Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves more than 200 prehistoric mounds built by pre-Columbian Mound Builder cultures, mostly in the first millennium CE, during the later part of the Woodland period of pre-Columbian North America. Numerous effigy mounds are shaped like animals, including bears and birds.
Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as their creating process, shape, elevation, slope, orientation, rock exposure, and soil type.
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically have a concave upwards form, where the maximum inclination corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris particle size. The exact definition of scree in the primary literature is somewhat relaxed, and it often overlaps with both talus and colluvium.
The Maquoketa River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 150 miles (240 km) long, in northeastern Iowa in the United States. Its watershed covers 1,694 square miles (4,387 km2) within a rural region of rolling hills and farmland southwest of Dubuque. It is not to be confused with the Little Maquoketa River, another distinct direct tributary of the Upper Mississippi River meeting the Big River north of Dubuque. The river and its tributaries mark the border of the Driftless Area of Iowa, with the areas east of it not having been covered by ice during the last ice age. Its name derives from Maquaw-Autaw, which means "Bear River" in Meskwaki.
The Driftless Area, also known as Bluff Country, the Blufflands, the Paleozoic Plateau, and the Coulee Region, is a topographical and cultural region in the Midwestern United States that comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. The Driftless Area is a USDA Level III Ecoregion: Ecoregion 52. The Driftless Area takes up a large portion of the Upper Midwest forest–savanna transition.
The Western Upland is a geographical region covering much of the western half of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It stretches from southern Polk County, Wisconsin in the north to the state border with Illinois in the south, and from Rock County in the east to the Mississippi River in the west.
Aconitum noveboracense, also known as northern blue monkshood or northern wild monkshood, is a flowering plant belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Members of its genus (Aconitum) are also known as wolfsbane.
Discus macclintocki is a species of land snail in the family Discidae known commonly as the Iowa Pleistocene snail and Pleistocene disc. It occurs in Iowa and Illinois in the United States. It is a federally listed endangered species.
The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is a 240,000-acre (970 km2), 261-mile long (420 km) National Wildlife Refuge located in and along the Upper Mississippi River. It runs from Wabasha, Minnesota in the north to Rock Island, Illinois in the south.
The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, at the confluence of its main tributary, the Missouri River.
The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail is a 114-mile-long (183 km) hiking trail that traverses the Metacomet Ridge of the Pioneer Valley region of Massachusetts and the central uplands of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Although less than 70 miles (110 km) from Boston and other large population centers, the trail is considered remarkably rural and scenic and includes many areas of unique ecologic, historic, and geologic interest. Notable features include waterfalls, dramatic cliff faces, exposed mountain summits, woodlands, swamps, lakes, river floodplain, farmland, significant historic sites, and the summits of Mount Monadnock, Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Much of the trail is a portion of the New England National Scenic Trail.
Wildcat Mountain State Park is a state park of Wisconsin, United States, on the Kickapoo River in the Driftless Area. Sandstone bluffs topped with limestone, two of which are Wildcat Mountain and Mount Pisgah, provide views over the narrow valley of the river and its tributaries. The Kickapoo Valley Reserve is immediately adjacent and forms a continuous protected area. Wildcat Mountain State Park is open for year-round recreation including hiking, canoeing, fishing, and cross-country skiing. The 3,643-acre (1,474 ha) park is located in Vernon County near the town of Ontario, Wisconsin.
Ice Mountain is a mountain ridge and algific talus slope that is part of a 149-acre (60 ha) preserve near the community of North River Mills in Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 2012.
Bixby State Preserve is a nature reserve located in southwestern Clayton County, Iowa, in the midwestern United States. It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Edgewood. It is operated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as one of the Iowa state preserves.
Fish Farm Mounds State Preserve is a 3-acre (12,000 m2) archaeological mound group containing Native American burials in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is located within the larger Fish Farms Mounds Wildlife area, a state owned hunting area a few miles south of New Albin, just inland from the Upper Mississippi River in Allamakee County.
Roberts Creek State Preserve is located in rural Clayton County, Iowa, in Wagner Township, near St. Olaf, Iowa, and a few miles north of Elkader, Iowa. Roberts Creek is a tributary of the Turkey River.
The White Pine Hollow State Forest is a 944-acre (382 ha) forested area in Dubuque County, Iowa. Of the forest, a 712-acre (288 ha) tract is a National Natural Landmark and Iowa State Preserve. The state forest is named after its dominant old-growth tree, the white pine. The grove is said to be the only old-growth patch of white pines still growing in Iowa. The nearest town of any size is Luxemburg.
Chrysosplenium iowense is a species of flowering plant in the saxifrage family known by the common name Iowa golden-saxifrage. It is native to North America, where it is "primarily a Canadian species", occurring from the northern Northwest Territories south to British Columbia and east to Manitoba. There are also disjunct, relictual occurrences within the United States, in the Driftless Area of Minnesota and Iowa.
