North of the Rogue River the country opens into Algoma Township: orchard rows, gravel section lines, farmhouses set back behind old windbreaks. Snow arrives here on a west wind off Lake Michigan and keeps arriving long after the sky has gone clear and hard. Algoma Township Office handles the snow removal, plowing drives and lots open in the black hours while the township is still asleep. The work gets measured in blacktop — a blade's width at a time, banks pushed well back before a thaw can freeze them into walls. First light finds a clean dark ribbon running where the drifts had been the night before.