This column represents an experiment in the use of photos for “Northern Letter.” As you probably already know, I’m more of a text guy than an image guy, but I do like taking photos. With very little experience in preparing photos for the web, I remain open to suggestions.

I took the images below on a recent trip to southwestern Minnesota and South Dakota. We traveled most of the way on Highway 14, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway. We first went to Brookings, South Dakota, where we visited relatives from my wife’s side of the family.

Above is the sign marking the entry into South Dakota. It reads, “Great faces. Great places.”

On our return to Minnesota on Sunday, October, 16, we saw many farmers out in their fields or on the road, working to bring in the harvest. Above is one dirt road littered with harvested corn.

I had hoped to visit the wind farms on Buffalo Ridge near Lake Benton, Minnesota. They weren’t hard to miss from the highway (below), since there are dozens and dozens of them and each turbine is well over 200 feet high. They look like Martian war machines marching across the landscape. The photos don’t really do justice to the huge scale of the project.

Wind turbines ready for assembly

My Moon Handbook to Minnesota (2004), by Tim Bewer, says this is “the world’s largest windpower project: a nearly 100-mile chain of over 450 modern wind turbines.” Bewer makes another large claim that cries out for confirmation: “Studies show that southwest Minnesota has more wind power potential than all of California and could conceivably produce enough electricity for the entire state.”

We also stopped at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where Ingalls’ book, “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” is set. The last photo shows me and our daughter, Ava, sitting on an uncovered covered wagon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 at 10:01 am and is filed under Minnesota, Photos.