Go Back In Time With This Ancient Minnesota Discovery

THAT'S SOME OLD ROCK!

Bedrock. We learned about it in school, didn't we? If you don't know exactly what bedrock is, it is defined by the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary as a hard, solid area of rock in the ground that supports the earth above it. Knowing that, it's pretty exciting to learn that Minnesota has some of the oldest bedrock in North America!

If you visit Cedar Mountain Scientific and Natural Area, located south of Franklin, Minnesota, you'll find ancient bedrock estimated to be 3.6 billion years old.

THE CEDAR MOUNTAIN COMPLEX

Something known as "The Cedar Mountain Complex" combines two rock types, Cedar Mountain Gabbro, and Cedar Mountain Granodiorite, that can only be found at that specific location.

What makes this so amazing is that underneath the ages-old bedrock, is a combination of gneisses and diorite rock, that is quite a bit younger at just 1.8 billion years old. That bedrock was formed when magma flowed into the cracks in the older rock. Cedar Mountain's Scientific and Natural Area will give you a rolling landscape, oak woodlands, and wet prairie land.

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RARE PLANTS

You can also find some rare plants called devil's tongue, also known as plains prickly pear cactus, which forms large yellow flowers at times, and water hyssop, a small aquatic plant, with roundish opposite leaves that clasp the rather thickish stem.

You will also find a floodplain forest in the northern part of the Scientific and Nature Area.

Is this a location you can visit? The answer is yes. The site does not have any maintained trails or recreational facilities.

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