Minnesota

MINNESOTA, a north-central State of the United States of America. It is bounded north by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario, east by Lake Superior and Wisconsin, south by Iowa and west by South and North Dakota. It is the eleventh State in size in the Union, with a total area of 84,682 sq.m., of which 3,824 sq.m. are water surface. It is about 400 m. long (43° 3o' to 49° 24' N.) and averages 240 m. wide (89° 29' to 97° I s' W.). Its name, of Sioux Indian origin, was first applied to the river of that name, and means "cloudy," "turbid," or "invisible" water.

Physical Features.

An extensive water-parting in the north central part of the State, an elevation whose inclination is almost imperceptible, determines the course of three great continental river systems. From this central elevation the land slopes off in all directions. The highest point in the State, however, is in the Misquah hills north of Lake Superior, where the altitude reaches 2,23o ft.; another high point of 1,96o ft. occurs in the Coteau des Prairies in the south-west ; and the Mesabi range, in St. Louis county, rises to an elevation of 1,920 feet. The average elevation is 1,200 feet. Only in the valleys of the Red, Minnesota and Mississippi rivers and along the shore of Lake Superior does the altitude drop below Boo ft., the lowest being 602 feet. The south ern part of the State was originally open, rolling prairie inter spersed with groves of oak and other deciduous timber. A region known as the "Big Woods," composed of broad-leaved, hard-wood trees, extended up the Minnesota valley to the big bend. The northern part, aside from the Red river valley, was one dense coniferous forest, made up largely of white, Norway and jack pine, but containing also some birch, poplar, maple and oak. Outside of certain forest reserves much of the land has been cleared or the best timber cut, though about 15 million acres of Minnesota land —much of it in the rocky eastern area north of Lake Superior—is better suited to forest than to any other use. Of the three river systems mentioned above, the Mississippi—which has its source in Lake Itasca in the north-central part of the State—drains, with its tributaries, approximately the southern two-thirds of the State. Below its junction with the St. Croix, it forms the eastern boundary and is bordered by high bluffs, well-wooded for the most part, but crowned here and there by picturesque limestone cliffs. Its tributaries in this region, the Cannon, Zumbro and Root rivers, also flow through beautiful and fertile, though narrow valleys, considerably below the general level of the prairies. The principal

tributaries, however, are the St. Croix and Minnesota rivers. The former forms the Wisconsin boundary for some distance, and is navigable for about so m. from its mouth. The latter rises in Big Stone lake on the western boundary and flows, with a great angle to the south, almost entirely across the State, a course of about 450 miles. All these tributaries furnish considerable water power, as does the Mississippi itself at the Falls of St. Anthony, St. Cloud and Little Falls.

Glacial action not only determined the direction and character of these rivers, but made numerous swamps, and by scouring out rock basins, damming rivers and leaving morainal hollows became responsible for the countless lakes of Minnesota. Doubtless it has many more than any other State in the Union, the number being estimated at over 1 o,000. The lakes in the south, which occupy glacial moraines for the most part, are generally broad and shal low, while those in the north, formed by glacial basins scoured in solid rock, are generally deep, with ragged, rocky, pine-covered shores. The most interesting feature of the glacial epoch is the extinct Lake Agassiz, which the receding ice of the later glacial period left in the Red river valley of Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba. This lake drained southward into the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers until the ice-sheet that had prevented its natural drainage to the north had melted sufficiently to allow it to be drained off into Hudson bay through the Nelson river. The remarkably level character of the Red river district is due to horizontal deposits in the bottom of this lake, which have been little dissected by river erosion. The largest of the present lakes in this district, Red lake, has an area of 494 square miles. On the northern boundary are the Lake of the Woods (1,485 sq.m.) and Rainy lake (345 sq.m.), draining northward into Hudson bay. The "Park Region" centring in Otter Tail county, contains several thousand lakes. Lake Minnetonka, near Minneapolis, has many bays and islands. There are 22 State parks, 13 of which have areas of over zoo acres. These include Itasca State park (32,000ac.) about the sources of the Missis sippi; Interstate park in Chisago county, and the Minneopa State park, containing Minneopa falls, near Mankato.