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15 CHAPteR 1 environments of Minnesota LAnD oF tRAnsitions For archaeologists, Minnesota is both a perplexing and an intriguing state to work in. Its vegetation cover grades into boreal coniferous forest to the north, tallgrass prairie to the west and southwest, and deciduous forest to the east and southeast. Famous for its ten thousand lakes, the state is also crossed and bordered by streams that flow in these same directions. Streams in the southern and southeastern part of the state, like the Minnesota, Blue Earth, St. Croix, and Root, flow into the south-flowing Mississippi River. Streams on the Coteau des Prairies in the southwestern corner of the state, like the Rock, flow southwestward into the Missouri drainage. And streams to the north, like the Rainy, Red River of the North, Big and Little Fork, and St. Louis, drain either northward into Hudson Bay or eastward into Lake Superior. Phrased another way, Minnesota is the only state having drainage to the Gulf of Mexico, through the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and to the Arctic Ocean. Because of this confluence of major waterways and ecological communities, Minnesota was a melting pot of prehistoric cultures—a peculiarity of its history that I explore in this book. tHe LAnD in tHe 1850s At 86,943 square miles, Minnesota is the twelfth largest of the fifty states. Bordered by Canada on the north, Iowa on the south, Wisconsin and Lake Superior on the east, and the Dakotas on the west, the state is about 400 miles long and 250 miles wide. It is a relatively flat state, as is apparent in the difference between its highest point (Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet above sea level) and its lowest point (at Lake Superior at 602 feet above sea level), both of which are in northeastern Minnesota.1 Besides its snowy, cold winters, Minnesota is famous for its “ten thousand” lakes and numerous rivers and streams.2 Today, the total surface water area of the state 16 environments of minnesota including wetlands is about 20,526 square miles. About 4,000 square miles of this surface water are deepwater lakes and rivers, and 14,537 square miles are wetlands (in the 1850s there were about 29,062 square miles of wetlands). Minnesota’s 21,200 miles of drainage ditches are just one measure of the effort made to drain its surface water. Some lakes in the southern, agricultural part of the state, such as Great Oasis, have been completely drained for farmland. Of Minnesota’s 11,842 lakes ten acres or more in size, nine of the ten largest— Red Lake (both Upper and Lower, 288,800 acres), Mille Lacs Lake (132,516 acres), Leech Lake (111,527 acres), Lake Winnibigoshish (58,544 acres), Lake Vermilion (40,557 acres), Lake Kabetogama (25,760 acres), Mud Lake (in Marshall County, 23,760 acres), Cass Lake (15,596 acres), and Otter Tail Lake (13,596 acres)—are in the northern two-thirds or north woods part of the state. The four counties that have no natural lakes (Mower, Olmsted, Pipestone, and Rock) are all in the lower two tiers of counties. Its largest border lakes are Lake Superior (31,820 square miles), in the northeast, and Lake of the Woods (1,485 square miles), in the north. Minnesota’s 6,564 natural rivers and streams flow a combined 69,200 miles, with that part of the Mississippi River entirely within the state the longest river at 680 miles (the Minnesota River is about 370 miles long). And what about those cold, snowy Minnesota winters? When residents of Florida or Arizona think of Minnesota, the first images that spring to mind are of blizzards and long, snowy, cold winters, rather than beautiful lakes and northern forests. Like its lakes and streams and transitional plant and animal communities, Minnesota’s climate and weather are intimate parts of its character. The state’s climate, which is characterized by warm, humid summers, cold, dry winters, and a steep south–north temperature gradient , is determined by its geographical location near the center of North America, its long, narrow shape, and the coming together of three air masses over its land surface. Cool, dry air flows in from the northwest; relatively dry, warmer air, from the west; and humid, warm air, from the south. When the air masses clash across the state, the result is moisture in the form of rain or snow, tornadoes, and sudden temperature inversions. Although Minnesota’s climate...

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