Back twenty years to... Monday, June 26th, 2006. Day 79. Into the Midwest – and an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in a pretty downtown park. The omnipotence of Febreze, scrapped truck graveyards, and dodging the other visitors at 'Carhenge'.

"A detour – to make a dedicated stop, for the fantastical Stonehenge look-alike. Carhenge was conceived and built in 1987 by Jim Reinders. While in England, he studied the original structure, in Wiltshire, England – and copied its proportions, shape and size. Other automobile sculptures have subsequently been added at the same location, which is now known as the 'Car Art Reserve'.

I find the place and park-up. There’s a slow-moving bunch of other sightseers ambling in front of me, and so I have to move quickly ahead to avoid getting them all in-shot. The art here is good, but when it comes to 'Big American Cars as Sculpture', my favourite still has to be the superbly cool 'Cadillac Ranch', west of Amarillo, Texas. A straight row of ten, now highly graffitied-up Cadillacs, buried nose-first and deep into the ground. In my view, it's very much simpler – and far more thought-provoking.

Three days later and back driving, playing 'keep-up' with the coal trains, as the highway follows the railroad. I would guess that they’re cruising at around forty-five, as they slog relentlessly from one side of the State to the other – hauling vast quantities of coal to immense power generation furnaces – eventually providing the energy the Country so relies on. A never ending, modern-day wagon train. So many of the towns I’m visiting have a brightly-painted old-time locomotive, taking pride of place in the town square – in remembrance of the community’s railway heritage.

I reach Mason City, and almost drive straight by it, but as the highway passes the southern end of Main Street, I glance to my left, spot some real 'small-town' peaches, and hit the brake hard. Right in the middle of the ten or-so buildings that make up the downtown area, is a massive bank. The 'Mason City Banking Company'. A huge, monolithic structure, complete with Doric columns and ornately decorated windows. For a town of under two hundred inhabitants – it's totally bizarre. But of course, it was originally built to cater to the wider, rural farming communities. But why such overstated grandeur. 'Shock and Awe!'. That's why. Scare the 'bejesus' out of the farmers needing their loans."

In Search of Small-Town America: Volume 1 is a free-of-charge Pdf digital download – available from our shop. A table of contents, the introduction, the route-map – and featuring content on the first two States travelled: New Mexico and Arizona.

Jeremy Hammond I am a British writer and photographer, and have travelled through India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia, but most extensively in North America. In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked as lighting crew, and later designer, for many top-named British bands, on tours through Europe, Japan, and the USA. I’ve worked as a cruise-ship photographer, in office and store design, database design, visual arts book publishing and as a London-based freelance photographer, specialising in interiors and architecture.