They built roads through the yellowish loess and choked on the dust. They plowed it and cussed the mud. They marveled at how the soil would stand rigid in a vertical wall when dug into, and melt away like a sand castle in the tide when the rains hit it. They joked about hill-country tractors with enlarged wheels on one side so they could plow around the hills. But increasingly, the locals appreciate the rare natural beauty of their back yard.
Evidence comes in what seems to be an emerging sense of propriety.
From then until he was blindsided by ill health, Reese was an ardent booster who regularly attended the annual Loess Hills Prairie Seminars and camped with his family in the hills on the eve of that weekend. The seminars say a lot about the awakened interest in the hills. They were conceived by the late Carolyn Benne, and are now organized by her husband Larry Benne, under sponsorship of his employer, the Western Hills Area Education Agency in Sioux City. The first one 21 years ago drew 17 people. Now 250 to 300 make it to the gathering, held the weekend after Memorial Day.