| Little Menominee River | |
|---|---|
Little Menominee River (USGS) | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Grant County, northwest of Hazel Green, Wisconsin 943 ft (287 m) 42°33′42″N90°32′10″W / 42.5616667°N 90.5361111°W |
| River mouth | Confluence with the Mississippi west of Galena, Illinois 591 ft (180 m) 42°25′31″N90°32′04″W / 42.4252778°N 90.5344444°W Coordinates: 42°25′31″N90°32′04″W / 42.4252778°N 90.5344444°W |
| Length | 14 mi (23 km) |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Little Menominee River → Mississippi → Gulf of Mexico |
| GNIS ID | 412371 |
The Little Menominee River is a 13.9-mile-long (22.4 km) [1] tributary of the Upper Mississippi River, which it joins in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. [2]
The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of Cairo, Illinois, United States. From the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, the river flows approximately 2000 kilometers (1250 mi) to Cairo, where it is joined by the Ohio River to form the Lower Mississippi River.
Jo Daviess County is a county located in the northwest corner of U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 22,678. Its county seat is Galena.
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The Little Menominee rises in Grant County, Wisconsin. It flows south, to the east of the Menominee River, into Illinois. It crosses the northwestern corner of Illinois for about six miles before joining the Mississippi at the southern end of East Dubuque. The town of Menominee, Illinois is located on the river.
Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 51,208. Its county seat is Lancaster.
The Menominee River is an 11.3-mile-long (18.2 km) tributary of the Mississippi River, which it joins in Jo Daviess County, Illinois.
East Dubuque is a city in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,704 at the 2010 census, down from 1,995 in 2000. East Dubuque is located alongside the Mississippi River. Across the river is the city of Dubuque, Iowa. About three miles north of the city is the Illinois – Wisconsin border.
The name "Menominee" refers to the Menominee, a Native American people. The name means "good seed" or "wild rice".
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term "American Indian" excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaska Natives, while Native Americans are American Indians, plus Alaska Natives of all ethnicities. Native Hawaiians are not counted as Native Americans by the US Census, instead being included in the Census grouping of "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander".
The river is part of the Driftless Area of Illinois and Wisconsin. This region escaped the glaciation experienced by areas to the east and west during the last ice age.
The Driftless Area is a region in southeastern Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois, of the American Midwest. The region escaped glaciation during the last ice age and, consequently, is characterized by steep, forested ridges, deeply-carved river valleys, and karst geology characterized by spring-fed waterfalls and cold-water trout streams. Ecologically, the flora and fauna of the Driftless Area are more closely related to those of the Great Lakes region and New England rather than those of the broader Midwest and central Plains regions. Colloquially, the term includes the incised Paleozoic Plateau of southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa. The region includes elevations ranging from 603 to 1,719 feet at Blue Mound State Park and covers an area of 24,000 square miles (62,200 km2). The rugged terrain is due both to the lack of glacial deposits, or drift, and to the incision of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries into bedrock.
The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsinan glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cordillera; the Innuitian ice sheet, which extended across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; the Greenland ice sheet; and the massive Laurentide ice sheet, which covered the high latitudes of central and eastern North America. This advance was synchronous with global glaciation during the last glacial period, including the North American alpine glacier advance, known as the Pinedale glaciation. The Wisconsin glaciation extended from approximately 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, between the Sangamon interglacial and the current interglacial, the Holocene. The maximum ice extent occurred approximately 25,000–21,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum, also known as the Late Wisconsin in North America.
