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MNDOT HISTORIC ROADSIDE DEVELOPMENT <br />STRUCTURES INVENTORY <br />Text of Missing Geological Marker <br />"Geology of Minnesota. Elk River Region. <br />SH-ERC-028 <br />CS 7101 <br />Babcock Memorial Park <br />"The glaciers which covered Minnesota at intervals during the last million years brought with <br />them from Canada thousands of cubic miles of rock debris. The sand, gravel, and granite <br />boulders came chiefly from Ontario to the northeast, the limestone and clay from Manitoba <br />to the northwest. When the ice melted, the transported material -- Glacial Drift -- was <br />dropped to form a mantle of soil over the glaciated area. It is estimated that the fertility <br />of the soil in Minnesota has been increased 30 per cent by glacial action. The glacial <br />deposits in the Elk River region vary in fertility depending upon the proportions of sand, clay <br />and limestone. <br />"The melt waters from the glaciers tended to collect in streams which flowed away from the <br />ice in a radiating pattern. The Mississippi River at this point is such a stream started during <br />the last or Wisconsin stage of glaciation. <br />"Erected by the Geological Society of Minnesota in cooperation with the Department of <br />Highways State of Minnesota, 1953." <br />8 <br />