Sakatah Lake State Park

	Sakatah Lake State Park
	Minnesota State Park
	Sakatah Lake State Park as seen from the east shore of Sakatah Lake
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
Counties	Le Sueur, Rice
Location	Waterville
- elevation	1,076 ft (328 m) [1]
- coordinates	44°13′15″N93°32′8″W / 44.22083°N 93.53556°W Coordinates: 44°13′15″N93°32′8″W / 44.22083°N 93.53556°W
Area	842 acres (341 ha)
Founded	1963
Management	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
	Location of Sakatah Lake State Park in Minnesota Sakatah Lake State Park (the US)

Last updated February 20, 2019

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.

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U.S. state, some of the Mexican states, and in Brazil. The term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies.

Minnesota is a state in the Upper Midwest and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. The state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Its official motto is L'Étoile du Nord.

Cannon River (Minnesota) river in Minnesota, United States of America

The Cannon River a tributary of the Mississippi River flows 112 miles (180 km) from Lake Tetonka near Waterville to Red Wing in the U.S. state of Minnesota, where it joins the Mississippi River. It drains a watershed approximately 1460 square miles (3,780 km²) in size. The river flows through the counties of Le Sueur, Rice, Dakota, and Goodhue.

Natural history

The park sits on a thick moraine deposited during the Wisconsin glaciation, resulting in a rolling and uneven topography. Blocks of ice left behind as the glaciers melted formed the basin in which Sakatah Lake now lies.

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth, through geomorphological processes. Moraines are formed from debris previously carried along by a glacier and normally consisting of somewhat rounded particles ranging in size from large boulders to minute glacial flour. Lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines, till-covered areas with irregular topography, and medial moraines which are formed where two glaciers meet.

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.

The park preserves a mixed transitional habitat where the Big Woods (maple, basswood, elm) of central Minnesota blend into the oak barrens of the southern part of the state. During drier eras patches of prairie arose, although they are now succeeding back to hardwood forests. The landscape is further diversified by wetlands and agricultural fields.

Big Woods refers to a type of temperate hardwood forest ecoregion found in western Wisconsin and south-central Minnesota. "Big Woods" is a direct translation of the name given to the region by French explorers: Grand Bois.

Acer is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maple. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae. There are approximately 128 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, Acer laurinum, extends to the Southern Hemisphere. The type species of the genus is the sycamore maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, the most common maple species in Europe. The maples have easily recognizable palmate leaves and distinctive winged fruits. The closest relatives of the maples are the horse chestnuts.

Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The genus first appeared in the Miocene geological period about 20 million years ago, originating in what is now central Asia. These trees flourished and spread over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, presently ranging southward across the Equator into Indonesia.

Wildlife

This park is home to deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoon, minks, and coyotes. These mammals are commonly seen by visitors. Bird watchers get an opportunity to view songbirds, woodpeckers, various hawks, and various owls in this park.

Deer are the hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the fallow deer, and the chital; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer (caribou), the roe deer, and the moose. Female reindeer, and male deer of all species except the Chinese water deer, grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned antelope, which are part of a different family (Bovidae) within the same order of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla).

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha. Oryctolagus cuniculus includes the European rabbit species and its descendants, the world's 305 breeds of domestic rabbit. Sylvilagus includes 13 wild rabbit species, among them the 7 types of cottontail. The European rabbit, which has been introduced on every continent except Antarctica, is familiar throughout the world as a wild prey animal and as a domesticated form of livestock and pet. With its widespread effect on ecologies and cultures, the rabbit is, in many areas of the world, a part of daily life—as food, clothing, a companion, and as a source of artistic inspiration.

Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, flying squirrels, and prairie dogs amongst other rodents. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. The earliest known squirrels date from the Eocene period and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormouse among other living rodent families.

Cultural history

The Wahpekute band of Dakota Sioux traditionally inhabited this area, using the Cannon River as an important transportation route. Some of their burial mounds remain in the park. European settlement came in the late 1800s, and a rail line was laid between Faribault and Waterville in 1882, and extended to Mankato by 1886. By chance the forest on the south shore of Sakatah Lake was never logged, and a 1962 inquiry into making it a state park received much local support. The site was included in a bill that passed the next year which authorized fourteen state parks. Development occurred over the next few years and Sakatah Lake State Park officially opened to the public in 1967. Although there was a rail line running through the park, it was only occasionally used, and in 1976 the owners abandoned it entirely and willingly sold it to the state, which converted it into the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail.

Sioux Native American and First Nations people in North America

The Sioux, also known as Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and Lakota.

Faribault is a city in Rice County, Minnesota, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately 50 miles (80 km) south of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Waterville is a city in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,868 at the 2010 census. It is close to Sakatah Lake State Park on the Cannon River.

Recreation

Boating: The park has a public boat ramp and four rental canoes.
Camping:
- Shaded campground with 62 sites and one camper cabin.
- Two primitive group camps accessible by road at the east end of the park.
- Camping area for travelers on the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail.
Fishing: There is a fishing pier near the picnic area.
Trails: There is a total of 39 miles (63 km) of trails in the park, most of them well-shaded.
- Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail (hiking/biking/roller-blading/snowmobiling)
- Oak Tree/Utahu Can Trail - Hidden Pond Trail - Sumac Trail (hiking/skiing): These three trails form a loop around the center of the park.
- Big Woods/Tanka Canwitc Loop (hiking/skiing): A 1km loop accessible from either of the trail systems listed above.
- Wahpekute Trail (hiking): The least developed trail in the park runs right along the lakeshore.
- Timber Doodle Trail (hiking/skiing): A level loop through the more exposed scrub area in the eastern part of the park.
There is no designated swimming area in the park. The shore is quite muddy.

Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail is a 41-mile-long (66 km) paved multi-use rail trail connecting Faribault and Mankato, Minnesota, US.

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References

↑ "Sakatah State Park". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey. 1980-01-11. Retrieved 2011-02-25.

Arthur, Anne. Minnesota's State Parks. Adventure Publications, Inc.: Cambridge, MN, 1998.
Meyer, Roy W. Everyone's Country Estate: A History of Minnesota's State Parks. Minnesota Historical Society Press: St. Paul, 1991.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2006. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Web Site (online).

External links

Sakatah Lake State Park

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[1] "Sakatah State Park". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey. 1980-01-11. Retrieved 2011-02-25.