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In order to count this Earthcache as a find, you must complete the following tasks and email the answers to me.
1. Estimate the width of the Mississippi River.
2. What feature can be seen in the river just to the north of this location? How did it get there?
3. What kind of sediment makes up the bottom of the river?
Hundreds of Native American tribes have depended on the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Although they knew the river by many different names, it was the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi, meaning Great River, that ultimately gave the river its present-day name. This Earthcache is located just off the bike path that travels through Sauk Rapids Municipal Park. This area, right along the Mississippi River, seems like it would be a good fishing spot. The nearby park offers playgrounds, picnic shelters, grills and fire pits, a boat launch, and ball courts. Enjoy!
The Mississippi River, like all rivers, is in a constant state of change. Various forms of the Mississippi River have flowed through this area for more than a million years. The Upper Mississippi River Valley, which flows through the majority of Minnesota, was primarily shaped during the most recent glacial stage of the Ice Age - The Wisconsin Period.
The Wisconsin glaciation period started about 75,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 years ago when the North American climate began to warm. It was a world hardly recognizable today. Minnesota was populated by a variety of very large animals called megafauna, which lived in the cold climate on the margins of the glacial ice. Many of the ancient fish species that had populated the Upper Mississippi River had moved south as the waters grew too cold, and then expanded back into the northern portion of the river as the glaciers retreated. Ancient fish that predate the glaciers and still live in the waters of the Mississippi River include long-nosed and short-nosed gar, sturgeon, and paddlefish.
The melting of those enormous ice sheets that, at their maximum, were 5000 to 10,000 feet thick and covered hundreds of thousands of square miles, released tremendous amounts of water, forming huge glacial lakes. The largest of the glacial lakes, Lake Agassiz, covered norwest Minnesota, parts of North Dakota, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. The southern discharge outlet to this lake was called Glacial River Warren, which eventually excavated the valley now occupied by the Minnesota River. The Mississippi River flows into this valley carved by the River Warren at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis.
The St. Croix River which drained Lake Duluth, a glacial lake the covered the western Lake Superior basin, joined the River Warren about thirty miles downstream from the present confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. In Wisconsin, another glacial lake drained first into what is now the Black River and later the Wisconsin River, both of which emptied into the River Warren. During the 3000 years that River Warren carried water from these and other smaller glacial lakes, the Mississippi River valley was carved bluff to bluff, and the resulting valley was approximately 250 feet deeper than it is today.
Glaciers also left their mark on the land by carving parts of the Mississippi River that cuts through this area. When the ice sheet began to recede, hundreds of feet of rich sediment were deposited, creating the flat and fertile landscape of the Mississippi Valley. During the melt, giant glacial rivers found drainage paths into the Mississippi watershed, creating the Minnesota, James, and Milk River valleys. With the disappearance of the ancient glacial lakes and Glacial River warren, the tremendous flow of water was diminished and the Mississippi River became the most important stream in the area.
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.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)