Coteau des Prairies

The Coteau des Prairies: orange arrows indicate paths of the two lobes of the glacier around either side of the formation.

This excerpt from the Lewis and Clark map of 1814 shows the rivers of western Iowa and eastern South Dakota. The Coteau des Prairies is seen near the upper center of the map, "High land covered with wood called mountain of the prairie."

The Coteau des Prairies is a plateau approximately 200 miles in length and 100 miles in width (320 by 160 km), rising from the prairie flatlands in eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa in the United States. The southeast portion of the Coteau comprises one of the distinct regions of Minnesota, known as Buffalo Ridge.

The flatiron-shaped plateau was named by early French explorers from New France (Quebec), coteau meaning "hill" in French; the general term coteau has since been used in English to describe any upland dividing ridge.^[1]

The plateau is composed of thick glacial deposits, the remnants of many repeated glaciations, reaching a composite thickness of approximately 900 feet (275 m). They are underlain by a small ridge of resistant Cretaceous shale. During the last (Pleistocene) Ice Age, two lobes of the Laurentide glacier, the James lobe on the west and the Des Moines lobe on the east, appear to have parted around the pre-existing plateau and further deepened the lowlands flanking the plateau.

The plateau has numerous small glacial lakes and is drained by the Big Sioux River in South Dakota and the Cottonwood River in Minnesota. Pipestone deposits on the plateau have been quarried for hundreds of years by Native Americans, who use the prized, brownish-red mineral to make their sacred ceremonial pipes. The quarries are located at Pipestone National Monument in the southwest corner of Minnesota and in adjacent Minnehaha County, South Dakota.

Numerous wind farms have been built on the area to take advantage of the high average wind speeds.^[2][3]

Additional images

• 
  Northern tip of Coteau des Prairies, as seen from 139th Ave SE near Havana, ND
• 
  Coteau des Prairies as seen from the northeast, near Lidgerwood, ND
• 
  The northern head of the Coteau des Prairies, as seen from the Northeast near Lidgerwood, ND.

See also

• Missouri Plateau

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coteau des Prairies.

• USGS Site on the Coteau des Prairies
• Glacial History of Coteau des Prairies (University of South Dakota).

State of South Dakota
Pierre (capital)
Topics	Cities Delegations Famous South Dakotans Geography Government History Timeline Towns & Villages Townships Transportation State Parks Symbols Universities Visitor attractions
Society	Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics
Regions	Badlands Black Hills Coteau des Prairies Coteau du Missouri Dissected Till Plains Drift Prairie East River Pine Ridge Siouxland West River
Larger cities pop. over 5,000	Aberdeen Belle Fourche Box Elder Brandon Brookings Harrisburg Huron Madison Mitchell Pierre Rapid City Sioux Falls Spearfish Sturgis Vermillion Watertown Yankton
Smaller cities pop. 1,000 - 5,000	Baltic Beresford Britton Canton Chamberlain Clark Clear Lake Crooks Custer De Smet Deadwood Dell Rapids Eagle Butte Elk Point Flandreau Fort Pierre Freeman Garretson Gettysburg Gregory Groton Hartford Hot Springs Lead Lemmon Lennox Martin Milbank Miller Mission Mobridge North Sioux City Parkston Platte Redfield Salem Sisseton Springfield Summerset Tea Tyndall Volga Wagner Webster Winner
Largest CDPs pop. over 1,000	Blackhawk Colonial Pine Hills Dakota Dunes Fort Thompson North Eagle Butte North Spearfish Oglala Pine Ridge Porcupine Rapid Valley Rosebud
Largest towns pop. over 500	Aurora Humboldt St. Francis Wall
Counties	Aurora Beadle Bennett Bon Homme Brookings Brown Brule Buffalo Butte Campbell Charles Mix Clark Clay Codington Corson Custer Davison Day Deuel Dewey Douglas Edmunds Fall River Faulk Grant Gregory Haakon Hamlin Hand Hanson Harding Hughes Hutchinson Hyde Jackson Jerauld Jones Kingsbury Lake Lawrence Lincoln Lyman Marshall McCook McPherson Meade Mellette Miner Minnehaha Moody Oglala Lakota Pennington Perkins Potter Roberts Sanborn Spink Stanley Sully Todd Tripp Turner Union Walworth Yankton Ziebach

State of Minnesota
Saint Paul (capital)
Topics	Outline Index Cities Climate Colleges and universities Congressional districts Ecology Geography Geology Governors High schools Historical Congressional delegations Historical Landmarks History Lakes Movies and television Music People Political parties Rivers School districts Scouting State fair State parks Territory Townships Transportation Visitor attractions
Society	Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics Sports Theater
Regions	Arrowhead Boundary Waters Buffalo Ridge Central Coteau des Prairies Dissected Till Plains Driftless Area Iron Range Minnesota River Valley North Shore Northwest Angle North Woods Pipestone Red River Valley Siouxland Southeast Twin Cities metropolitan area
Largest cities pop. over 25,000	Andover Apple Valley Blaine Bloomington Brooklyn Center Brooklyn Park Burnsville Chaska Coon Rapids Cottage Grove Duluth Eagan Eden Prairie Edina Fridley Inver Grove Heights Lakeville Mankato Maple Grove Maplewood Minneapolis Minnetonka Moorhead Oakdale Owatonna Plymouth Prior Lake Ramsey Richfield Rochester Roseville St. Cloud St. Louis Park Saint Paul Savage Shakopee Shoreview Winona Woodbury
Counties	Aitkin Anoka Becker Beltrami Benton Big Stone Blue Earth Brown Carlton Carver Cass Chippewa Chisago Clay Clearwater Cook Cottonwood Crow Wing Dakota Dodge Douglas Faribault Fillmore Freeborn Goodhue Grant Hennepin Houston Hubbard Isanti Itasca Jackson Kanabec Kandiyohi Kittson Koochiching Lac qui Parle Lake Lake of the Woods Le Sueur Lincoln Lyon Mahnomen Marshall Martin McLeod Meeker Mille Lacs Morrison Mower Murray Nicollet Nobles Norman Olmsted Otter Tail Pennington Pine Pipestone Polk Pope Ramsey Red Lake Redwood Renville Rice Rock Roseau Saint Louis Scott Sherburne Sibley Stearns Steele Stevens Swift Todd Traverse Wabasha Wadena Waseca Washington Watonwan Wilkin Winona Wright Yellow Medicine

State of Iowa
Des Moines (capital)
Topics	Index Geology Environment Archaeology Native Americans History Historic Places Iowans Visitor attractions State parks Delegations Demographics Governors Legislature Flag Seal Sports Area codes	Seal of Iowa
Society	Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics
Regions	Coteau des Prairies Des Moines metropolitan area Dissected Till Plains Driftless Area Great River Road Honey Lands Iowa Great Lakes Loess Hills Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area Quad Cities Siouxland
Largest cities	Ames Ankeny Bettendorf Burlington Cedar Falls Cedar Rapids Clinton Council Bluffs Davenport Des Moines Dubuque Fort Dodge Iowa City Marion Marshalltown Mason City Muscatine Ottumwa Sioux City Urbandale Waterloo West Des Moines
Counties	Adair Adams Allamakee Appanoose Audubon Benton Black Hawk Boone Bremer Buchanan Buena Vista Butler Calhoun Carroll Cass Cedar Cerro Gordo Cherokee Chickasaw Clarke Clay Clayton Clinton Crawford Dallas Davis Decatur Delaware Des Moines Dickinson Dubuque Emmet Fayette Floyd Franklin Fremont Greene Grundy Guthrie Hamilton Hancock Hardin Harrison Henry Howard Humboldt Ida Iowa Jackson Jasper Jefferson Johnson Jones Keokuk Kossuth Lee Linn Louisa Lucas Lyon Madison Mahaska Marion Marshall Mills Mitchell Monona Monroe Montgomery Muscatine O'Brien Osceola Page Palo Alto Plymouth Pocahontas Polk Pottawattamie Poweshiek Ringgold Sac Scott Shelby Sioux Story Tama Taylor Union Van Buren Wapello Warren Washington Wayne Webster Winnebago Winneshiek Woodbury Worth Wright

Coordinates: 44°00′00″N 96°19′00″W / 44.0000°N 96.3167°W / 44.0000; -96.3167