Ramsey County History – Spring 1999: “In the Beginning: The Geological Forces that Shaped Ramsey County and the People Who Followed”

In the Beginning: The Geological Forces that Shaped Ramsey County and the People Who Followed

Author: Scott F. Anfinson

“Ramsey County lies in a setting that is geologically complex, both in its bedrock and its glacially produced features.” Beginning about sixty-five million years ago when the region was very close to the equator and much warmer than today, the author traces the geological story of Ramsey County, including the retreat of the glaciers about 13,000 years ago, the formation of Lake Agassiz, the Glacial River Warren, and the formation of a waterfall on top of hard Platteville limestone, which we know today as St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. The article concludes with an overview of prehistoric peoples in the region and European contact with Native Americans in the seventeenth century.

PDF of Anfinson article