Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Crosby County, isn’t visible from the highway. To get there, you drive past a farmhouse and down a narrow dirt path called Dump Ground Road. Most of the graves are unnamed. Most of the people buried there are black. So that’s one thing to think about.

And the other thing to think about is how this part of the state sits atop the Ogalalla Aquifer, whose water is pumped out (mostly for irrigation) at a rate that far outpaces its replenishment. (Want to know more? Read Running Out: in search of water on the high plains by Lucas Bessire.)

Anyway, somethings things line up in a particular way that shifts your brain around and lets you think about it all in a different way.

Crosbyton, Texas
photographed 7.28.2024