Roadside Geology Of Minnesota

Minnesota's lakes may be its most famous features, but the glaciated countryside disguises a much longer history of volcanoes and plate collisions--not surprising when you learn that Minnesota was at the active edge of the fledgling North American continent for several billion years.

This is the eighth book in the "Midwest Roadside Geology Series". Here I take you on a roadside bedrock tour from Wawa, Ontario west past Thunder Bay to the Ontario-Minnesota border. The north section of Ontario Route 587. The outcrops we cover are all Precambrian and extend back into the Archean to nearly 3 billion years ago. The book is in full color, with additional charts, definitions, and details on 40 stops. All the stops include exact GPS locations with photos. Some have additional maps and diagrams.

This is the eighth book in the "Midwest Roadside Geology Series". Here I take you on a roadside bedrock tour from Wawa, Ontario west past Thunder Bay to the Ontario-Minnesota border. The north section of Ontario Route 587. The outcrops we cover are all Precambrian and extend back into the Archean to nearly 3 billion years ago. The book is in full color, with additional charts, definitions, and details on 40 stops. All the stops include exact GPS locations with photos. Some have additional maps and diagrams.

Have you ever wondered how the Mississippi River was formed? Or why shark teeth have been found in the Iron Range of the Upper Midwest? Towering mountain ranges, explosive volcanoes, expansive glaciers, and long-extinct forms of both land and sea life were an important part of Minnesota's ancient history. Today the evidence of this remarkable heritage is revealed in the state's rocky outcroppings, stony soils, and thousands of lakes.

Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods tells the gripping tale of a huge Ice Age lake that drained suddenly--not just once but repeatedly--and reshaped the landscape of the Northwest. The narrative follows the path of the floodwaters as they raged from western Montana across the Idaho Panhandle, then scoured through eastern Washington and down the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean.

Winner of the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction The story of the scientist who first mapped Minnesota’s geology, set against the backdrop of early scientific inquiry in the state At twenty, Newton Horace Winchell declared, “I know nothing about rocks.” At twenty-five, he decided to make them his life’s work. As a young geologist tasked with heading the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, Winchell (1839–1914) charted the prehistory of the region, its era of inland seas, its volcanic activity, and its several ice ages—laying the foundation for the monumental five-volume Geology of Minnesota. Tracing Winchell’s remarkable path from impoverished fifteen-year-old schoolteacher to a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesota’s Geologist also recreates the heady early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, a time when one man’s determination and passion for learning could unlock the secrets of the state’s distant past and present landscape. Traveling by horse and cart, by sailboat and birchbark canoe, Winchell and his group surveyed rock outcrops, river valleys, basalt formations on Lake Superior, and the vast Red River Valley. He studied petrology at the Sorbonne in Paris, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the volcanic rocks of the Arrowhead region. As a founder of the American Geological Society and founding editor of American Geologist, the first journal for professional geologists, Winchell was the driving force behind scientific endeavor in early state history, serving as mentor to many young scientists and presiding over a household—the Winchell House, located on the University of Minnesota’s present-day mall—that was a nexus of intellectual ferment. His life story, told here for the first time, draws an intimate picture of this influential scientist, set against a backdrop of Minnesota’s geological complexity and splendor.

This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada's Prairie Provinces to the Texas-Mexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife management areas. Also included are about 60 national and provincial parks, national wildlife areas, and migratory bird sanctuaries in Canada's Prairie Provinces. Many public-access properties owned by counties, towns, and private organizations are also described.