Sheridan County Finally

(from PDN Photo of the Day)

The December 8, 2013 edition of the New York Times Magazine carried a story entitled "America At Its Plainest" with the subheading:

"The very middle of the country is gorgeous from the air - and a very hard place on the ground.  So what makes people stay?"

It tells the story of the land and people of Sheridan County in Nebraska's Western Panhandle.  Sheridan County is just north of the town of Alliance in Box Butte County, which THC and family has visited several times and greatly enjoyed and reported on in the Carhenge post. Sheridan County runs north all the way to the South Dakota state line and the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation.

The family of THC's father-in-law settled in Sheridan County in the late 19th century, lured by the promise of the Homestead Act; if you farmed a 160 acre section for 5 years you were granted the property.  It was a tough life as the land was not nearly as productive as the lands of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana from where they came and the weather, particularly the winters, was brutal, but they stuck it out, even through the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.  The county seat of Rushville, featured in the story, was where my father-in-law was born in the only hospital in the area.

Sheridan County is half of the size of Connecticut and its current population is only 5,469 or about 2 people per square mile.  The population peaked at 10,793 in 1930 just before it was hit by the Depression and the Dust Bowl.

A couple of quotes from the locals:

"I've heard people say 'Gee, there's nothing out here'.  What does that mean?  There's no Walmart.  No McDonald's?  That means there's nothing?"

"I think there are a lot of creative people out here.  Our kids would play with spark plugs, sticks in the ground.  I think you have to have a certain amount of boredom to create.  One of our sons paints; another son does welding.  People here create things from what is around them.  The openness and the distance between people inspires possibility."

You can read the article online here (with a different title) and see a remarkable photo essay here.
(From PDN Photo of the Day)