Buffalo Ridge is a large expanse of rolling hills in the southeastern part of the larger
Coteau des Prairies. It stands 1,995 feet (608 m) above sea level. The Buffalo Ridge is long and runs through
Lincoln,
Pipestone,
Murray,
Nobles
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
, and
Rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
counties in the southwest corner of Minnesota, and
Minnehaha,
Moody, and
Lincoln counties in southeast South Dakota.
Because of its altitude and high average wind speed, Buffalo Ridge has been transformed into a place for creating
renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
. As of May 2022, over 1,000
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s stand in the Buffalo Ridge area. The oldest of which is build in 1984 and consists of 16 Kenetech kvs 33 turbines.
Geology
Buffalo Ridge is on a
drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...
separating the
watersheds of the
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
and
Missouri River
The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...
s.
Buffalo Ridge is part of the inner
coteau and is the highest point of the
Coteau des Prairies in Minnesota.
[DNR, ''Minnesota DNR'', http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecs/251Bc/index.html.] Its
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...
is formed of
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...
shale, sandstone and clay that lie above the pinkish-red Upper
Precambrian
The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...
Sioux Quartzite.
[Anderson RR (1987) Precambrian Sioux Quartzite at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve, Iowa. Centennial Field Guide Volume 3: North-Central Section of the Geological Society of America: Vol. 3, No. 0 pp. 77–80. http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=res-loc&uri=urn%3Aap%3Apdf%3Adoi%3A10.1130%2F0-8137-5403-8.77] These units are covered in most areas by thick deposits of glacial drift, which consist of up to 800 feet (244 m) of pre-
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
age
glacial till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
(generally considered
Kansas drift) left after the glaciers receded. The inner coteau is made up of extremely stream-eroded glacial deposits of pre-Wisconsin glacial drift, which is then covered by a 6 to 15 foot (1.8 to 4.6 m) thick deposit of a wind-blown silt called
loess
A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits.
A loess ...
.
This covering results in the creation of an area with long, gently sloping hills. Loess is an easily eroded material, and because of this there are few lakes and wetlands in the inner coteau area. Loess promotes well-established
dendritic drainage networks, the majority of which flow into the
Missouri River
The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...
and
Minnesota River
The Minnesota River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa.
It rises in southwestern ...
systems.
Loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...
y, well-drained soils like
Mollisols-Aquolls and
Udolls containing
Borolls and
Ustolls dominate the soils of the inner coteau.
On the areas of eroded glacial deposits, dry prairie and moist prairie soils like Cummins and Grigal are present. These soil types, along with the temperate climate, combine to make perfect growing conditions for
tallgrass prairie
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...
, which once covered almost the entire inner coteau.
Climate
Buffalo Ridge has a midlatitude continental climate with an average 24 to 27 inches (61 to 69 cm) of precipitation per year and 36 to 40 inches (91 to 101 cm) of snowfall per winter. The average spring thaw is around April 5 and the spring green-up generally occurs between May 1 and May 10. Peak fall colors usually occur around October 20 and there are generally 40 to 50 thunderstorm days per year.
Chandler–Lake Wilson, Minnesota F5 tornado of 1992
On June 16, intense storms struck
Eastern South Dakota and Southwestern Minnesota, destroying over one hundred homes and businesses. These
supercell
A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (su ...
s spawned several large and intense
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
es. An F0 tornado formed in
Charles Mix County, South Dakota and moved toward
Mitchell. An F2 tornado formed in
Miner County, South Dakota
Miner County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,298. Its county seat is Howard. The county was created in 1873 and organized in 1880.
History
The area is situated on the site of Dakota ...
, and an F3 tornado formed southwest of
Oldham
Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...
, both causing considerable property damage. The worst tornado formed near the unincorporated town of
Leota in Southwestern Minnesota, which quickly became a massive, wide storm that stayed on the ground for almost an hour and a half, doing substantial damage to the cities of
Chandler and
Lake Wilson. In Chandler, the property damage was estimated at over $15 million. This tornado was given the maximum rating of F5 on the
Fujita Scale
The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...
, making it the only F5 tornado documented in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1992. Another tornado formed in South Dakota later in the day, striking
Colton and
Dell Rapids before moving into Minnesota, where it struck the town of Chandler for the second time.
Geography
Before the settlers arrived and developed the towns on and surrounding Buffalo Ridge, the Dakota Native Americans inhabited the area. They, and other tribes before them, created intricate pipes out of the claystone called "Catlinite" in the Buffalo Ridge area, which are displayed at
Pipestone National Monument. Native Americans from around the country still quarry this stone for pipe-making today.
Most of the land on Buffalo Ridge is privately-owned farmland.
Hole in the Mountain Prairie
Hole in the Mountain Prairie is a nature reserve created by the Nature Conservancy to preserve the diminishing tallgrass prairie and the insects and animals native to tallgrass prairies. It is on the outer edge of Buffalo Ridge and is the headwaters of
Flandreau Creek. In the past the area had been used as a grazing area for cattle and sheep, the result being the near-extinction of the tallgrass prairie. Today the Nature Conservancy manages the Hole in the Mountain with
controlled burning which have led to a remarkable recovery of the native prairie vegetation.
[Nature Conservancy]
''Hole-in-the-Mountain Prairie''
Wind farms
A number of
wind farms are sited on the ridge. Among them are Nobles Wind Farm,
Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm, and Fenton Wind Farm.
See also
*
List of large wind farms
*
Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. In 2024, 453.5 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.54% of electricity in the United States. The average wi ...
References
Works cited
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External links
Western EcoSystems Technology website
{{Minnesota
Landforms of Lincoln County, Minnesota
Landforms of Murray County, Minnesota
Landforms of Nobles County, Minnesota
Landforms of Pipestone County, Minnesota
Hills of the United States