Mapping Post-Glacial Terraces in the Lower Cannon River Valley, southeastern Minnesota : Geomorphic and Archaeological Significance

Abstract

The Cannon River, a tributary of the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) located in southeastern Minnesota, enters the UMR near Red Wing, Minnesota. The Lower Cannon River (LCR) is that portion of the stream downstream from the Lake Byllesby Dam near Northfield, Minnesota. The Red Wing Area (RWA) includes the confluences of UMR tributaries like the LCR and the Lower Chippewa River, and Lake Pepin. The RWA was an important center in the region-wide—and perhaps even continent-wide—trade of ideas and goods, and movement of peoples. Terraces and alluvial fan deposits along the UMR bluffs and within the UMR valley contain cultural materials that indicate the RWA has been an important center for human habitation since at least the Late Woodland cultural period, which began around 1200 BP. However, the LCR is a spatial and temporal gap in the cultural record of the RWA and it is suspected to be an important corridor of trade connecting the RWA to the northern Great Plains and Canadian prairies. Therefore, the purpose of this poster is to present the results of our efforts (to date) to provide our archaeological colleagues with the geomorphic framework about the ages, chronostratigraphic relationships, distribution, and archaeological potential of fluvial deposits and landforms (terrace remnants) within the LCR that they need to plan their future research.