Browns Valley

Browns Valley. The Continental Divide, also, The Browns Valley Man. Browns Valley. The Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway begins with the birth of the river at the Continental Divide north of here. The river winds through colorful prairie and hardwood forest, skirting by farmsteads as it starts its' journey to join the Mississippi River near Minnesota's eastern border., You'll find many towns and historical resources along this route that reveal more about the people who made this land their home. The route offers a wealth of recreational opportunities, including managed wildlife areas, six state parks and many accesses to canoe the river., The Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway also provides travelers a chance to see native Minnesota prairie. Although now very rare, the prairie was once the predominant ecosystem in the state., The Continental Divide. Today the Minnesota River travels a path that was charted as the result of glacial movements thousands of years ago., At one time this was the southern shore of Glacial Lake Agassiz which stretched across much of Minnesota into the Dakotas and southern Canada. As Glacial Lake Agassiz reached the Continental Divide, it began draining south and created a large waterway called Glacial River Warren which cut the path for the Minnesota River Valley., Figure Text: Continental Divides The dashed line indicates the approximate boundary of Glacial Lakes Agassiz in Minnesota. Hudson Bay Watershed (in blue) Superior Watershed (in yellow) Mississippi Watershed (in pink) Missouri Watershed (in purple) Arrows indicate the current water flow., The Browns Valley Man. By chance in 1933, amateur archeologist William H. Jensen discovered one of the oldest skeletons ever found in the United States., Jensen noticed pieces of human bone and a stone weapon in a pile of fresh gravel dumped in Browns Valley. He went to the gravel's source and found more evidence of earlier civilizations. He then excavated the site, uncovering a prehistoric human burial pit and additional artifacts., University of Minnesota anthropologists determined that the skeleton was a male, between 20 and 40 years old. It dates from the Paleo-Indian culture of 9,000 years ago.