On Friday, July 26, 2002 We visited the Jeffers petroglyphs located in southwestern Minnesota
near the town of Jeffers. On the drive down I couldn't resist pulling over and taking a
picture along the highway of this sunflower field.
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This is basically the shot of the area where the petroglyphs are located. You really
can't see the rock outcroppings, but they are there.
The Jeffers Petroglyphs site contains over 2000 images carved in a
bedrock outcrop of Sioux Quartzite in southwestern Minnesota. This
2,500 foot sloping rock surface, exposed near the crest of a high ridge,
contains images of humans, animals, tools, and unidentifiable shapes
carved by ancient Native Americans.
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Here is a scene just across the road from the previous picture. Rock outcroppings *are*
visible here. In the past 2,000 or more years Native Americans people living on
southwestern Minnesota's prairie made repeated pilgrimages to an
exposed ridge of quartzite rock found today a few miles northeast of
Jeffers. The petroglyphs, or rock carvings, that these prehistoric
Indians painstakingly carved into very hard rock represent a variety of
themes and abstract designs.
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Different prairie grasses bloom in turn all summer long. This pretty purple boom is just
erupting.
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A message about prairie fires.
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The buffalo rub is my favorite part of this site. I asked my wife to come back here today
specifically because my buffalo rub pictures from our previous visit did not turn out.
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Generally, the darkest color purple areas have been polished to a glass-like surface.
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It freaks me out to think that buffalo used to be RIGHT HERE and rub against this rock. I wonder
if they made an orderly line, or if the bulls chased the cows and younger bulls away.
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It was a very hot day, around 95 degrees, and it was a bit of a sweaty walk that we took on what
remains of the great American plain.
This picture give you an idea of what being out in the tall prairie grass
must have been like. It's hard to imagine that over the course of 150
years the prairie has been eliminated. This site was sown with seeds of
native praise plants, but an informational sign related that once the
original praise disappeared, it can never truly come back.
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Cactus, everyone, cactus!
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This panel explains about prairie plants.
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Our little group taking the long walk between the buffalo rub and the petroglyphs.
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My son standing on the prairie.
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I tried to get down at grass level to give the effect of what it might have looked like to
have the endless prairie before you.
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