Soapweed
Well-known member
MANY OF OUR PASTURES are named after the old homesteaders that first settled this country. On our ranch, our better land with more gently rolling hills and sub-irrigated hay meadows is on the Nebraska side of the border. Our South Dakota land is rough hills, sandy pastures, and not nearly as productive. There is nothing on the South Dakota side that could by any stretch of the imagination be called hay ground. Some of the pasture names are Bessey, West Polzer, East Polzer, Little Polzer, North Coleman, and South Coleman. We bought this ranch in 1986, and shortly thereafter Carol and I were riding horseback up in the north hills. I happened to look down on the ground to see an old horse hay rake tooth lying there. It looked completely out of place in those soapweedy hills. I got off my horse and picked it up, and remarked to Carol, "How would you like to be Mrs. Polzer and have to help put up hay in this kind of country?" She said, "How do you know there was a Mrs. Polzer?" I said, "There had to be, because there was a Little Polzer."