
I have conflicting feelings about this courthouse. Actually, I can’t say they’re conflicting. I kind of like it in a weird way, imagining that if Fritz Lang was an architect, he would have come up with something like this. One doesn’t expect to see German Expressionist courthouses in the Midwest with such a haunting air. The interesting thing is that this courthouse was built in 1956. Is this more common in that time period and I’ve been missing it, or was this architect really forward thinking for the times? If the former, how many courthouses have I mislabeled as 60’s/70’s thus far in that case? If the latter, what was the architect thinking and how forward looking the county administration must have been! I definitely give it a firm seven out of thirteen!
Looking for a cache, I saw a giant green space on the map. I thought it might be a cemetery, but without any roads or paths running through it that seemed unlikely. It turned out to be dedicated to the the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaties. The cache was located in a tree behind the sign, which I logged and signed and then was stopped in my tracks…

Wait… This location, dedicated to Native American peace treaties is now…a golf course? Are you serious?
Apparently so. I drove into the back of the park and saw something that looked like a large field for some other sport, possibly lacrosse I thought when I was onsite, but they turned out to be powwow grounds. Otherwise, this is almost crazy to me! What could possibly be more American that turning a historical site into a golf course? I literally could not have made this up, but I’m sure if I had I would have been totally believed. I could get it being a general park, open to anyone, but a golf course? Setting aside the class implications, it seems almost pointlessly wasteful to take what should be a public good and devote it to a single activity. Sure, the powwow grounds are more park-like, but this entire setup offends me in a way that I’m not entirely sure how to articulate. And it’s not just my personal aversion to golf, either. It’s just plain wrong. I’m sure I could generate a much longer diatribe if I took some time and did a little research, but I don’t have time for that. If someone wanted to go into greater detail on it, I would be more than happy to follow along, but all I was left with at the time was a foul disquiet of unjustness that followed me to…
I can’t say how messed up and offended I am by the golf course.
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That is a sin in so many ways. The class implications alone, nevermind reinforcing the fact that from Day One of the white settlement of this country the white Europeans trampled all over the Natives. However, it also doesn’t surprise me in the least.
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