Make Camp Crook a Household Name

Make Camp Crook a Household Name

by | May 26, 2011 | Current Events

The weather’s been in the news lately, garnering almost as much attention as Oprah’s farewell.

The tornado devastation in Joplin, Missouri.
Followed by more tornadoes in Oklahoma City.
Preceded by the tornadoes in Birmingham, Alabama and other southeastern states.
Not to mention the annual watch on the Red River near Fargo, North Dakota.
The watch on the Mississippi River as the swelling waters head south.
And the floods in a bunch of little towns in southeastern Montana.

Say what? You haven’t heard about the last one?

Well, it did make NPR’s national news broadcast over the weekend. But, it’s not in a high population area (unless you’re counting antelope and jack rabbits), and its annihilation scale won’t reach that of Joplin, Missouri (for which I am thankful), so the reporters have been busy there. And with Oprah, of course.

But at our house, the Little Missouri flood on the South Dakota/Montana border where we used to live, is big news. People have been evacuated. Officials were worried the bridge into Camp Crook would give out. There was talk of cutting the road to keep that from happening.

The flood pictures I’ve seen don’t do the situation justice. Most of the time, the Little Missouri is a tame, winding river. A sorry excuse for a river, really. When we lived there, its sluggish flow and scummy side pools made it good for nothing except breeding mosquitos, which it did with a vengeance. And that was in the wet years.

To see more pictures and even a short video, visit the Harding County FaceBook page. If you aren’t on FaceBook, sorry! They haven’t posted the video on YouTube. If you are on FaceBook, would you do me a favor? Pass the link along to your friends. Maybe it’ll go viral, and Camp Crook, South Dakota and the Little Missouri River will the talk of cyberspace.
Maybe even bigger than Oprah.

Not gonna happen you say? Well, in the early 1980s no one thought a young woman with an unusual name would become a talk show maven, a media mogul, and a first name phenomenon, now did they?

So go ahead. Pass it on. This could be the start of something big!

Gravel Road Woes

Gravel Road Woes

by | Jun 17, 2008 | Current Events

Iowa’s in the national spotlight for the second time in one calendar year. Our first brush with fame came in January, when the state was flooded with presidential wannabes. Now, record-breaking floods have focused the eyes of the nation upon us.

So far I haven’t heard any discussions about which kind of flooding leaves a bigger mess. But along our little gravel road, the flood waters have been pretty destructive. In fact, the rain has washed away the gravel at the bottom of the driveway. Water erosion has created a miniature Grand Canyon along the entire length of road that borders our property.

The road’s so bad we’ve become anti-social. We tell visitors not to come unless they and their vehicles are tougher than the potholes and ravines.  It’s so bad the neighbor kid screams bloody murder when he rides his bicycle across the ruts formed by streams of running water cutting across the road. A significant amount of daylight can be seen between his backside and the unpadded bike seat. No wonder he screams every time the two make contact. It’s so bad someone’s front tire got caught in our Grand Canyonette the other night. Before the vehicle stopped, the neighbor’s mailbox was gone and a decorative boulder was several feet east of it’s original location. Can you believe it? The consequences of flooding include hit and run landscape architecture crime.

As of this writing, the government has not lifted a finger to clean up the mess. Phone calls to the city public works department remain unanswered. Mr. Obama has offered no hope for our road, and Mr. McCain has proposed no maverick solution to our wash-out dilemma. So Hiram, my very own Pa Ingalls of a husband, took matters into his own hands. He spent the morning rebuilding the end of the driveway, filling it in with a load of gravel.

So I think we’re done being anti-social. You can visit us again. Unless you’re a politician. We just finished cleaning up one mess. We don’t need another.