In Dakota, section lines lasted much longer and are even in existence today.They provide land definition between farms and are often left to grow only sunflowers and brome grass. They are left un-leveled by road graders and they are a fond haunt of wily rooster pheasants who are looking for a way out of a batch of cattails with hunters and dogs entwined.

My cousin Bob and I were given the task of defining an uncle's section line one year. Bob was working with the county engineer's office and knew how to shoot a line with a transit. My uncle wanted to know the exact location of the line so that he could string a four-strand barbed wire fence along it.

Bob and I arrived early on a Saturday morning and set about finding the section line. Tall grass waved in the southerly Iowa breeze as we sought the corner of the section marker. Finally, after many tries, we found a bunch of fivepenny nails in a rusted ball lying beneath what we thought was the exact section corner. We plotted the line across the half-mile of field and felt secure that we had anchored both ends.

Normally, there was always a solid metal marker of some sort buried at the conjunction of the section lines. We looked for hours for this marker. As we were searching the sod, a road grader and operator appeared over the hill and proceeded toward us. We stopped the grader and explained to the operator that we were searching for the section line marker. "Oh, I should tell you that I plowed it out about five years ago and dropped it off at the neighbor's yard," he said without much expression. So much for our pursuit of the now found metal marker.

I loved section lines. They grew high, native prairie grass, harbored Hungarian partridges and many a red-faced rooster pheasant. They were the last vestiges of the real Iowa and Dakota prairie. Flowers grew there that grew no where else and even though the section lines were plagued with water holes, badger holes and gopher mounds, they were and are the last of what is wild about the prairie farm country.

We had one section line in northwest Iowa that still remains today. It is but a two wheel, dirt path through the middle of two huge corn fields and it grows up with wild sunflowers, wild roses with wild hemp hugging its ditches. I don't know how long this little road will last avoiding the attention of the county engineer who will no doubt dub it ready for replacement, widen it and basically remove any unique identity of the road. Too bad.

We've lost too many of these "line-fence roads" in my opinion for the sake of increased speed, safety and visibility. And, what have we gained? More aggressive driving. more congestion, more frayed nerves and less time to appreciate a wild flower, a wild critter and a more tranquil and less stressful lifestyle. I think I have some friends out there who would agree.

I'm hoping that little line-fence, dirt road in northwest Iowa still remains. I'm rooting for it and I'm hoping someone who lives in any of those four sections that abut it realize it as well and might just "say no" to bringing it up to state standards. If the road goes away, it will be a loss felt by me and many others. Especially invested rooster pheasants and Hungarian partridge.

See you next time. Okay?