Edge of the Wilderness
Laurentian Divide Overlook on MN 38, MN

Glaciers - mammoth, moving, prehistoric sheets of ice one mile thick - crossed through what is now Minnesota at least four times. A huge sheet of ice known as the Wisconsin Glacier covered much of Minnesota 16,000 years ago. What was once a mountain range eroded, creating hills and thousands of waterways.

On the north side of this site, the divide directs the waters to empty into Hudson Bay and on to the Arctic Ocean. On the south, water flows into the Mississippi River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. In other words, two drops of rain, each one falling to opposite sides, will end up on opposite sides of the North American continent.