Claflin Excavating

About Claflin Excavating

The Big Sioux River bends hard around Flandreau, and the low ground inside that bend floods easily in spring and drifts deep in winter, the kind of terrain Claflin Excavating already knows from the dirt work it does the rest of the year. The company runs heavier equipment than a typical plow route needs, clearing the wide lots and approach roads along the river bottom where snow can pile chest-high against a berm. Moody County's open ground east of town lets wind pack that snow hard, so a first pass often has to break through crust before it can push volume. The crew also plows a set of residential streets on the bend's inside edge, working from the low ground back up toward Flandreau's downtown blocks. A cleared lowland lot here stands lower and darker than the streets around it, the river never far from view beyond the piled snow.