American Grass Masters

About American Grass Masters

Newburgh sits up on its bluff above the Ohio's big bend, and every hill road down toward the water turns into its own small argument with an Indiana winter storm. This grass-and-mowing crew swaps the summer routine for a plow route that has to know which curves ice first — the switchback past the old brick homes, the grade behind the ballfields, the driveway cut straight up from the river flat. By the time headlights start moving through town, those hill streets are down to bare pavement, and the barges keep pushing upriver like nothing happened. There's a particular satisfaction in clearing a hill this steep and watching a car take it without a single spin of the tires. It's not flashy work, running a plow up and down a river bluff before sunrise, but Newburgh's geography makes it necessary, and this crew treats it like the town's morning depends on it, because on the steep blocks, it does.