Do your ever wonder what the winter landscape looked like on the prairie long ago when there were no farmsteads, transmission lines, and the few trees that were present were largely restricted to the floodplains of major rivers? There are some interesting written descriptions of that landscape.
O. E. Rolvaag’s "Giants in the Earth" is a classic novel about pioneer life on the prairies of Dakota Territory. Try to visualize his description of the plains during winter:
“A grey waste…an empty silence…a boundless cold. Snow fell; snow flew; a universe of nothing but dead whiteness.”
Philippe Regis de Trobriand was in command of Fort Stevenson in Dakota Territory from 1867-1869. In his book "Military Life in Dakota," he describes the snow after a snowstorm: “formed banks or waves everywhere, which at a distance, and especially when the sun rose a little above the horizon, bear a striking resemblance to the waves of a vast lake stirred by the breeze. The color is close to that of water reflecting a white sky, and if it were not for the stillness, the illusion would be striking.”
It worked on his psyche. He added, “How tired I am of this interminable winter! Of this everlasting snow which for more than three months has hidden the color of the earth from us and blinds our eyes with its unchanging whiteness.”
But Theodore Roosevelt’s description of winter in the badlands in his book "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" is perhaps the most quoted description of winter on the North Dakota plains:
“When the days have dwindled to their shortest, and the nights seem never ending, then all the great northern plains are changed into an abode of iron desolation.”
The landscape is much changed since Roosevelt’s time, of course, but there are still places that can give you a sense of that time and place.
Also: This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count
By the way, you may see some people out seemingly scanning areas this weekend, perhaps with binoculars. They may be citizen scientists observing birds. That is because the Great Backyard Bird Count started on February 13 and will continue through the 16th. It is an annual citizen science effort to help scientists better understand the population dynamics and movements of birds.
