The Leaf Hills Moraines, sometimes called the Leaf Mountains, are a range of hills in west-central

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The land does not exhibit many characteristics of mountains, and rises typically to a height of above the surrounding farmland, occasionally reaching higher than . The name of this range of hills is translated from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

''Gaaskibag-wajiwan'', which was interpreted by Gilfillan as “Rustling Leaf Mountains.” The name is also shared by Leaf Mountain Township, the two Leaf Lakes ("''Gaaskibag-wajiwi-zaaga'iganan''"), and the Leaf River ("''Gaaskibag-wajiwi-ziibi''"), all named for the hills. In turn, the hills in Ojibwe are named after Inspiration Peak ("''Gaaskibag-wajiw''"), a prominent hill in this area.

Description

The hills are described by Upham as "running southeast from Fergus Falls to the south line of the county and thence east and northeast to East Leaf Lake, a distance of 50 miles." Through their full extent in Otter Tail County, the hills have steeply sloped sides covered by

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests, primarily

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

Geology

The hills are formed by the convergence of the eighth and ninth marginal moraines formed by the Wadena and Des Moines lobes of the Wisconsonian glaciation. This moraine forms an arc about ten to twenty miles (16 -32 km) wide and long. It is composed of a huge volume of morainic drift up to thick, overlain with thin sandy soil as well as rocks and boulders.

Landforms

The hills' outline is irregular, and in many places the range is broken by rivers, streams, and lakes. Among the high points of the range that have received names are Indian Hill and Inspiration Peak. Higher terrain is located about five miles northeast of Inspiration Peak. Pekan Peak (unofficial name) in Section 32,

Folden Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota Folden Township is a township in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. The population was 265 at the time of the 2000 census. History Folden Township was organized in 1881, and named after the old Folden Municipality in Norway. Geography According to ...

, discovered by John Sandy in February 2022, at coordinates 46°11′54.744″ N 95°30′4.248″ W (DMS), Latitude 46.19854 Longitude -95.50118 (DD), has an elevation of , measured by LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology.

History

Paleoindians Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

lived in the area at least 6,000 years ago, and perhaps longer, as earlier remains have been found in the general vicinity. Artifacts from both the ''Prairie'' and

Woodland culture In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archa ...

s have been found; most items date from a period starting 900 to 1200 years ago. In more recent times, the region was held by the

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota ...

until they were displaced by the

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

in the eighteenth century. Also in the eighteenth century, the area became a source of pelts for the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

. In the 1840s, the mountains were pierced by the

Woods Trail The Red River Trails were a network of Red River ox cart, ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in Canada under British Imperial control (1764-1867), British North America with the head of naviga ...

and skirted by the East Plains Trail, two of the

Red River Trails The Red River Trails were a network of Red River ox cart, ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in Canada under British Imperial control (1764-1867), British North America with the head of naviga ...

between

Fort Garry Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in or near the area now known as The Forks in what is now central Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fort Garr ...

(modern

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

) and

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

. These trails opened up the area to settlement in the last half of the nineteenth century. Due to their steepness and the abundance of

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

and boulders, the hills were found by pioneers to be generally unsuitable for plowing but well suited for raising and grazing

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

. Part of the region has been preserved in

Maplewood State Park Maplewood State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, near Pelican Rapids. The park preserves a pre-contact habitation site that was occupied in two different periods (650–900 CE and 1450–1650 CE) in a forest/prairie transition ...

and another part is preserved in Inspiration Peak State Wayside Park.

References

{{coord, 46, 9, N, 95, 35, W, display=title Hills of Minnesota Moraines of the United States Landforms of Otter Tail County, Minnesota

Description

Geology

Landforms

History

See also

References