Washburn sits above a wide bend of the Missouri River, close enough to Cross Ranch State Park that the cottonwood bottomland Lewis and Clark once traveled through is still just downstream, and Dakota Earthworks LLC works the bluffs and low ground on both sides of that river valley all winter. The bluffs hold wind differently than the bottomland below them, scoured hard on the exposed rim and then oddly still and snow-heavy once the ground drops toward the river. Dakota Earthworks LLC clears driveways and lots across both stretches, treating the roads up top differently from the sheltered lanes down near the water since the same storm leaves each one its own depth of snow. McLean County's coal country lies not far to the west, and the haul roads out that way get cleared on their own schedule, timed to the traffic they carry rather than a fixed hour. Mornings along the bluff can be still and clear while the river bottom holds its own fog well past sunrise, two different winters going on within sight of each other. By the time a Washburn storm has passed, the bluff-top streets and the river-bottom lanes both sit open, each cleared to fit the ground it's on.