Upper Sioux Agency State Park contains the site of
the Upper Sioux or Yellow Medicine Agency. The park was established in 1963 to
preserve and interpret the remains of the old Agency site. The park covers 1,280
acres and offers diversity: open prairie knolls, bluffs, and cool, wooded
slopes. From the vistas, visitors enjoy the trails which are ideal for horseback
riding, hiking, skiing, and snowmobiling. The park also offers a huge sliding
hill for winter fun.Quick stats:
1,280 acres
42,459 annual visits
Naturalist:
Interpretive programs can be made available upon request. Ask at park office.
Wildlife
From the river's bank visitors can fish for walleyes, northerns, catfish,
bullheads and carp. Watch for white pelicans and great blue herons along edges
of shallow pools. Spotted sandpipers, killdeer and other shore birds frequently
hunt for insects on the gravel bars and mud flats along the river. Red-tailed
hawks, turkey vultures and white pelicans catch the air currents above the
valley. Bald eagles winter in the Minnesota River Valley.
History
The Treaty of Traverse Des Sioux of 1851 moved the Dakota Indians from Iowa
and Minnesota to a reservation 20 miles wide along the Minnesota River Valley
extending from Big Stone to Fort Ridgely. The Yellow Medicine Agency was
established to administer the terms of the treaty. In the summer of 1862, the
Yellow Medicine Agency was destroyed during the U.S.-Dakota Conflict. Today,
Upper Sioux Agency State Park exists to preserve the old agency site and provide
recreational opportunities in the scenic Minnesota River Valley.
Geology
For tens of thousands of years, glaciers advanced, covered and retreated over
central Minnesota. These glaciers left several hundred feet of rock, sand
gravel, known as glacial drift, which covered the granite and gneiss bedrock.
Upper Sioux Agency State Park sits on a plateau of this glacial drift. When the
last glacier retreated, its melt water formed glacial Lake Agassiz in the area
which is now the Red River Valley. Melt water in the lake drained south through
an already existing river valley forming the glacial River Warren. The valley
was cut wider and deeper, in many spots, all the way to bedrock. As Lake Agassiz
declined, water no longer drained south. A huge valley with a tiny river was
left behind, which is now called the Minnesota River. Starting at Big Stone Lake
State Park, the Minnesota River travels over 330 miles of central Minnesota on
its way to the Mississippi River at St. Paul.
Landscape
The landscape in the park is diverse with grasslands, wetlands, woods,
rivers, open prairie knolls, old fields and meadows. Scattered bur oaks are the
oldest trees in the park. The Minnesota River flows along the park's northern
boundary. The rugged scenic beauty of the river valley can be viewed along the
trails and the prairie knolls.
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