A Walk around Minnesota

1. By BreeannaRoberg A Walk around Minnesota

2. Minnesota…. • Has three major biomes • Prairie lands • Coniferous forests • Deciduous forests • Minnesota can be broken up into many different sub-divisions • Each sub-division has a set of qualities that makes them slightly more specific to the area.

3. Minnesota… • Sub-divisions • The Arrowhead • Iron ranges • The Prairies • Bluffs • Red River valley • Bogs

4. arrowhead

5. Habitat • This area is part of the coniferous forest • Meaning trees with needles • Consisting of pines and fir • Animals • Wolves • Bears • Elk • moose

6. Ely Minnesota • Started out as a small mining town with a total of 5 mines altogether • Together they produced more than eighty million tons of Iron Ore • They were shut down in 1967 • Now the town depends on recreation including • Canoe trips • Boat trips • Fly fishing trips

7. International Wolf Center • An exhibit at the science museum triggered interest within the population and needed a permanent home • Why Ely? • S. Olson and M. Stenlund were conducting modern research here and was an obvious fit.

8. International Wolf Center • What does it offer • A chance to see the resident wolf pack • Video presentations, howling trips, radio track, snowshoe treks, family activities, dog sledding, and flights over wolf country

10. Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) • The most popular wilderness area in the United States • The forests were logged in the early 1900’s • In 1909 it became critical to save this area and 1.2 million acres were named the Superior Refuge • Today the BWCAW includes a million acres of wilderness

11. BWCAW • Landscape • Large old white pines • Many rocky lakes • Animal life • Bald eagles • Moose • Loons • Beavers • And of course your friendly pack of wolves

12. Iron Ranges

13. Tower • Soudan Mine • First successful mine on the range • Shaft mine that opened in 1884 • A cable car takes you 2,000 feet below the surface • The ore found here was expensive to harvest because it was so hard to get to • It is now an underground laboratory used by the University of Minnesota High Energy Physics Lab

14. Mesabi Range “The Range” • Became the states leading iron range • The Iron found at this range was only onthe surface or under glacial deposits which are not thick • They were Ore pockets not bodies usually 200 to 500 feet deep.

15. General make up… • Towns • Most towns in this area were created because of the surrounding economy • When a mine popped up people needed supplies and a town soon formed • When the logging camps were set up, towns with the things they needed followed soon after.

16. Farming?... • Why didn’t people ever farm here? • It took too long to clear the forests from the land and the amount that the soil produced was not large enough to make a profit from it. • Because in the frontier days it was inaccessible • Railroads didn’t go this far • There were not any rivers that connected to the Mississippi River for steamboats to carry the immigrants

17. The heartland

18. Leech Lake Indian Reservation • Created by the 1855 treaty • The Ojibwe lost most of their land… however they were able to keep this • most of the area was logged in the early 1900’s

19. Leech Lake Indian Reservation • Control • State still has criminal and some civil jurisdiction • The tribe controls hunting, fishing, activities • They also have their own day care and college

20. Leech Lake Dam • Remains the longest dam and stretches 3,500 feet across • It raised Leech Lake a full 4 to 7 feet after completion • It was built because Minneapolis needed a steady water flow along the Mississippi river because it was such a large producer of flour • It was the second dam built by the Army Corp of Engineers

21. Wild Rice • It makes up 25% of the diet on the reservation • It became an important cash crop although it is fairly hard to harvest • In the summer they make the lakes look like prairies instead of swamps • Passed down from generation to generation it was common knowledge within the Indian population to “live where the food grows on water”

23. Walker • Sits on top of hills left by the last glacier and it over-looks leech lake (Ga-sagasquadjimekagsagaiigum (place-of-the-leech-lake)) named by the Ojibwe tribe • Was created because of the lumber industry and the placement of the railroad • Known today for mostly hunting and fishing

24. Cass Lake • Located in Cass Lake is • Lyle’s Logging Camp • Is a museum dedicated to a man who spent a large part of his life in the woods and wanted to make sure that the lifestyle got preserved

25. Cass Lake • Located in Cass Lake is • Headquarters for the Chippewa National Forest which has a Finnish heritage • Also the headquarters for the consolidated Ojibwe Indian Agency • Which oversees seven reservations

26. Star Island • Why is Star Island so unique? • Because it is an island inside of Cass Lake that also has another lake inside of it • The only lake inside of a lake in the States • The lake • Named Lake Windigo

27. Itasca state park • Contains • the source of the Mississippi River (Lake Itasca) • 157 lakes in all • Original structures from 1905

28. Itasca State Park • Contains • About 25% of the original trees in Minnesota • Largest Red and white pines that still stand in the state • Virgin Norway pine that is over 200 years old

29. Habitat • Landscape • Leech, Cass and Winnibigoshish were created by glacial lake Agassiz • The area is very swampy • Not the original forest • Hardwoods and pine spot the continuous forests of Aspen

30. The storefront • Many towns in this region still have their main street although they may be deserted for the most part except for the few local restaurants • Each town has something special about them for instance • Akeley has the largest statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox! • Lake Windigo is a lake within an island within a lake

32. Bluffs

33. Habitat Animals • Waterfowl • Bald Eagles • Wild turkeys • Coyotes • foxes • Along with many other songbirds

34. Vegetation • The forests that surround the bluffs are so dense that low growing plants are hard to come by • Trees • Oak-hickory forests • Maple basswood forests • Pine plantations

35. Landscape • The landscape was not touched by the youngest glacier coverage and therefore refrains from showing much glacial drift • The landscape is diverse and consists of • Rock cliffs • Steep valleys • Uplands • Old fields

36. Red Wing • Red Wing’s many names • Now known as the Barn Bluff • French called it La Grange • Dakota tribe names • Proymueche- Mountain in water • Hemminnicha- wood, water and hill

37. Red Wing logo • Used to be used as a tailsman for Dakota chiefs • Now used as the Red Wing shoe companylogo • Established in 1905 • In 1915 it signed a contract with the U.S. Army to produce 200,000 shoes a day • Now it produces around two million a day

38. The Prairie

39. Landscapes • The landscapes along the prairies are usually flat • Farming is common in the prairie because the land is so flat and very fertile • Trees are scarce along the prairies because of the fires that come every so often • The trees don’t have enough time to grow big enough to make it to the next fire

40. Farming • Crops that are grown consists mostly of • Corn • Wheat • Soybeans • sugar beats

41. Farming • The soil on the prairie is very fertile due to the dense roots of the grasses • Because the roots are so dense it was hard to plow and become farmland until the invention of a more modern plow that would cut the roots instead of trying to uproot them

42. Farming • Crop rotation • A farmer has to have a varitey of crops that he grows on his farm because of crop rotation • When a particular plant grows on a field it takes a certain nutrient from the earth making it insufficient in that nutrient • When a farmer rotates the crops it gives that section of farmland the ability to gain that nutrient back

43. Farming • Dairy farming • Is on the decline in Minnesota because smaller farms are harder to run • Most dairy farms are undersized and need a minimum of 500 cow to survive.

44. Farming • Dairy • People need to invest in the modern technology • Problem with this is that it is so expensive and that the profit produced from the sales is not high enough for the up-grade

45. Vegetation • Dry • Occur when the evapotranspirtation is greater than the amount of precipitation that falls • Dotted blazing star along with the prickly pear grow in these types of environments

46. Vegetation • Mesic • Occur in transition of the two or where there is a morraine • The butterfly flower and asters are commonly found here

47. Vegetation • Wet • The ground is saturated with water where the roots can meet them • Wood Lilly grows here along with the blue flag iris and cat-tails

49. Northfield • A 100 years ago the town was know for milling mostly at Arnes Mill • The local economy is agriculture • Home of …. • Malt-O-Meal • St Olaf college • Carleton college

50. Northfield • St. Olaf college (patron saint of Norway) • It’s known for it’s music programs • O. E. Rolvaag • Patron of saint at St. Olaf • Wrote Giants in the Earth • It’s remarkable novel about life on the prairies • Howard V. Hong and Edna H Kierkegaard library • The library has some of the best philosophy resources around