The Snow Man

About The Snow Man

Shelterbelts standing along Salem's farmyards still do their job, catching the worst of the wind before it reaches the house, but the open gravel section lines between them drift shut fast once a McCook County storm gets moving. The Snow Man runs those farm lanes and the in-town driveways alike, plowing a path wide enough for the mail carrier and the propane truck as readily as for a pickup. Salem sits along the Interstate 90 corridor in flat country where a plowed road can look clear one hour and be drifted back over the next, so the routes double back through the same stretches more than once during a longer storm. Driveways in town get cleared to the garage, walkways get shoveled to bare concrete, and salt goes down on the older brick sidewalks downtown that hold ice longest in the shade. Farther out, clearing a farmstead often means opening the yard as well as the lane in, so equipment and livestock chores aren't held up by a drift. Coverage runs through Salem and out toward Montrose, Bridgewater and Spencer.