How The Environment Has Shaped the State

From Sustenance to Leisure on Minnesota Land

Expert Essay: Associate professor of history Michael J. Lansing, published in Environmental History as well as Ethics, Place, and Environment, highlights the many ways people have made use of Minnesota's flora and fauna over time and reviews the state's more recent efforts at conservation.

Draining of Glacial Lake Agassiz

About 13,000 years ago the melting glaciers that covered Minnesota and Canada created a vast lake, bigger than all the Great Lakes of today combined. Geologists later named this Lake Agassiz (AH-ga-see), for the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz. The lake drained twice: first to the south, to form the channel of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi in the Twin Cities, and then, 1,600 years later, to form the course of the Red River of the North.

Owamniyomni (St. Anthony Falls)

Owamniyomni (St. Anthony Falls)

Oil-on-canvas painting of Owamniyomni (St. Anthony Falls) intended to represent the site as it would have appeared in 1786, with Dakota people in the foreground. Painted in 1886 by Alexis Jean Fournier.

Map of Glacial Lake Agassiz 9,3000 years ago

Map of Glacial Lake Agassiz 9,3000 years ago

Map of the location of Glacial Lake Agassiz 9,3000 years ago. From David Mather’s “Grand Mound and the Muskrat: A Model of Ancient Cosmology on the Rainy River,” Minnesota History 64, no. 5 (Spring 2015), 201.

Glacial Lake Agassiz and River Warren in 11,000 BCE

Glacial Lake Agassiz and River Warren in 11,000 BCE

The locations of Glacial Lake Agassiz and River Warren in 11,000 BCE. From Guy Gibbon’s Archaeology of Minnesota: The Prehistory of the Upper Mississippi River Region (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), 41.

Limestone over a sandstone base in Minnehaha Park

Limestone over a sandstone base in Minnehaha Park

Thin layers of Platteville limestone on top of a St. Peter sandstone base inside Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis. Photo by William Wesen, September 26, 2006. Public domain.

Relief map of lakes and watercourses in Minnesota

Relief map of lakes and watercourses in Minnesota

Relief map created with the USGS National Atlas mapmaking tool by Wikimedia Commons user Appraiser, 2012. The map shows watercourses and lakes, cities, and lines of latitude and longitude inside Minnesota. Public domain.

Site where Glacial Lake Agassiz flowed into River Warren

Site where Glacial Lake Agassiz flowed into River Warren

Aerial photograph showing flooding in the Traverse Gap, the former southern outlet of Glacial Lake Agassiz and the source of River Warren. Ice-covered Lake Traverse (Mde Hdakiŋyaŋ), a natural border between Minnesota (left) and South Dakota (right) is at bottom center; Big Stone Lake (Mde Iŋyaŋ Taŋka) is at top center. Photo by JOR Engineering, Inc., March 14, 2007. CC BY-SA 3.0

Frontenac State Park

Frontenac State Park stretches over 2,600 acres along the widening of the Mississippi River known as Lake Pepin. The park is located in Goodhue County on the Mississippi Flyway, one of four major migratory bird routes in North America. With more than 260 bird species recorded within its boundaries, the park is a prime destination for Minnesota birders.

Spotted sandpiper on Lake Pepin

Spotted sandpiper on Lake Pepin

A spotted sandpiper in non-breeding plumage on Lake Pepin. Photograph by Janet Malotky, 2024. Used with permission.

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