What Is Thegeological Makeup Of Jay Cook Park

State park of Minnesota, United states

Jay Cooke State Park
The St. Louis River in Jay Cooke Country Park
Location of Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota Show map of Minnesota Jay Cooke State Park (the United States) Show map of the United States
Location	Carlton, Minnesota, U.s.a.
Coordinates	46°38′59″N 92°xix′51″Due west / 46.64972°N 92.33083°W / 46.64972; -92.33083 Coordinates: 46°38′59″North 92°19′51″W / 46.64972°N 92.33083°W / 46.64972; -92.33083
Area	8,125 acres (32.88 km^two)
Elevation	928 ft (283 m)^[1]
Established	1915
Governing body	Minnesota Department of Natural Resource

U.s. historic place


Jay Cooke Country Park CCC/Rustic Mode Celebrated District
U.Due south. National Annals of Historic Places
U.Due south. Historic district

The River Inn is the visitor heart for the park and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps
Location	Carlton County, Minnesota, Off MN 210 east of Carlton
Nearest urban center	Carlton, Minnesota
Coordinates	46°39′15″N 92°22′17″West / 46.65417°Northward 92.37139°W / 46.65417; -92.37139
MPS	Minnesota State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style MPS
NRHP referenceNo.	89001665
Added to NRHP	June 11, 1992

Us historic place


Jay Cooke Land Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style Picnic Grounds
U.S. National Annals of Historic Places
U.Due south. Historic district

1934 water tower/latrine at Oldenburg Point
Location	Off MN 210 SE of Forbay Lake, Thomson Township
Coordinates	46°39′20″North 92°21′8″W / 46.65556°N 92.35222°Due west / 46.65556; -92.35222
MPS	Minnesota State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style MPS
NRHP referenceNo.	92000640
Added to NRHP	June 11, 1992

United States historic place


Jay Cooke Land Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Way Service G
U.S. National Register of Celebrated Places
U.S. Historic district


Location	Off MN 210 E of Forbay Lake, Thomson Township
Coordinates	46°39′twoscore″N 92°20′50″West / 46.66111°N 92.34722°W / 46.66111; -92.34722
MPS	Minnesota State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style MPS
NRHP referenceNo.	92000642
Added to NRHP	June 11, 1992

Jay Cooke State Park is a country park of Minnesota, Us, protecting the lower reaches of the Saint Louis River. The park is located nigh 10 miles (sixteen km) southwest of Duluth and is one of the 10 most visited country parks in Minnesota. The western half of the park contains part of a rocky, 13-mile (21 km) gorge. This was a major barrier to Native Americans and early Europeans traveling by canoe, which they bypassed with the challenging 1000 Portage of the St. Louis River.^[2] The river was a vital link connecting the Mississippi waterways to the westward with the Great Lakes to the east.

Today Minnesota State Highway 210 runs through Jay Cooke State Park. The ix miles (14 km) of the route between Carlton and Highway 23—which include the park—are designated the Rushing Rapids Parkway, a state scenic byway.^[3]

The park is named for Pennsylvania financier Jay Cooke, who had developed a nearby power found, which is still in use.^[4] The Chiliad Portage trail and three districts of 1930s park structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History [edit]

The outset ii,350 acres (9.5 km²) of land on which the park is situated were donated to the state by the Saint Louis Ability Visitor in 1915. The park remained more often than not undeveloped until 1933, when a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established on the site. The CCC army camp congenital a rustic swinging bridge over the St. Louis River just slightly downstream from some torrential rapids and waterfalls. This camp too built a picnic shelter. The camp was disbanded in 1935, only a second camp was set upwards in 1939. This camp rebuilt the swinging bridge and congenital the River Inn, which now houses the company eye. This camp was disbanded in 1942, shortly before the federal government ended the CCC entirely. In 1945 the land began to add more than state to the park, eventually giving it its current size of 8,818 acres (iii,569 ha).

In 2012 the Duluth area experienced a tape-setting rainstorm that resulted in flooding that filled the gorge with debris, devastated the park's roads and trails, and destroyed the celebrated Swinging Bridge that crosses the St. Louis River. By 2014, all-encompassing repair piece of work had repaired almost of the trails and replaced the bridge, and further work is ongoing. In June 2015 the park celebrated its 100-year anniversary; today Jay Cooke State Park is ane of the ten nigh visited state parks in Minnesota, with 378,000 visitors in 2014.^[v]

Compages [edit]

Jay Cooke is noted for its Rustic Style historical structures. These structures were congenital by the Civilian Conservation Corps betwixt 1933 and 1942. All the major landmarks in Jay Cooke are built with local basalt or gabbro stone and dark planks and logs. Most famous of all landmarks is the swinging bridge, which is one of just two suspension bridges in whatever Minnesota land park. The bridge was designed by Oscar Newstrom. It runs 200 feet (61 g) long, 126 feet (38 grand) of which run over the river itself. It is supported by two big concrete pylons besides faced with gabbro. The depository financial institution of the river most the River Inn is also steep to walk along, and then anyone who wishes to hike the length of the river generally must cross this span.

In the major floods of June 20, 2012, the swinging bridge was severely damaged. According to an early written report from the Pino Journal, at least ane stone pillar and one-half of another were washed away, and the span decking was "twisted and mangled."^[six]

The CCC structures are grouped into three historic districts which are separately listed on the National Annals of Historic Places. These districts are the Rustic Style District, including the River Inn and Swinging Span; the Rustic Style Picnic Grounds, including the shelter, h2o tower and latrine, and drinking fountain; and the Rustic Style Service Yard, including the custodian's motel and pump firm.^[seven]

Early canoe route [edit]

Saint Louis River drainage bowl

Minnesota geography is dominated past three major watersheds which carry the surface waters of the state north to Hudson Bay, east to the Groovy Lakes, and south into the Mississippi River. The rivers, creeks, and associated lakes within these drainage basins essentially draw the route geography of the thoroughfares used by American Indians for centuries, and later by European explorers, missionaries, and fur traders. But water travel was subject to interruption caused by rapids, falls, or shallows, and not all of the major lakes and rivers were interconnected, making information technology necessary to portage from time to time.

"Shooting the Rapids", 1871 past Frances Anne Hopkins (1838-1919) A large Montreal canoe running rapids. The avant stands in front with a steering paddle and the gouvernail steers from the rear. The milieux provide power under the instructions of the avant.

A Voyageur canoe during the fur trade era

The earliest North American fur trading did non include long-distance transportation of the furs afterward they were obtained by trade with the Indians; information technology started with trading about settlements or along the coast or waterways accessible by transport. But later, Coureur des bois achieved business organisation advantages past traveling deeper into the wilderness and trading there. By 1681, the French authorities decided to control the traders. Also, equally the trading process moved deeper into the wilderness, transportation of the furs (and the products to be traded for furs) became a larger part of the fur trading business procedure. The authorities began a process of issuing permits. Those travelers associated with the canoe transportation role of the licensed endeavor became known as voyageurs, a term which literally means "traveler" in French.

The rocky gorge of the St. Louis River was not navigable to canoes, and then Native Americans blazed a 6.5-mile (10.five km) portage effectually information technology. Later, the voyageurs employed it likewise and dubbed it the "Grand Portage of the St. Louis."^[8] It was a crude trail of steep hills and swamps that began at the foot of the rapids above the present day Fond du Lac ("dorsum of the lake") neighborhood and climbed some 450 feet (140 yard) to the nowadays-day city of Carlton.^[ix] To a higher place Carlton travelers proceeded upstream and continued on to Lake Vermilion and the Rainy River. Or they may have traveled southwest upward the Due east Savanna River, portaged the grueling 6 mile long Savanna Portage (now a country park), and and then paddled on to the Mississippi River.

The Saint Louis River M Portage was divided into 19 pauses (stopping/resting places) spaced one-tertiary to one-half mile apart. To portage the freight, each voyageur carried two or three packs weighing upward to xc pounds each. These were supported by a portage strap, which passed effectually the voyageur's forehead and reached to the small of his back. One time he reached a break with his load, the voyageur would jog dorsum to the concluding finish for more than packs. It took an boilerplate of three to five days for a crew to complete the Grand Portage, sometimes longer under bad conditions. Information technology was backbreaking labor, and the voyageurs would be plastered with mud and covered with mosquito and fly bites.

The M Portage was notwithstanding in use equally late every bit 1870, but a new railroad meant the end of the old passage. Also, fur animals became less plentiful and the corporeality of N American fur trading declined.

A portion of the trail has been renovated for hiking and information is available at the park shelter.^[10]

Geology [edit]

Bedrock [edit]

The oldest bedrock visible in Jay Cooke Country Park is the Thomson Formation, dating to the Paleoproterozoic era 1.9 billion years agone. The southernmost unit of the Animikie Group, the Thomson Formation is named for the nearby boondocks of Thomson, equally this is its type locality.^[11] It began as mud, silt, and clayey sand deposited by turbidity currents at the lesser of a deep sea.^[8] These sediments compacted into horizontal layers of shale and greywacke.^[12] Ripple marks are still visible in the resulting rock, just there are no signs of life every bit circuitous organisms had not yet appeared.^[13] 1.85 billion years ago a mount-building outcome to the south chosen the Penokean orogeny subjected the sediments to intense force per unit area and heat.^[8] This metamorphosed the shale into dark, thin layers of slate.^[13] The slate also developed a design of vertical cleavage, but the more massive greywacke deposits were largely resistant to this foliation.^[viii] Both types of rocks, though, were folded and fractured, giving them the wildly tilted appearance that distinguishes them today.^[12]

1.1 billion years ago the Midcontinent Rift System croaky the Thomson Germination, creating southwest-to-northeast trending fractures. Volcanic eruptions sent magma through these gaps, forming the distinctive inundation basalts of Minnesota'due south North Shore.^[xi] Magma remaining in the hole-and-corner fractures cooled more than slowly into gabbro.^[14] Several of these dikes are exposed around the swinging bridge and likewise just outside the park where Highway 210 crosses the river beneath the Thomson Dam. They are nearly the same colour equally the Thomson slate, merely can exist distinguished by their horizontal columnar joints and lack of slaty cleavage.^[eleven]

Around Jay Cooke Land Park, the basalt from the Midcontinent Rift eruptions eroded abroad long ago. In fact the stone layer immediately above the Thomson Formation is the Fond du Lac Germination, which dates from the belatedly Mesoproterozoic era, an unconformity of nigh 800 one thousand thousand years.^[2] ^[11] This carmine and dark-brown sedimentary layer is composed of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. The bottommost layer is a conglomerate of quartz pebbles originating from quartz veins in the Thomson Germination. Above, cross-bedding of the sandstone, several layers of mud-flake conglomerate, and mudcracks betoken deposition in a wide river evidently. Only minor portions of the Fond du Lac Formation are visible inside Jay Cooke, primarily along the Piddling River in the northeast part of the park.^[2] Amend exposures are found in Addicted du Lac, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Duluth just outside the park's eastern border. Many of Duluth's brownstone buildings were constructed from quarries there.^[11] ^[15]

Glaciation [edit]

Although the rocky riverbed around the swinging bridge is Jay Cooke's all-time-known feature, this Precambrian formation is only exposed in a portion of the park.^[13] Elsewhere the land is characterized past glaciation. Most of the park lies on scarlet clay sediments deposited 10,000 years ago at the bottom of a proglacial lake.^[12]

Ice sheets covered Minnesota as many as twenty times over the two million years of the Quaternary glaciation, each accelerate largely obliterating the results of the previous. Most all of Minnesota's glacial landforms derive from the last of them, the Wisconsin glaciation.^[11] One feature of this time in the park are the stone ridges near the campground, scoured smoothen by the glacier and known as roches moutonnées.^[13] Another is the Thomson Moraine, a ridge along the northwest boundary. This concluding moraine comprises rock and debris dropped at the farthest attain of the Laurentide Ice Sheet's Superior Lobe.^[eleven]

Equally the climate warmed at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, the Superior Lobe shrank northeastward. The deep bowl gouged by the water ice filled with meltwater effectually 12,000 years ago as Lake Duluth. Since the eastern shore was formed by the towering wall of the ice sheet, the lake was 500 feet (150 m) higher than modern Lake Superior. The St. Louis River, flowing into Lake Duluth, dropped its sediment load onto the lakebed, forming layers of silt and sand alternating with clay.^[eleven] The clay layers include incongruous cobbles and boulders, dropstones which melted gratuitous from icebergs floating higher up.^[8]

As the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded further, lower summit outlets were exposed and the lake level dropped significantly. The St. Louis River flowed across the at present-exposed lakebed, etching wide and child-bearing meanders into the soft sediments. On the south side of the river are several steep, curving valleys that are former meanders. Slumping of the unstable clay walls farther widened the main valley.^[11] The river'due south downcutting somewhen passed through the Pleistocene lake sediments and into the Precambrian boulder, exposing the rocky, 13-mile (21 km) gorge that characterizes the western half of the park.^[2]

Wildlife [edit]

The park is inhabited past 46 species of mammals and is an important wintering area for White-tailed Deer. Black Bears, Wolf packs, and Coyotes have been spotted within the park. The park houses 173 species of birds including the Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Harrier, and the Bully Blue Heron. Sixteen species of (non-venomous) reptiles are found within the park.

Recreation [edit]

The swinging span over the St. Louis River, prior to overflowing damage in June 2012

The park has over 50 miles of hiking trails, with several scenic overlooks over the Saint Louis River. Certain trails, such as the Greely Creek Trail, Triangle Trail, and Gill Creek Trail, are also open to mountain biking. The Willard Munger State Trail runs through the park. From the park, ane can wheel or skate to Duluth, about fifteen miles (24 km) away. This segment of the trail features very scenic views of the Duluth harbor, equally well as cuts in the stone made for the building of the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad.

The N Land National Scenic Trail, a hiking trail that stretches approximately iv,600 miles (7,400 km) from Crown Bespeak in eastern New York to Lake Sakakawea State Park in key North Dakota, passes through the park. It is the longest of the eleven National Scenic Trails and was designed to provide outdoor recreational opportunities in some of the America's outstanding landscapes.

Park activities include camping, hiking, biking, cantankerous-country skiing and kayaking. Park rangers offer over 400 naturalist outreach events each year including nature walks, evening campfire talks, snowshoe-edifice lessons, and geocaching. As function of the "I Can!" program for kids and families, the park provides a number of classes and guides to help with camping skills, boating, fishing, archery, and other activities.^[five]

Brownish trout are taken in the Saint Louis River (some walleye and northern in slower stretches) and in Otter Creek. Brook trout are constitute in Silver and Otter creeks. There are ii dams on the Saint Louis River near the park; the Thomson Dam (near the northwest boundary) and the Addicted du Lac Dam (near the northeast boundary).

References [edit]

^ "Jay Cooke State Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 1980-01-11. Retrieved 2013-eleven-11 .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ojakangas, Richard West.; Matsch, Charles Fifty. (1982). Minnesota'south Geology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN0-8166-0950-0.
^ Bewer, Tim (23 January 2007). Moon Handbooks: Minnesota. Avalon Travel Publishing. ISBN978-one-56691-927-2.
^ Kris Hiller (narrator, Park Naturalist). Jay Cooke (mp3) . Retrieved August 4, 2010.
^ ^a ^b Myers, John (11 June 2015). "Jay Cooke Land Park Turns 100". Duluth News Tribune. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
^ Peterson, Jana (2012-06-xx). "Epic flooding sweeps through Carlton County". Pino Journal. Cloquet, Minn. Archived from the original on 2013-01-31.
^ "Rustic Style Resources in Minnesota State Parks: Minneopa Country Park". Minnesota Historical Lodge. Retrieved 2013-xi-11 .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^{due east} Ojakangas, Richard W. (2009). Roadside Geology of Minnesota. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Printing Publishing Company. ISBN978-0-87842-562-4.
^ Luukkonen, Larry (2007), Between the Waters: Tracing the Northwest Trail from Lake Superior to the Mississippi, Duluth: Dovetailed Press, pp. 32–35, ISBN978-0-9765890-4-4
^ Lundy, John (9 June 2015). "Portion of G Portage trail rediscovered in Jay Cooke Land Park". Duluth News Tribune. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^{one thousand} ^h ⁱ Green, John C. (1996). Geology on Brandish: Geology and Scenery of Minnesota'due south North Shore Country Parks. St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Department of Natural Resource. ISBN0-9657127-0-2.
^ ^a ^b ^c Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (2013). "Jay Cooke State Park". Minnesota Department of Natural Resource. Retrieved 2013-10-13 .
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sansome, Constance J. (1983). Minnesota Underfoot: A Field Guide to the Country's Outstanding Geologic Features. Stillwater, Minn.: Voyageur Press. ISBN0-89658-036-9.
^ "Jay Cooke State Park" (PDF). State of Minnesota, Section of Natural Resources. May 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-13 .
^ "Duluth Brownstone Quarrying". Zenith Urban center Press. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

External links [edit]

Jay Cooke Land Park official website
An Ecology History of Oldenburg Point
Vogel, Robert C.; David 1000. Stanley (1992). "Portage Trails in Minnesota, 1630s-1870s" (pdf). Multiple Property Documentation Form. U.s.a. Dept. of the Interior, Nat'l Park Service. Retrieved 2013-12-01 .
Historic American Applied science Tape (HAER) No. MN-53, "Jay Cooke State Park, Pedestrian Intermission Bridge, crossing St. Louis River, Thomson, Carlton County, MN", 4 photos, i photograph caption page