Whitewater State Park is a state park of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, United States, preserving a stretch of the Whitewater River surrounded by rocky bluffs. It is located in

Winona County Winona County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, its population was 49,671. Its county seat is Winona. Winona County comprises the Winona, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The Wisconsin Territory was ...

in the southeastern blufflands area of the state. The park features scenic overlooks and

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

fishing in the spring-fed Whitewater River and Trout Run Creek. It has about 300,000 visitors annually, and is located north of St. Charles on Minnesota State Highway 74, which runs through the park.

Historic structures

The park's 1930s facilities are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as the Whitewater State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style Historic Resources. The historic district includes 29

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

. The district was listed for having state-level significance in the themes of architecture, entertainment/recreation, landscape architecture, and politics/government. It was nominated for its examples of New Deal federal work relief, diverse National Park Service rustic design, and landscape architecture on a challenging site.

Landforms

The park's bedrock is lower

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

sedimentary rocks, with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

especially prevalent near the surface. It is highly dissected, and the Whitewater River has cut deep valleys into the bedrock. It is an area of karst topography.

Lifeforms

The park is located where the Rochester Plateau Subsection and the Blufflands Subsection meet, both of which are part of the Paleozoic Plateau section of the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province.

2007 flood

The August 18 and 19,

2007 Midwest flooding The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007. While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and Tropical Storm Erin was af ...

caused extensive damage to the park. The park is in the

Driftless Area The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. Never covered by ice during the las ...

, where soils are thin and less able to retain water; they lie atop porous rock into and through which surface waters can rapidly drain into the water table. The steep hills and bluffs and deep

coulee Coulee, or coulée ( or ) is a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley or drainage zone. The word ''coulee'' comes from the Canadian French ''coulée'', from French ''couler'' 'to flow'. The ...

s give steep gradients to the drainage and makes streams highly erosive. As the rains far exceeded the absorption rate of the soils, flash floods rapidly overflowed the river and spread across the valley floors. WhitewaterRiverMNbridge2007-09-02

About 500 campers were staying in the park at the time. Three bridges were destroyed, and campgrounds, bathhouses, a group dining hall, and water and sewer systems suffered extensive damage. Damage was in excess of four million dollars, and the park was closed to the public on August 20, 2007, and remained closed the balance of the year. On March 1, 2008 it partially reopened, but many of its amenities still had unrepaired damage.''Whitewater State Park partially reopens''

Minnesota Public Radio Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), is a public radio network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, YourClassical MPR and The Current, MPR operates a 46-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest. MPR ha ...

, March 1, 2008.

References

External links

Whitewater State Park
{{authority control 1919 establishments in Minnesota Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota Driftless Area IUCN Category V Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Protected areas established in 1919 Protected areas of Winona County, Minnesota Rustic architecture in Minnesota State parks of Minnesota Works Progress Administration in Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Winona County, Minnesota