I was raised on the plains of the Eastern Dakotas. The summers were always noisy: crickets, cicadas, coyotes, prairie dogs, wind, plenty to fill the air. The winters were incredibly austere, sometimes incomprehensibly so to those who haven't experienced them.

On particularly cold and windless days outdoors the silence is almost unbelievable. You hear your heartbeat, the snow underfoot crunches so loudly you cringe, and sounds travels so clearly and without interruption that a half-mile seems within arm's reach. It's absolutely surreal and can be very disorienting, almost like space compresses around you.

It was hard enough to live there in the 90s. I can't imagine how isolating it'd have been on a claim.