Last week I visited a research facility in northeastern Colorado near Akron. I knew of Akron way back when I had applied for graduate school - I was offered a research assistantship from Colorado
State University that would have taken me to Akron. My final study plans went a different direction, but now, 35 years later, I am again connected to this place. After finishing my business, I was directed a different way home along State Route 14 that took me by the Pawnee National Grassland. The geography was classic Plains - lots of open spaces with occasional sightings of prong horned sheep, frequently punctuated with features that are the results of people's touches.
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| Horse descendants of those belonging to European explorers, Cheyenne warriors, west-bound settlers, and cattle drovers. |
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| Mechanical grasshoppers that spring up from the grassland, drawing dark liquid from deep beneath the surface of the soil that holds ageless grasses growing on the surface. |
