Platinum Dirt Works

About Platinum Dirt Works

The Tobacco Root Mountains hold the last color of a winter sunset longer than the Ruby Valley floor does, glowing pink above Sheridan well after the ranch houses below have already gone grey with dusk. Platinum Dirt Works works that valley through the afternoon, clearing driveways and ranch lanes that branch off the county road toward the base of those peaks. The Ruby River curls through the bottomland here, mostly locked up with ice by midwinter, and the roads paralleling it can drift shut fast when wind funnels down off the mountains after a storm. Getting a lane open before evening chores means cattle can be fed and checked without a truck getting stuck a quarter mile from the barn. As the last alpenglow fades off the Tobacco Roots, the work usually wraps with one more pass down the county road, making sure Sheridan's ranch families have a clear run home.