It was a short drive from Mitchell, South Dakota to Blue Mounds State Park near Luverne, Minnesota. I got there early enough in the day to get settled in and to enjoy the park.
That campsites were in a manicured, garden-like setting The sites weren’t exactly private, but they weren’t crammed together. This was the view from my door.
The park was created during the Great Depression to provide jobs and water recreation. Dams were created in Mound Creek and a beach house and picnic grounds were created by the WPA. Mound Springs Recreational Reserve opening in 1937.
The land is one of Minnesota’s prairie remnants.The soil was too thin and boulder strewn for farming, although it was used for grazing. According to my Preferred Source, in the 1950s, trees were planted in the campground and around the lakes and the campground.
There is a buffalo herd that was begun in 1961. They say there are over 100 buffalo in the park, but this was the only one I could find. If you look carefully, you might find one on the photo I took.
If you can’t find it in my photo, this photo from my Preferred Source should do.
Blue Mounds State Park was named after an escarpment of Precambrian Sioux Quartzite bedrock. It looks pink to me, but it is said to have appeared blueish in the distance to early settlers.
At one time, the rock was quarried. From the late 1880s to the 1890s, the rock was used to construct area buildings.
This is a heap of scrap rock from cutting and shaping the blocks. By the early 1900s , the quarry was abandoned when masonry brick, which cost less and was easier to produce and handle, replaced the quartzite stone.
After my tour of the park, it was time to head back to my campsite and get ready for the next day.
And now, Minnesota is on the map!
Mission completed!