Buffalo Ridge

Buffalo Ridge is a high, rolling section of the Coteau des Prairies in southwestern Minnesota and southeastern South Dakota, forming a divide between waters flowing to the Mississippi and Missouri systems. Built by glacial deposits, wind-blown loess, and older bedrock, it developed fertile, well-drained soils that once supported extensive tallgrass prairie. Dakota people lived here before Euro-American settlement, and local catlinite became important for ceremonial pipes associated with Pipestone. Today much of the ridge is farmland, though prairie remnants are protected and restored. Its elevation and steady winds also made it a major wind-energy region, while its exposed highlands were underscored by the destructive F5 tornado of 1992.

Minnesota · United States