High bluffs circle this town, the closest things to mountains you’ll find in southern Minnesota. The Root River flows through it, fed by numerous small streams and creeks. You might be standing on top of a cave right now. (Hopefully not a sinkhole—there are thousands of them in Fillmore County). Bluffs, rivers, streams, caves, sinkholes—where are we exactly? Welcome to the Driftless!

What is the Driftless? Think of it as a 16,000 square-mile island, about twice the size of Massachusetts, that “sits” at the corner of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Someone described it as “…a chunk of Appalachia set down on a prairie.” That’s all true because of something that did not happen here.

Glaciers once covered huge sections of North America. When they melted they slowly inched northward, gouging the land and creating holes that became Minnesota’s famous lakes. Melting glaciers also left behind rock, sand, gravel, pebbles, and grit. That is all known as “drift. But, no glaciers covered this area. No glaciers. No drift. The Driftless!

Over time enormous amounts of water rushed over the soft rock that was here, creating the bluffs, valleys, caves and sinkholes that make this area so unique.

What does this mean for people living and visiting here? It means we’re in a special place that offers so much to explore and enjoy. You can canoe, kayak and go fishing in spring-fed rivers and streams. You can discover rare wildlife, plants and flowers. You can see sinkholes and hike down into spectacular caves. You can walk, hike and bike through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth. Go for it. Welcome to the Driftless!

Driftless
By Delia Bell

​The spirit of this land was not crushed by walls of ice.
Ages ago we were spared the unfeeling fate of flatness.
People come to this place
for the green,
and the rock,
and the water.
Our bluffs rise.
We rise with them.
They wrap us in a curtain of safety,
they hold back the flood of everything beyond.
People come to this place
to be free from barriers,
and from rules of the world,
and from daily routines.
I’m sure people live happily in a glaciated land,
but we have a scape rivaled by very few.