Walk Where Prehistoric Creatures Roamed On This Hiking Trail In Minnesota
By Trent Jonas|Published May 23, 2023
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Trent Jonas
Author
Trent Jonas came to Minnesota to attend college - and never left. He's a Twin Cities-based writer with a BA in English and a MFA in creative writing, a Minnesota Master Naturalist, and the proud father of two adult children. With more than a decade of freelance writing experience under his belt, Trent is often out exploring his favorite topics: Minnesota's woods, lakes, and trails. Rhubarb pie is his weakness, so discovering new diners is also a passion.
Thanks to glaciers and an ancient ocean that covered much of the state, there is almost no fossil record of dinosaurs – save for a few specimens that may have been pushed in by glaciers – in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But the Driftless Area, in the southeast corner, avoided glaciation during the last Ice Age, which permitted certain kinds of prehistoric creatures in Minnesota to roam that part of the state. And you can walk in their footsteps!
In the mid-1980s, a group of cavers was intrigued by the spot where a large spring emerged from a limestone bluff on private property near the North Branch of the Root River.
Located in Minnesota's Driftless Area, what is now known as Tyson Spring Cave is owned by the Minnesota Cave Preserve.
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In 2008, a group of cavers, including the Preserve's founder, discovered the fossilized antler of an Ice Age stag moose (Cervalces scotti) in the cave.
A few months later, the same group found several bones, including a partial cranium, belonging to a scimitar-toothed cat (Homotherium serum) in the cave.
It's speculated that these large creatures entered the cave through one of the area's many sinkholes, whether by falling in (in the case of the moose) or denning in the sinkhole (as the cat may have done). More than a hundred other bones, some still being identified, have been found in the cave.
Cherry Grove Blind Creek Valley Scientific and Natural Area is an excellent place to start learning about the fascinating karst geology of the Driftless Area.
The 40-acre SNA, located near the South Branch of the Root River, is about 15 miles south of Tyson Spring Cave and is home to several sinkholes.
This cave, known as Goliath Cave, is not open to the public.
But you can still find out what happens to the water that flows into the ground at Cherry Grove Blind Valley. You'll just need to drive a few minutes to the northeast.
Scientists have discovered that the water emerging as Big Spring here is the same water that disappears as Jessie's Kill into Goliath Cave and Cherry Grove Blind Valley several miles to the southwest.
This is another example of the same karst geology that created Tyson Spring Cave and which attracted large mammals to the area during the last ice age, when the Driftless Area avoided glaciation.
If you want to get underground yourself, book a tour of the park’s Mystery Cave – at 13 miles, the longest known cave in Minnesota – and explore the same type of underground waterway that flows through Tyson Spring and Goliath caves. Niagara Cave, in nearby Harmony, is a privately-owned cave with an underground waterfall that is open to the public for tours.
Did you know that these prehistoric creatures, as well as Ice Age bison, mammoths, and mastodons roamed what is now the Driftless Area in Minnesota? Let us know in the comments.
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