Thomas Jefferson, an admirer of classical civilization, proposed the grid design as the basis of the American land system, and Congress adopted it in 1785. This imperial design was welcomed as the perfect means to rapidly settle our expanding country, creating estates, making every man a king. This arbitrary design was not a structure slowly developed in America, resulting from how an individual might sensitively respond to the land over time, nor how the accumulated wisdom of a community might carefully decide to treat the shifting flow of water, the unevenness of soil, and the movement of animals. As a result, the prairie was largely obliterated in a geological instant, printed from end to end like a checkerboard, cut up into million little squares called quarter sections. Officially, it was called the U.S. Rectangular Land Survey; unofficially, it was called "the grid."

Paraphrased selections from the essay
A Tapestry of Change, Nature and Culture on the Prairie
by Donald Worster

Tracing Our Horizons is an educational and community art-making interactive experience. Visitors are invited to reflect on following three questions:

  1. Could Nature be lost forever, or can it always rebound?
  2. Is the landscape around us still changing?
  3. How do you relate to the land?

Put your thoughts in writing, make a drawing, a painting, or take a photograph that reflects some of these questions, and bring your creation the Salina Art Center. A staff member will help you to attach it to one of the 16x16 inch squares on the grid. We hope to create a community mural over the next few months, reflecting as many views as there are citizens.