The utility poles follow a Indian treaty line that was established in the aftermath of the War of 1812.
The elevators and grain bins here look like they are arranged for a railroad siding. Whether or not that's why they were originally built that way, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad did in fact coincide with the old Indian boundary for about six miles from here to the west. The gravel road doesn't go on for six miles, though. It's a public road but serves as a farm lane that ends at the farmstead on the horizon.
In the grassy space between two cornfields (behind the boat) the railroad and Indian Boundary line continued to the east, but somewhere in the distance the railroad line departed from the treaty line and made a jog of roughly 1/8 mile to the north, where it roughly paralleled it for a few miles, and then diverged further at Mendota.
