Ghost town South Dakota

More on corn.

South Dakota was more of the same long long stretches of NOTHING but c-o-r-n. I should try to be fair and say South Eastern South Dakota. I should not claim to have a sense of all of this state merely from the view off of interstate 90. But by the time I was almost across it, my impression was dismal and sad. What struck me most in the eastern part was the vast agriculture.

A sure fire way to burst anyone's bubble of idealism? Drive cross country. Being brought up in a small city with white collar parents i developed in my late teens and 20's a romanticized image of farming. A 'back to the land' sort of philosophy about it and even after i had run a farm crew on a high production organic farm this bubble had not burst- entirely (it still hasn't but some healthy punctures have been made in it...) Still I could see that this was a souless industry.

Maybe other states manage to hide the exploitation of natural resources. In North Craolina i never saw, with my own eyes, the strip mining or mountain top removal sites. But here eastern S.D.’s contribution to the hungry machine of American consumerism is displayed prominently along 300 miles of the state’s most well traveled road. All around, literally as far as the eye can see into the tree less, contourless landscape are farm fields.

Their sight makes me uneasy for two reasons. One, because its a clear illustration of how this land is valued. It is a means to an end; a forum for a profit. Two, (I am embarrassed to admit) I am not sure what this land would look like without the synthetic mask of industrial agriculture.

No less embarrassing is the source of my two closest guesses: Hollywood. Kevin Costner came to mind for some reason and since I just past the Laura Ingles Wilder home, I am guessing its something like the snippets of the TV series I saw as a child.