After our letterboxing excursion in Mankato earlier this summer, our family visited the Jeffers Petroglyphs in southern Minnesota. The Petroglyphs are rock carvings that date back up to 12,000 years.
The petroglyphs are found on a large flat group of rock outcroppings on the top of a hill in the southern Minnesota countryside. It’s surrounded by prairie and cropland.
But on the surface of the rock, you’ll find hundreds of carvings. This is a thunderbird.
This one is a turtle. The ideal time to see the petroglyphs is at sunset when the shadows are long. In the bright sun, most of the carvings almost disappear.
Here Craig is learning to use the Atlatl, which predates the bow and arrow. This is how early American Indians hunted buffalo.
The educational center had many hands-on items for kids to touch and learn from. Did you know the early Americans used the lining of buffalo stomach to cook their food?
And who can hold buffalo horns without hamming it up for the camera?
For more information about the Jeffers Petroglyphs, visit the Minnesota Historical Society.
Southern Minnesota series:
Letterboxing in Mankato
Jeffers Petroglyphs
Sod House
Prairie Wildflowers
Tags: History, Jeffers, petroglyphs
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6:16 am
Oh, Kelly – you HAVE to tell me more specifically where this place is. Can I Google it?
DaHubby and I used to come to MN each summer to go to BWCAW til we had the Vikings and are counting the days til Pojke’s potty trained and they’re both old enough to go canoeing. LOL
I would LOVE to take them to that place and DaHubby RAVES about the ones you can paddle up to in the BWCAW.
3:59 pm
I think “D” just found a new crown…tee hee
Hugs,
Holly
9:41 am
“D” haven’t I seen you at the opera?
They cooked in the lining of the stomach. I’d never even thought about what they would have used as cooking utensils. I feel a bit stupid.
10:01 am
It was a serious learning opportunity for us – we hadn’t thought about how they cooked either. For many American Indians, pots didn’t come until the French Voyageurs did. They couldn’t cook over a direct flame with the stomach lining – so they had to put hot rocks inside the stomach lining. Isn’t that amazing?
1:22 pm
That looks like a very interesting place and I did not know that about the buffalo! We saw lots of Buffalo on our trip to Glacier this summer..
2:26 pm
How fun, and fascinating! Looks like a great tiime.
8:12 am
Where’s your picture with the horns?
I learned something this morning; I never heard (or at least don’t remember hearing) the term “petroglyph” before. Amazing how well preserved they are.
It’s also an interesting lesson in ingenuity–I wonder how many “things” they tried before figuring out a buffalo’s stomach lining was usable!
(ick!)