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Lind-Bohanon, Minneapolis, MN 55412

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Country: Hennepin County
Where Found:

Located off I-94 at the 53rd Avenue exit in North Mississippi Regional Park

Marker Number:32
Marker Composition:

Text on Marker:

THE MISSISSIPPI FINDS A WAY

About 20,000 years ago, a glacier from the Ontario region passed through the Lake Superior basin and reached the Twin Cities area. As the glacial ice melted, it deposited the St. Croix moraine at its margin. A moraine is a deposit of sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders) left by a melting glacier. The St. Croix moraine forms a belt of hills that crosses the Twin Cities and extends northwest to St. Cloud. As the moraine was deposited, it buried some blocks of stagnant glacial ice that were left stranded in an ancient valley.

This park lies within the southernmost part of the Anoka sand plain, a vast area of sand stretching from St. Cloud to the St. Croix River valley. Much of the sand was deposited about 12,000 years ago in Glacial Lake Anoka. Fed by meltwater from glacial ice in northwestern Minnesota, the lake formed on the northern side of the St. Croix moraine. The hidden ice blocks buried earlier in the moraine eventually melted to create a gap through which Glacial Lake Anoka drained, abandoning its former outlet to the east through the St. Croix River valley. The gap, called the Camden breach, formed just downstream from here, in the area south of the Soo Line railroad bridge. The Camden breach established the general course of the Mississippi River between here and the site of Hastings.

After Glacial Lake Anoka drained, the Mississippi River upstream of the Camden breach meandered across the flat surface of the former lake bottom, from the Osseo area in the west to the Fridley area in the east. The shifting river formed two distinct terrace levels before becoming entrenched in its present narrow floodplain. Shingle Creek, to the west, generally follows the boundary of the two former river levels, at the base of the upper terrace. Across the Mississippi from this park, the river has exposed clay-rich sediment from a by the melting ice was probably filled in as it formed, first by sediment deposited in Glacial Lake Anoka, and then after the lake drained, by sediment from the Mississippi River. The Mississippi meandered widely, as far west as the Osseo area, across the flat surface of the former bottom of Glacial Lake Anoka. The shifting river formed two distinct terrace levels before becoming entrenched in its present narrow floodplain. Palmer Lake lies within the lower terrace. The upper terrace forms the slightly higher ground on the west side of the lake. Erected by the Geological Society of Minnesota in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Minnesota Geological Survey, and the City of Brooklyn Center. 2003

Region: Metro Region

Date Updated: 20160727

Information Needed:

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Condition of Marker:
Do it Yourself Region: Metro Area
Verification: Not installed yet