S.L. Sanger

RITZVILLE -- From Ryegrass Summit going east on Interstate 90 you can look across the Columbia to the wheat growing plateau, the Big Bend country that lies in the wide curve of the river. After crossing the river and climbing the plateau, the arid sagebrush desert slowly changes to rolling wheat farm country with huge patches of gold and green.

 

At this time of year, the wheat is full and heavy. Moving dust and clouds of straw and chaff rise from the fields being worked by harvesting combines. Farther on, past Moses Lake and into Adams County west of Ritzville, is the interstate turnoff for Schrag and Batum, exit 196, stomping grounds of the Gerings, three brothers and their father, men still working the wheatland homesteaded by their family generations ago.