Minnesota includes parts of two of the major natural regions or physiographic provinces of the United States. The northeastern corner of the state is part of the Superior Upland, which is part of the Laurentian Upland, or Canadian Shield. The remainder and largest part of the state belongs to the Central Lowland province of the Interior Plains.

The Superior Upland is composed primarily of ancient igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks. The surface consists of many low, rounded hills. Many of the basins gouged in the rock by glaciers have become rock-bottomed lakes. They are especially noticeable in the northeastern corner of the upland area. There are many swampy and poorly drained areas, and most stream valleys are shallow, with frequent falls and rapids. The upland drops abruptly from an elevation of between 500 and 900 ft at the Lake Superior shoreline. The lake itself is 600 ft above sea level. Streams have cut deep valleys a short distance back from the shoreline on Lake Superior, and as the streams plunge over this abrupt escarpment, they form picturesque waterfalls.

The Superior Upland contains the highest elevations in Minnesota. Eagle Mountain, in Cook County, is the highest point in the state at 2,301 ft. Near the Lake Superior shore are sharp pointed hills known as the Sawtooth Mountains. The low rocky ridges, or ranges, of northern Minnesota that contain iron ore are also located in the Superior Upland.

Within the Central Lowland, the surface varies considerably, and several subregions exist. In the southwestern corner of the state is an area containing elevations of more than 1,800 ft above sea level. This area is part of the Dissected Till Plains, and it is sometimes called the Coteau des Prairies (“Prairie Hills”). The Coteau des Prairies rises about 600 to 800 ft above the land lying just to the east, and its surface is rougher than the surrounding regions. The till, or surface materials, was deposited largely by relatively old glacial advances and has had a long time to become dissected.

In the far southeastern corner of the state is a narrow strip along the Mississippi River that was not glaciated. It is a part of the Wisconsin unglaciated or Driftless Area, which is found mainly in southwestern Wisconsin. This area has not been leveled by glaciers and is severely dissected by stream erosion. Immediately west of this area is another small area of till plain that has been dissected by tributaries of the Mississippi.

The largest portion of the state is a part of the Central Lowland known as the Western Lake section. Its surface was sculptured mainly by the last glacier. In glacial times the northwestern part of the state, including the Red River Valley, was the floor of Lake Agassiz, and it is extremely flat. Due to the presence of this lake in prehistoric periods, the largest peat bogs in the lower 48 states have formed here. In the south central part of the state are large areas of very gently rolling till plains covered with a sheet of deposits from the most recent glacial age. These newer till plains are only slightly dissected. However, some areas are flanked and interspersed with hummocky moraines left by many retreating glaciers. The central portion of Minnesota has a variety of areas of till plain and many hilly areas formed by glacial moraines. Some areas were covered with material washed out from the moraine areas and redeposited by the glacial meltwater. Some of these outwash plains are cut by shallow valleys or are pitted where large blocks of buried ice later melted. Lakes are numerous in this part of the Central Lowlands.

Minnesota is drained by three major systems. The first system drains a narrow area north and west of Lake Superior either into the St. Louis River or into many short streams along the lake’s north shore, and then into the lake itself. From the Great Lakes the water enters the St. Lawrence River, which empties into the Atlantic. The second system drains most of the north central part of the state into the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods, on to Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson River, and finally into Hudson Bay. The northwestern portion is drained by the Red River of the North through Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay.

The remaining portion of the state is drained by the Mississippi River system. Most of central Minnesota is drained by the Mississippi River itself, which has its source at Lake Itasca in the north central region of the state. The east central border area is drained through the Saint Croix River to the Mississippi, and most of the southern part is drained by a major tributary of the Mississippi, the Minnesota River. The Minnesota rises in Big Stone Lake on the state’s western border and flows into the Mississippi near the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, only a few miles from the eastern border. A small area in the southwest is drained by a tributary of the Missouri River. The Des Moines and Cedar rivers drain other small sections in the south and flow southward into Iowa, eventually reaching the Mississippi.

Minnesota shares with Ontario, Wisconsin, and Michigan the shores of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, and many smaller lakes straddle the Minnesota-Canada border. Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lake are long narrow lakes that are located only a few miles apart on the border separating Minnesota and South Dakota. Some of the other large lakes in Minnesota are Itasca, Leech, Mille Lacs, Vermilion, Winnibigoshish, Upper Red, and Lower Red lakes.

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