Another survey listed Ann Arbor , Michigan as the best city in America for “ quality of life .” Interestingly , more than 90 percent of Ann Arbor ’ s residents were happy just to live less than 10 minutes from a public park . Imagine that . Some people prefer living in Ann Arbor , Michigan because they can walk to a park in less than 10 minutes . In the Dakotas , most of us can walk 10 feet and grab a handful of prairie grass .
More than anything , people , to be happy , need space . Room . It appears to me many younger folks today are willing to live like domestic farm turkeys , taking a walk through a nearby park while avoiding suspicious people and domestic goose poop , return home to a welllocked house and sit it out until Monday morning ’ s back-towork traffic jam .
Meanwhile , back at the ranch
As a sanctified loyal instrument of Dakota Territory , this time of year my heart drifts toward faultless , tranquil buttes and faded rusting , drowsy grass that appears with pride in a Dakota fall . For quality primitive prairie -- historic , always tranquil and abundant -- the western Dakotas are pure . It ’ s where purgatory goes to cleanse itself . For decades , it ’ s been shouted from roof tops that kids leave the Dakotas enmasse after turning 18 . That ’ s true , I guess , as we witness the continued decline in our small towns . They leave in search of adventure , a chance to make “ good money ”, get ahead . It ’ s boring here . But it ’ s also true many of them return in later years after the “ rat race ” has consumed their spirits , yearning to live where they grew , and raise their own children or retire in that same environment . When they ’ re young , they want to “ get outta here ”, but when the wrath of the big city turns against them in later years , they remember the value of their beginnings .
Mule deer , opposite page , antelope , above , all add up to an exciting drive into the western Dakotas ... if you ’ re feeling “ wild .”
A chance adventure
In my early years of adulthood , consigned to accept most any mediocre job to support my family , I was assigned to travel to the Black Hills as part of my job as an insurance adjuster . I drove U . S . Highway 85 south of Belfield , ND toward destination Custer , SD . As I crossed the state line south of Bowman where cropped fields disappeared and native prairie grass emerged , it was apparent I was entering untamed loneliness . When I spot- ted a herd of pronghorn antelope grazing 50 yards off the highway , I hit the brakes and did a double-take . Never saw these animals before , at least not in numbers . I might as well have been looking at dinosaurs . I became attached .
The U . S . Highway 85 route from the ND / SD line to Belle Fourche is a corridor I could drive at 40 mph were it not for being an obvious hazard , not that there ’ s much traffic anyway . The isolated , unruffled scenery alone makes the journey
Somewhere south of Rhame , ND , on a crisp October morning .
www . dakotacountrymagazine . com Dakota Country , September 2024 , Page 87