Appalachian on the Prairie Column: A mountain man celebrates three years on the prairie

Between Halloween and the 2020 Presidential Election, my family moved from West Virginia to rural Minnesota. It was during the height of the pandemic and my wife had lost her job because of it. She found a new position in Appleton, Minn., and we decided to leave the Appalachian Mountains for the first time.

As a lifelong West Virginian, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Minnesota felt like such a foreign place. Cold, flat and in a different time zone from all our friends and family.

Living in the state for three years now has given me time to reflect on the things that took adjustments. But, like with all things, there were misconceptions.

The climate isn’t much different from home. It does get much colder in the winter, but the other eight months of the year remain similar. The temperature reaching zero happens only a handful of times out of the year, and it rarely remains below zero. The rivers and lakes freezing enough to ice fish was a rarity. They do freeze, but rarely enough for a person to walk over. I’ve only witnessed it twice in my time there, but even then only the river's edges were firm enough to hold weight.

The first winter we lived here, we took a few trips past Lake Minnewaska in Pope County — to see an impromptu city spring up on a lake was new. We stopped to observe, but I wouldn’t let my daughter walk on the ice at the edge of the lake, even as full-size pickups passed us en route to the center.

The flatness was maybe the toughest change to overcome. The Mountain State was given its nickname for a reason. We lived on the eastern side of the state in the shadow of the Allegheny Mountains, which serves as the Eastern Continental Divide. On one side of the ridge, water flows into the Mississippi River and on other side it flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

The highest point in West Virginia is also nestled in that ridge. Spruce Knob doesn’t look as impressive as it sounds. At an altitude of 4,863 feet, it’s not the jagged peak one might picture. The mountains around it provide a gradual climb, making it easy to drive to the top.

The top of Spruce Knob is how Minnesota felt to me for some time. When you’re at the highest point, there are no mountains above you. It’s the only time West Virginia felt flat, and that sensation transferred to the prairie.

The advantage of being flat is that you can view the landscape with a wider sense of scope. Sunsets feel like IMAX experiences now, where they were once much more limited. It’s much more for the sense to enjoy, and I hope for many more to come.

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