Things are moving along this summer on the Exploring project. To date, we have scanned over 45,000 pages of archival materials and images from our natural history related archival collections.

As I have shared previously, viewing the unique photographs that compose the collections within this project has allowed me to explore new and unfamiliar places in Minnesota. Today I encountered what Minnesota Place Names referred to as “the Mound,” – a Sioux quartzite rock plateau located in Rock County north of Luverne, Minnesota. Amongst the botanical images in the Department of Botany collection are wonderful landscapes of “the Mound” which today is part of Blue Mounds State Park. What else makes this geological feature unique? Cactus!

Enjoy these photographs of “the Mound” and surrounding area from 1901:

– Face of Mound from a distance, September, 1901

– Mound precipice, September, 1901

– Rocks on the edge of Mound, September, 1901

– Opuntia fragilis (brittle prickly pear cactus), September, 1901, Mound