Pointy Lake Madison EarthCache
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In order to count this Earthcache as a find, you must complete the following task and email the answers to me.
1. Describe the area around Lake Madison.
2. Estimate the size of the lake.
This Earthcache is located in Johnson Park Recreation Area along the shores of Lake Madison. This park offers camping areas, a boat launch, and great sites for fishing from the shore. Enjoy!
Did you know a glacier once sat in the area that is now Lake Madison?
When the last series of glaciers moved across North America about twenty thousand years ago, the region that is now consider northeastern South Dakota lay under the massive ice sheet. These glaciers get credit for sculpting the landscape we recognize today: the hills, the sloughs, the valleys, the streams, the lakes.
Lake Madison was born roughly 12,000 years ago when the last of the glaciers in the area began to melt. As the temperature of the earth grew warmer, smaller ice chunks began to break off of the large ice sheet. These smaller ice blocks were confined to one area due to the debris build up created when the glacier moved across the land. Because these ice cubes were unable to move, their only choice was to sit and melt. The sheer weight of the block of ice created a bowl shaped depression in the land very similar to the shape of the glacier itself. This depression collected the meltwater from the ice and created the lake you now see before you.
NOT A LOGGING REQUIREMENT: Feel free to post pictures of your group at the area or the area itself - I love looking at the pictures.
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