SEEMINGLY ENDLESS FIELDS of tasseling corn stretched before us. Row upon row upon row of corn flanking the roadways along with soybeans and the occasional sugar beets. All three crops define the southern Minnesota landscape in July. But corn is decidedly king.
As Randy and I traveled from Faribault to the Kletscher family reunion in Echo in Yellow Medicine County on the last Sunday of July, we observed the crops. Most looked good. But the farther west we went, we began to notice signs of stress in the corn.
A July 21 drought monitoring report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed our observations with conditions listed as abnormally dry in my home county of Redwood and neighboring counties. Randy and I, even decades removed from the farm, can still accurately assess crops.
To the west of Redwood Falls along Minnesota State Highway 19, we watched a bright yellow crop duster swoop low over the road in front of us, barely clearing the power lines to drop chemicals onto a cornfield. It was thrilling to watch the pilot’s daring descent while simultaneously wondering what the plane was unleashing upon the land.
Earlier, outside New Ulm, I saw a woman walking beans, meaning she was walking through a soybean field eradicating weeds by hand, a memory-familiar task. I walked a lot of beans during my youth. No chemicals used, only my hands and/or a hoe.
From inside the cool, air conditioned van, Randy and I pressed onward, sheltered from the sweltering heat and humidity of the July day. We passed massive barns swallowed by cornfields. So much corn. Shortly before noon we reached our destination, the Echo Community Center.
After several hours of food, conversation and sharing memories with extended family, we were on the road again heading the 130 miles back home to Faribault.
The temperature had only risen, grown more stifling, more oppressive. Temp rising. Corn rising. Farm sites rising like islands in an ocean of crops.
This is rural southern Minnesota, in the thick of the growing season. The promise of a bountiful harvest measured in growth, rainfall, and hail and windstorms avoided.
Just north of Sleepy Eye along State Highway 4, a semi truck hauled three Allis Chalmers tractors returning, said Randy, from the Orange Spectacular (Allis Chalmers Tractor Show) in Hutchinson. I picked up my camera, zoomed in and snapped two images, the second with the tractors appearing to drive atop a cornfield.
It was only an illusion, similar to the mirage of water slicing across the roadway on this hot summer day.
Had we stuck around into the evening and paused beside a cornfield, we likely would have heard the corn growing. There’s scientific truth underlying that statement.
The adage of “make hay while the sun shines” also rings true. I noticed several farmers baling hay on this hot and humid July afternoon. Farming doesn’t wait for cooler weather. Just like corn continues to grow, stretching across the rural southern Minnesota landscape seemingly into forever.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
I love the 1936 photo! Hope the reunion went wonderfully and you got to see everyone you wanted to see! 💞
I love that photo, too. Turn out was lower this year, but still wonderful to see those who came.
I loved this. Reminded me, of course, of growing up in rural Illinois. Great plane snap!
Happy to take you back to Illinois. It was luck that we happened to be driving right when the plane passed in front of us.
I truly enjoyed your essay. Agriculture is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who like vacations.
I love your photographs, but I am reminded of a trip I took to Winnipeg, Manitoba. I grew up in BC, and every direction I look, there are mountains. I found the wide, open space of the prairies a little intimidating, and I remember that feeling as I look across your shots of acres of open sky. I want to hunch, just a little.
Also, I don’t think I want to hear corn grow…
I understand your feeling about the vastness of the prairie. I feel that way about being hemmed in by too many trees. Now that I’ve been away from the prairie for 50+ years, I sometimes feel as you do, not always comfortable in the openness.
As one who grew up in that prairie of southwestern Minnesota, I find the absence of hills and mountains unwelcome now. Even when growing up in Redwood Falls, I spent a lot of time in the valley and hills of THE park along the river. It was the only relief from the relatively flat prairie.
Being away from the prairie does change our level of comfort with its openness for sure. You validate what I feel. But I will still take flat any day over mountains.
i love the picture looking at the road ahead, your pictures show the vast open spaces. the picture of your family with your father in is a treasure and thanks for the backstory on the phrase, ‘make hay while the sun shines.’ it makes total sense now.
Thanks for appreciating my photography, the family pic and my explanation of the making hay phrase.
Great photo with the tractor “on top of the corn”…
We, too, watched a helicopter dive into the field behind us…not knowing if it was going to crash…but it leveled out and sprayed something onto the corn field, but we didn’t know what. It was fun to watch.
Thank you. I had no idea that was the image I got until my pix were imported to my computer. But I really like the perspective. Yes, it’s fun to watch these guys. It takes a lot of skill to crop dust. I’ve seen a helicopter spraying also.
I’m always amazed to find Minnesota place names like Delhi. Delhi, in most people’s minds is a city in India. What’s a little town in Minnesota doing with that name? Certainly not immigrants from southern Asia. (And of course, in Minnesota, the town’s name is pronounced “Dell-Hi,” not “Del-ee” as it is in India.) (A good high school friend lived in Delhi, so I’ve been amazed for a long time about that Minnesota place name.)
It is an unusual name for a Minnesota town. I should look in the Redwood County history books I have to see if there’s info about the name selection.
That’s a really cool picture of the old Alice tractors. I will have to show my Step Dad. He has a small collection of them.
The pix turned out well for shooting through the passenger side window of a moving van. On-the-road shots can be challenging because of movement, glare and bugs splattered on windows. But I try. Can’t stop every time I see something I want to photograph or we would never get anywhere.