Through The Lens A Walk Among The Ruins Fort Igloo, SD (AKA Black Hills Ordinance Depot) vBy Angella and Ryan Byykkonen 20vHISVOICEvMAY/JUNE 2018 Late June, several years ago while visiting the Black Hills, my husband tells me we should take a drive to an old army base that he had mapped out. “Sure”, I say with excitement as that is a place on our exploring bucket list that we had not photographed yet. For hours we drive to the south western border of South Dakota along the Nebraska and Wyoming borders to “No Man’s Land”, I would call it. Very few communities did we pass through along the way as the sun blazed across miles and miles of prairie land. We arrive at a town named Provo, not really a town at all as there were only a few standing homes and the massive junk yard of old cars out numbered any residents still living here. Ryan says, “let’s take this gravel road; according to my map this should be the way in.” We drove a rough dirt road, more like a path it seemed at times, that winded through the thick prairie grass. Finally coming to an open gate at the southern most edge of the army base. The sheer monstrosity of the area is overwhelming. This is an urban exploration and ghost town aficionado’s dream. It’s hard to recount the feelings of eeriness, awe and amazement looking at all the abandoned structures. It really made you think about an era gone by, seeing all the building remnants, I tried to imagine the place full of life when it was an operational army base. So much had been built, and so much had been abandoned. A lone new satellite dish attached to a house there really was creepy. It didn’t seem like anyone was home. Relieved as I was picturing a man and a shot gun shouting get off my property. The first sign of life was a jack rabbit that nearly scared the life out of me. Before getting out of the truck, Ryan says, “watch out for rattlesnakes out here”. What?!! So instead of being eager to march across this land to all that is before us of collapsed buildings and bizarre structures still standing I now had to be aware of