The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County by Jerry Apps

Sounded to me like another gravel pit. Got two or three gravel pits already in the county. Figured that this was another one.”
    â€œFred, this ain’t no gravel pit. It’s a sand mine.”
    â€œA sand mine? What in hell is a sand mine?”
    â€œSee you ain’t been keepin’ up with the news. You gettin’ that old-timers’ disease that makes you forgetful.”
    â€œOscar, I ain’t got no damn old-timer’s disease. I just been busy as hell out at my place—hardly got time to go the bathroom, I’ve been so busy.”
    â€œI suspect you ain’t heard of frackin’ either?”
    â€œWhat was that you said—did you just drop that big old F word that’d get us in a heap of trouble when we was kids and said it?” Fred was grinning like he’d just eaten the last piece of pie at a threshing dinner.
    â€œI said frackin’, not what you think I said.”
    â€œStill sounds like you’re trying to spit out the F word and can’t quite muster enough courage to do it.”
    â€œFred, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you,” said Oscar. He was smiling as he said it.
    â€œFracking is a shortened version of hydraulic fracturing, a way to spread apart rocks that have natural gas stuck between ’em.”
    â€œWell, why didn’t you say so? Of course I have heard of draulic fracting,” said Fred.
    â€œHydraulic fracturing, Fred. Hydraulic fracturing.”
    â€œCall it whatever you want. But what’s natural gas got to do with sand and the value of our farms?”
    â€œHere’s the deal, Fred. Our sand is very special sand. It’s tough and is just what those natural gas companies need for hydraulic fracturing.”
    â€œSo?” Fred raised his cup and took a long drink of coffee.
    â€œSo the Alstage Sand Mining Company is coming to Link Lake and plans to mine sand in the Increase Joseph Community Park that they have leased from the village,” said Oscar. “And I must say, I’m not very happy about having a sand mine in our park. That will put a kibosh on our annual bank robbery reenactment, to start with. To say nothing about all the people who simply like to walk in the park or maybe have a picnic there.”
    â€œIs that where they’re gonna have that damn old mine?”
    â€œThat’s the place. What’re we gonna do to keep it from happening?” asked Oscar.
    â€œSeems like it’s a done deal.”
    â€œDoes sound that way, doesn’t it?” said Oscar. “You’d think so, but that’s not what’s gonna happen.”
    â€œYou know what would be worse?” asked Fred. “They could start diggin’ up that sandy farm of yours.”

19
Ambrose’s Reaction
    A mbrose couldn’t remember when he had been so upset about something. He turned to his pet raccoon, which was standing by the chair where he was sitting.
    â€œDo you know what, Ranger? Those damn fools on the village board just voted to put a sand mine in our village park. And even worse, the mining company says they’ve got to cut down the Trail Marker Oak to make a road into the mine.”
    Ranger looked at his master with an apparent understanding of the torment Ambrose was feeling.
    â€œHow stupid could the Link Lake Village Board be to allow a mining company to tear up the village’s only park, and quite a historical one at that? And the thought of cutting down the Trail Marker Oak makes me sick to my stomach.”
    Ambrose looked out the window of his old farmhouse, toward his garden that had begun to produce well as ample rains had come to Ames County in the spring and had continued periodically into early summer. He wondered again, was this the time to reveal his true identity?
    In 2010, Stony Field had won the National Environmental Writer of the Year award. The National Association of Environmental Writers made the award, which in