The land and sky stretch out before us as we drive along Minnesota Highway 67 between Morgan and Redwood Falls in southwestern Minnesota at sunset Friday.
MY HUSBAND, SON and I traveled this weekend to my hometown of Vesta in southwestern Minnesota, the place that inspired the name for this blog, Minnesota Prairie Roots.
My roots run deep into this land, into the soil of Redwood County where I grew up on a dairy and crop farm. Although I left the farm 38 years ago at age 17, the fall after graduating from Wabasso High School, I still consider this home. It is the place that shaped who I became as a person and a writer.
It is the land that still inspires me in my writing and my photography.
Most Minnesotans don’t give this area of the state a second thought. In fact, I have discovered in my nearly 30 years of residing in Faribault, in southeastern Minnesota, that many residents of my community don’t know what lies west of Mankato. They think the state ends there.
That frustrates me to no end. In trying to explain the location of Vesta, I typically say “half way between Redwood Falls and Marshall on Highway 19.” Usually I get a blank stare. What more can I say?
The sign that marks my hometown, population around 350 and home of the nation's first electric co-op.
They consider my hometown in the middle of nowhere. I don’t disagree with that. But I like the middle of nowhere. The prairie possesses a beauty unlike any other. The wind. The sky. The acres and acres of cropland punctuated by farm places and small towns appeal to me. They quiet my soul, uplift my spirit, connect to me in a way that I can’t explain.
This trip we were driving west in the evening, into the sunset. The ribbon of roadway between Morgan and Redwood Falls stretched into seeming infinity under a sky banded by clouds.
The sun sets as we travel along Minnesota Highway 67 northwest of Morgan toward Redwood Falls.
This stretch of highway between Morgan and Redwood Falls seems to go on forever, as do the utility poles.
It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
What more can I say? I love my southwestern Minnesota prairie, the place that will always be my home, no matter where I live.
I prefer grain bins to skyscrapers. I shot this image as we traveled northwest of Morgan at sunset Friday.
My son told me I take a picture of this grain elevator complex every time we drive through Morgan. He is probably right. But I don't care. I see something different each time, each season, in which I photograph it.
My second shot of the elevator in Morgan, taken from the car while driving back to Faribault Sunday afternoon.
This trip I seemed to focus my camera on utility poles, which go on and on across the flat expanse of the prairie. I find a certain artistic appeal in this scene southeast of Morgan.
Soybean fields, pictured here, and corn fields define this rich farm land.
© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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