This past weekend was the annual fall conference for the Minnesota Naturalists' Association. This year the it was held near Pipestone, MN which is in the far southwest corner of the state. For the most part this section of the state is incredibly flat and void of water. It used to be a prairie pot hole region... now it's miles upon miles of agriculture and any water is tiled out of the fields. This area also has a ton of wind generators. (The bison in the second picture is not real, but they are native to this region.)
At Pipestone National Monument the landscape changes drastically. For instance we found running water! The second is that is the only place in the United States that Pipestone, or Catlinite, is found. The pipes that are used in sacred Native American ceremonies are made from Pipestone.
It was a really neat place, it was so shocking to drive for hundreds of flat miles to suddenly stumble upon this ripple in the lanscape. Very cool.
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