Project Description

Our purpose is to explore and better understand changes in the landscape of southern Minnesota over the past 150 years. We are retracing Nicollet's expedition routes, juxtaposing descriptive passages from Nicollet's diaries as well as those of his partner, botanist Charles A. Geyer, with photographs of the modern landscape, chemical testing of water quality in lakes along his routes, and a reconstruction of changes in productivity and eutrophication in these lakes and surrounding watersheds using dated lake sediments.