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Two generations have worked the Wolfe Brothers Farm with plans to pass it on to the children, until someone drew a line through it big enough to accommodate up to 110 rumbling freight trains per day.

The 278-mile route of the proposed Great Lakes Basin Rail Line slashes diagonally across their 265 acres near the Lake-Porter county border and has stirred anger and fear among residents from Boone Grove to Lowell; many consider this another unwanted intrusion on their rural communities.

"I don't see why they want to put it right here," Dawn Wolfe said, predicting, "The cows won't milk with all that noise coming through. We won't be able to get across to our hay and crop fields. Everything we and father's worked for will all go down the drain.

"My oldest boy is graduating this year. He is already adding to the herd with 12 of his own he's bought. My youngest wants to do the green farming. They want to stay right here on the farm. But we will be done. We will have to pick up and leave. It's just sad. We don't know what else we can do," Wolfe said.

Lowell Town Councilman Chris Salatas said he is trying to keep an open mind, but "the residents are wary after coming out of battles fighting the Illiana Expressway, the idea of the South Shore coming down here or the (Singleton) quarry. It's being received poorly."