Diamonds

I am being beckoned by diamonds. Little black diamonds.

They are all unique, these diamonds; and I can't get them out of my mind.

I was recently given an Iowa Atlas and Gazetteer published by DeLORME that contains little black diamonds next to names like Flugstad, Brushy, Border Plains, Highview, Stonega, Wilke, Jones Siding, Tara, Roelyn, Slifer, Piper, Lavinia, Knoke, Sulphur Springs, Lotts Creek, May City, Raleigh, Bristol, Silver Lake, Cornell, Neils Spur, Fairville... I am struck that my breathing quickens while I type these names. These diamonds are all near my home, less than two hours of driving, and all I need do is travel there and claim them for my own.

In the past, I've uncovered some of these gems without knowing the diamonds that they were. Certainly much solemn thought was given to naming Ware, Depew, Osgood, Rossie, Langdon, and Halfa, and they are all diamonds that I valued but didn't understand...while other places carefully named Crippin Corners, Gridley, Paoli, Soda Bar, and Poplar Grove, some of which have not even earned their diamond from DeLorme in 2004, all have breezed past me without even a glance. They have become part of the landscape without any sign of the diamonds they once were.

Last weekend, knowing that I was searching for my little black diamonds, I made a few claims. Unique, Arnold, Rubens Siding, and Pioneer offered to me themselves, or what was remaining of them. The diamonds named Arnold and Rubens Siding were no longer visible at all. What was once Rubens Siding, mapped at the curve of a Pocahontas County blacktop, showed no signs of existing. Arnold, whose diamond rested on a gravel road, offered a landscape of cornfields and beanfields and with nothing more. Unique offered some signs, however. And Pioneer, a more recently unincorporated town, offered more.



I am excited about diamonds, glorious diamonds that I can claim with my camera while leaving for others exactly what I found. I am drawn to feel the spirit of these rural, Iowa towns that were carefully chosen and named by people whose investment in this Great Plains state have built the regional community I call my own.