Currie is a city in Murray County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 233 at the 2010 census. Lake Shetek State Park is nearby. The city is known as the "Gateway to Lake Shetek". Currie is notable for its tourism, cuisine, and recreational opportunities. It is home to Lakeside Hideaway and the End-O-Line Railroad Park & Museum in addition to being the headquarters of Schmitz Grain. Along with the census-designated area The Lakes, Minnesota, the Currie area has a population of close to 1,000 residents.
Flathead Lake is a large natural lake in northwest Montana, and is the largest natural freshwater lake by surface area that is west of the source of the Missouri River in the contiguous United States.
Savanna Portage State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, established in 1961 to preserve the historic Savanna Portage, a difficult 6-mile (9.7 km) trail connecting the watersheds of the Mississippi River and Lake Superior. The portage trail crosses a drainage divide separating the West Savanna River, which drains to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, from the East Savanna River, which flows in an opposite direction to the Saint Louis River, Lake Superior and the Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.
Moraine State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 16,725 acres (6,768 ha) in Brady, Clay, Franklin, Muddy Creek, and Worth townships in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Grand Portage State Park is a state park at the northeastern tip of Minnesota, USA, on the Canada–United States border. It contains a 120-foot (37 m) waterfall, the tallest in the state, on the Pigeon River. The High Falls and other waterfalls and rapids upstream necessitated a historically important portage on a fur trade route between the Great Lakes and inland Canada. This 8.5-mile (13.7 km) path plus the site of forts on either end are preserved in nearby Grand Portage National Monument. The state park, held by the surrounding Grand Portage Indian Reservation and leased to the state of Minnesota for $1 a year, is the only U.S. state park jointly managed by a state and a Native American band. It is also the only Minnesota state park not owned by the state.
Myre-Big Island State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, just outside the city of Albert Lea. It has an area of 1,578 acres (6.39 km2). The park protects 8 miles (13 km) of shoreline on Albert Lea Lake. The nucleus of the park is Big Island, a 117-acre (0.47 km2) island attached to the mainland by a causeway. In turn a causeway connects Big Island to Little Island. The park was formerly named Helmer Myre State Park after former Minnesota State Senator Helmer Myre.
Rice Lake State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, just east of Owatonna. Park lands entirely surround Rice Lake, an important stopping point for migrating waterfowl. The lake covers 750 acres (300 ha) with an average depth of 3 feet (1 m).
Jay Cooke State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, protecting the lower reaches of the Saint Louis River. The park is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Duluth and is one of the ten most visited state parks in Minnesota. The western half of the park contains part of a rocky, 13-mile (21 km) gorge. This was a major barrier to Native Americans and early Europeans traveling by canoe, which they bypassed with the challenging Grand Portage of the St. Louis River. The river was a vital link connecting the Mississippi waterways to the west with the Great Lakes to the east.
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area protects a 72-mile (116 km) and 54,000-acre (22,000 ha) corridor along the Mississippi River from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, Minnesota to just downstream of Hastings, Minnesota. This includes the stretch of Mississippi River which flows through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. This stretch of the upper Mississippi River includes natural, historical, recreational, cultural, scenic, scientific, and economic resources of national significance. This is the only national park dedicated exclusively to the Mississippi River. It is located in parts of Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington counties, all within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.
Flandrau State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, on the Cottonwood River adjacent to the city of New Ulm. Initially called Cottonwood River State Park, it was renamed in 1945 to honor Charles Eugene Flandrau, a leading citizen of early Minnesota who commanded defenses during the Battles of New Ulm in the Dakota War of 1862. The park was originally developed in the 1930s as a job creation project to provide a recreational reservoir. However the dam was repeatedly damaged by floods and was removed in 1995.
Sakatah Lake State Park is an 842-acre (341 ha) state park of Minnesota, USA, on a natural widening of the Cannon River near the town of Waterville. The Dakota native to the area called it "Sakatah" which means "singing hills". To honor this native heritage, some of the trails in the park have been given Dakota names. The Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail, which connects Faribault and Mankato, runs through this park.
Monson Lake State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, originally established as a memorial to 13 Swedish American pioneers who were killed there in the Dakota War of 1862. A district of 1930s New Deal structures is on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite being nearly doubled in size in 2009, the state park remains one of Minnesota's smallest. It is located off Minnesota State Highway 9 just west of Sunburg and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Willmar. This seasonally-staffed park is managed from nearby Sibley State Park.
Lake Shetek State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, on Lake Shetek, which is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota and the headwaters of the Des Moines River. It is most popular for water recreation and camping. However the park also contains historical resources related to the Dakota War of 1862, including an original log cabin and a monument to 15 white settlers killed there and at nearby Slaughter Slough on August 20, 1862.
Lake Maria State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, created to provide a wilderness area within an easy drive of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. The park's amenities are designed primarily for hikers, backpackers, and horseback riders and consequently use remains light compared to other state parks around the metro area. It preserves a remnant of Big Woods atop a hilly, glacially-formed landscape dotted with lakes and wetlands. The park was established in 1963 west of the city of Monticello.
The geology of Minnesota comprises the rock, minerals, and soils of the U.S. state of Minnesota, including their formation, development, distribution, and condition.
Last Mountain Lake, also known as Long Lake, is a prairie lake formed from glaciation 11,000 years ago. It is located in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, about 40 km (25 mi) northwest of the city of Regina. It flows into the Qu'Appelle River via Last Mountain Creek which flows past Craven. It is approximately 93 km long, and 3 km wide at its widest point.
The proglacial lakes of Minnesota were lakes created in what is now the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America in the waning years of the last glacial period. As the Laurentide Ice Sheet decayed at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, lakes were created in depressions or behind moraines left by the glaciers. Evidence for these lakes is provided by low relief topography and glaciolacustrine sedimentary deposits. Not all contemporaneous, these glacial lakes drained after the retreat of the lobes of the ice sheets that blocked their outlets, or whose meltwaters fed them. There were a number of large lakes, one of which, Glacial Lake Agassiz, was the largest body of freshwater known to have existed on the North American continent; there were also dozens of smaller and more transitory lakes filled from glacial meltwater, which shrank or dried as the ice sheet retreated north.
Slaughter Slough is a wetland in southwestern Minnesota, United States, so named for being the site of the Lake Shetek Massacre during the Dakota War of 1862. It is located in Murray County east of Lake Shetek. On August 20, 1862, about 40 Dakota people attacked the area's Euro-American settlers, killing 15 and taking a dozen women and children captive. 21 settlers escaped or survived the attack and made difficult journeys across the prairie to safety. A band of pacifist Lakota later ransomed the eight surviving captives, who were reunited with their families.
Inspiration Peak is the highest peak of the Leaf Hills Moraines and of Otter Tail County in the U.S. State of Minnesota. It is 22 miles (36 km) northwest of Alexandria. The peak rises about 400 feet (122 m) above the surrounding plains, to an elevation of about 1750 feet (533 m) above sea level. It is the central feature of Inspiration Peak State Wayside Park, a small park maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which manages it from nearby Lake Carlos State Park. The wayside has a paved parking lot and a picnic area. The hike to the top is a short but strenuous walk up a well-worn trail from the parking lot.
The North Shore Highlands are a physiographic and ecological region of the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America. They were formed by a variety of geologic processes, but are principally composed of rock created by magma and lava from a rift about 1.1 billion years ago, which rock formations are interspersed with and overlain by glacial deposits. Their ecology derives from these origins, with thin, rocky soils supporting flora and fauna typical of their northern, inland location.
