Driftless is a silly name, I know. Someone ought to change it. Glaciers create drift, which is geology-speak for the gravel left behind by receding glaciers. Even experts don’t understand why the glaciers encircled southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin, and snippets of Iowa and Illinois, but never invaded it. Hence, the Driftless Region. Never let geologists name anything.
Unlike the boring, glacier-flattened prairie, the Driftless is made up of limestone bluffs and gin-clear, tumbling creeks. The water, recharged by ancient aquifers, runs clean and clear year-round. While trucks are out plowing ice roads on the Mississippi, Gilbert Creek, just outside my town, is plunging through chutes and gurgling between boulders, just like July. Â
This is some strange territory…
Keep reading here
