By Scott Shephard
West of Cottonwood Lake, Spink County - South Dakota
“This is the country I love the most. The look of this country is what I would want to see every day . . . . I think of the high plains, the great plains, the short grass prairie, as the way country should look: this stark clear flat land, so open and wide, with its sand hills, and overhead the tremendous clouds, and the wind blowing, and nothing to stop it from Canada to Texas except barbed wire fence.
“It’s dry but it’s not an empty place, never mind what so many people think. It may not be pretty, but it’s beautiful if you know how to look at it. You have to quit thinking of trees. You have to quit thinking of green. You need to slow down, be quiet. You have to get out of your car and be still.”
Kent Haruf as quoted in Cheap Land Colorado by Ted Conover