“Oh what a pleasant valley,” the first woman settler said as she and her family topped that last hill that lead on down to their future homestead. They were standing on an extension of the Coteau des Prairie that moved off, like a long arm, west from where they stood.
That is how I cam to grow up on a farm, in Pleasant Valley Township, Marshall County, South Dakota.
The road past my house, our farm was on the intersection of Highway 25 that traveled north 7 miles into North Dakota, and a gravel road that traveled east from the “flats” of the valley into the “hills” of the Coteau des Prairie.
Locally those two words described their physical differences, and, to me, their historical differences. Both of my parents had been born and raised in the hills. Because our angus cattle were moved to our pasture, in the hills, I learned to love the changing views and surprises to be found in the inviting tree-filled cricks with their small streams of icy water from multiple natural springs.
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