Glacial Sculpting

Glacial Carvings, originally uploaded by jw_creations.

Just 15,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, most of northern North America was trapped under the grip of colossal ice sheets. No where else in the U.S. are glacial marks on the land more visible than in Wisconsin. This last period over which 2/3 of the state was under ice, lasted from about 100,000 to 10,000 years ago. Amazingly, the ice sheet crept from northwestern just 10,000 years ago back into Canada.

In a sense, this region of the state is still recovering from the melting of the last glacier. As streams slowly wash away kames, eskers, moraines, and other glacial features, and as marshes, bogs, and lakes fill with sediment and organic debris, this young landscape will become transformed again long after man kind leaves the area.

Wisconsin’s legacy from the glaciers and meltwater streams of the last Ice Age is a landscape of great diversity and beauty. Wisconsin's many lakes and ponds, forested hills and ridges, and rolling farmlands remind us of a past glacier’s visit , and serve as a sign that once again everything around this area will be under a mile-high slab of ice.