Smith & Sons Excavating, INC

About Smith & Sons Excavating, INC

Inland from the dunes, past the last streetlight, Michigan City's newer subdivisions sit on gravel lanes that drift shut fast once the lake-effect bands start stacking snow. Smith & Sons Excavating runs its equipment after dark out there, pushing back drifts under headlights with the dune ridge a black shape against a clear, cold sky. There's a rhythm to it — plow the lane, turn, stack the pile at the property line, move to the next driveway — that gets the whole street open before anyone's alarm goes off. The heavier the snowfall, the more the crew leans on the big equipment instead of a shovel crew, moving volume the machines can handle. Come morning, the lanes are bare gravel again, ready for the school bus and the mail truck alike.