October 3, 2016: No big stone lions guarding this library.
As I crossed IA 4 on US 20, I saw long green tubes on freshly churned dirt in the middle of a cornfield, and I realized I was entering Bakken country.
You have heard about the Bakken pipeline, or Dakota Access Pipeline, in the news, but knowing about it and seeing it come together are two different things. Construction on the pipeline was in full swing at this time, and I crossed it three times between Jolley and Storm Lake. Lines of corn abruptly stopped to make way for pipe (or were harvested early). Crews were hard at work.
But in Varina, pronounced Var-EYE-na, it was still. I saw one vehicle. If any of the town’s 71 people were home at midday on a Monday, I couldn’t tell.
Information on the sesquicentennial board in town.