Mystery of the Great Sandburg Mound on Finn Hill

I THOUGHT I was the only one to wonder about the huge mound of dirt at , which is being rebuilt and modernized by the Lake Washington School District. However, just the other day I overheard a stranger with questions about this pile of mystery. What is so mysterious about it? Well, it does obscure one's view of the work going on there, but that is to be expected. I mean they have to put the dirt somewhere. No. That isn't what puzzled both the stranger and myself. The odd thing is that on at least one occasion dirt was hauled away in dump trucks from somewhere else on the site. So my question is, why haul some of the dirt away and leave the great wall of soil blocking my view? Is there something special about this dirt?

Like any nosy citizen I would try to make sense of it as I drove by, but this didn't afford much relief due to the blockage I have been ranting about. So one day I walked over to the school for a closer look. I even went so far as to go completely around the block to inspect it from all sides and angles. I saw familiar equipment and some stuff I could not for the life of me fathom its use. On pallets were bags of who knows what waiting to be used for who knows what. Here and there were smaller mounds of soil, but nothing like the bulging hill that perplexed me so.

On the north border outside the fence surrounding the worksite there were private houses along a deadend. They may have been a little worried about construction workers parking on their street because they posted a "No Trespassing" sign along with some cute little 18" traffic cones to limit access. They even added what I suspect was a fake plant to beautify the warning message. Nice touch. This little jaunt did not answer my questions, however, and I resolved to find someone with some vision of the overview. So I asked around.

BESIDES THE DIRT, I wondered about a couple of trucks that had short towers mounted on their backs used to lower pipes, one after another, into pre-existing holes. I mean "What up with that?" The probable answer may be that the school will be using a Geothermal heating system and so must put piping deep into the ground to draw up the natural heat of the Earth. The bags of "who knows what" are to be placed around the pipes. Not a bad guess for a nosy citizen. This still did not unravel the enigma of the Great Carl Sandburg Mound. So I will just guess some more.

In life there is good dirt and there is bad dirt. The good dirt has been saved and the bad dirt has been hauled away. Where the "bad" dirt is destined I shudder to think, but the good dirt could be what is rumored to be special dirt salvaged from the surface of the former playfield. Playfield dirt. Periodically a passerby can see it being turned over by a backhoe to dry it out and maybe just because it is so much fun to sift dirt with heavy machinary. One can only guess what goes on in the minds of heavy equipment operators.

For now I have resolved to let my wonder drift with the knowledge that one day soon the mound that has captured my imagination so strongly will be displaced to it's final rest and I will be able to gaze upon Carl Sandburg Elementary School without obstruction. I may wonder just where the dirt ended up exactly as will the stranger I chanced to overhear. No biggy. I will get over it.