Despite chain restaurants and suburban housing developments, which tend to make every place look the same, there are very real differences between one town and another, or between one geographic region and another.
Some folks get used to moving about and changing addresses. One place is just as good as another, they claim, but I doubt that's true.
I believe it makes a difference where you live. The places we occupy affect us not only physically, in terms of the topography we travel across or the climate we live with, but emotionally as well. Our moods are tied as closely to the depth of the water table and the length of the growing season as they are to the phases of the moon.
As one who likes to know his place, I submit the following 10 questions as a barometer of geographic awareness. This is not a test or a survey; no need to mail in your responses. This set of questions, like others of similar design, only begs reflection. Keep score at your own risk.
1. Where does your tap water come from?
Our town's wells tap into the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a ten thousand square mile underground reservoir stretching across most of southern Idaho and fed by metlwater off the Rocky Mountains.
2. What geologic events shaped your land?
I live on the southern edge of The Great Rift, a network of recent lava flows and deep rifts that extend at least 800 feet into the earth. These lava flows, some as recent as 2,000 years ago, are the dominant geologic event of recent history.
3. What kind of soil lies under your feet?
We have a shallow loess overlaying thick layers of volcanic lavas.
4. Who were the historical inhabitants of your land?
Human occupation, or at least visits to this area by hunting parties, began nearly 10,000 years ago. More recently, the Snake Indians
5. What crops are grown locally?
Hay is the major cash crop. Some grain, potatoes, sugar beets.
6. What's your elevation?
3.910 feet.
7. Can you point north from where you sit?
I'm facing north as I write.
8. Where did the food on your dinner plate come from?
Beef came from the grocer, who probably purchased it from local sources. Potatoes and most of the salad came from our garden.
9. Can you name five each of the trees, mammals, birds, grasses, reptiles/amphibians that thrive in your area?
Aspen, willow, cottonwood, Russian olive, elm. Magpie, meadowlark, robin, red-tailed hawk, flycatcher. Cheatgrass, Idaho fescue, buffalograss, ryegrass, crested wheatgrass. Rattlesnake, ????
10. How long is your local growing season?
We're frost-free from late May to mid-September, not counting this year's June 17 surprise.
