The scent Of A Mountain

Some books demand to be read again, and then again. Such is the case with Prairy Erth. Within those pages I accompanied William Least Heat Moon through the Kansas Flint Hills, and the Nemaha Mountains.

This range, claims one Kansas geologist, vanished beneath the Kansas prairie some four hundred million years ago, but not before becoming one of the largest on planet Earth.

Not far from U.S. 50, we hiked the prairie. Moon had brought with him a heavy wrench for removing the cap from a dry oil well. His purpose was to look down that half-mile deep hole and sniff the vapors of the Nemahas.

His quest provided me with a new perspective of the Kansas Flint Hills.