As this panel explains, glacial action is responsible for the exposed rock here upon which
ancient people carved signs and symbols. Here you can see the grooves gouged into the rock by glacial action.
The groves run in a southeasterly direction.
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If you look closely at this picture you see what appears to be a deer.
The petroglyphs' carvers struck chisels of
hard stone or antler with hammer stones.
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The grooves in this rock run in a SE direction and were made by a
glacier. In the midst of a vast prairie in southwestern Minnesota massive ridges
of very ancient rock rise up to lie just below the surface of the ground.
On this watershed divide, among the tall grass, there are a few places
where the underlying rock breaks through to the surface.
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Gradually thrust to the surface and rough-polished by glacial ice, a
"canvas" was created that became a medium for the signs and symbols
of ancient American Indians. Imprinted in this scoured rock face are
fleeting images that bear testimony to the generations of earlier
inhabitants of this land. A hand or maybe chain lightning?.
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The most common technique of dating the glyphs is identifying the
items depicted, then relating them to peoples of a particular time period.
By this technique, they appear to range from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1750.
Aspects of the hunt and social and religious life seem to be illustrated,
along with more obscure representations. Either more lightning, or else the Chinese somehow made it over here.
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On our little virtual walking tour, we are headed up toward the people you see in the distance.
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Can you imagine yourself here a few thousand years ago carving petroglyphs in the hot August sun?.
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Taking pictures of the information panels makes my job of explaining all this way easy.
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When we get to where these folks are standing their are little markers pointing out various
symbols carved in the rock.
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Explanation of rock ripples and picture of same.
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Explanation of some of the symbols in the rock, and a picture of a circle and a hand.
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Enlarge this picture to see the hand.
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