The Loonfeather, the anthology The Minnesota Experience, and the Worthington Daily Globe. vii This page intentionally left blank Prologue I drove from the southern border of Minnesota to Winnipeg. The drive carried me from the heart of the old tallgrass prairie to its northern edge. Beyond Winnipeg, the boreal forests of the subarctic shield take hold. Altogether, I traveled more than 600 miles northward, every mile of the distance a deeper excursion into the dimensions of flatness. The route I chose was through the eastern Dakotas. It was in late afternoon, when the light is at its most dramatic, that I approached Sisseton, South Dakota. A prairie coteau runs that way. On a topograph- ical map it doesn't look like much: a thin and rather random scratch of brown on a tan plate. And in fact there aren't any obstructions to the IX