American Indian Heritage - Chert Quarry

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The Wanhi Yukan Trail (located near Grand Meadows MN in Mower County) is a self guided experience and is open daily from dawn to dusk from Spring-Fall. There is no winter maintenance on the trail when it snows. Visitors can enjoy the serenity of the park-like trail in the woods, or experience a self-guided walking tour with signage in English and Dakota that explains its historic and cultural significance.

Grand Meadow Chert is a type of high-quality stone, like ‘flint,’ that was used by ancestors of today’s Dakota-speaking people. They relied on this chert to make the chipped stone tools needed for daily living, including knives, hide scrapers, awls, punches, spear points and arrowheads. The original pitted landscape covered nearly 200 acres, with at least 2,000 of these quarry pits. This small remnant, preserved in a wooded lot over the past century by the Maurice and Bernice Thorsen family, is now owned and protected by The Archaeological Conservancy.

 Management of the site is the responsibility of the Mower County Historical Society and the Prairie Island Indian Community, with environmental assistance from the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District and staff from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Mower County Historical Society has a collection of Chert objects that was acquired from the Maynard Green family. The exhibit highlights the Quarry and puts it in the context of Native American history in southern Minnesota over thousands of years.