Pigs Eye Lake is a riverine

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

that covers 628 acres in Ramsey County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The Mdewakanton Village of Kaposia was located on the northern end until 1837 when the village was moved across the Mississippi to what is now South St. Paul. The 1930 construction of lock and dam #2 in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

down river, is responsible for its size and depth. The wetland is part of what the Army Corps of Engineers has designated as pond 2 of the upper Mississippi waterway. It is south of downtown

St Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

on the east side of the river. Battle Creek enters the wetland from the northeast. In the 1960s the Army Corps of Engineers dredged two channels into it. One, out of the southwest corner, went due west out to the main river channel. The second went due south for

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

traffic. Along that south channel the Army Corps created an

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

with spoils from

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

the main channel. That portion of the industrial park has

mooring A mooring is any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel (such as a boat, ship, or amphibious aircraft) may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to ...

s for several barges at a time. In planning for the future the Army Corps built a

levee A levee ( or ), dike (American English), dyke (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural ...

defining the north side of the industrial park thereby creating an area for future dredging spoils. Ramsey County Parks has requested that the County Commissioners approve the Army Corps of Engineers putting 400,000 cubic yards of river dredgings into the wetland to create islands. Pigs Eye Lake was named after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, an early pioneer who had one eye that had been injured. The 100 acres of Pigs eye island that separates the wetland from the main barge channel is home to a large

Heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

rookery A rookery is a colony of breeding rooks, and more broadly a colony of several types of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-fo ...

.Pigs eye Rookery SNA, MDept of Natural Resources, dnr.state.mn.us Prior to Army Corps depositing the dredging in the 60's the wetland's eastern side had large

Yellow-headed blackbird The yellow-headed blackbird (''Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus'') is a medium-sized blackbird with a yellow head. It is the only member of the genus ''Xanthocephalus''. Their scientific name derives from the Greek word for yellow, ''xanthous'', a ...

and

Red-winged blackbird The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and ...

populations that are now gone.

References

Lakes of Minnesota Lakes of Ramsey County, Minnesota {{RamseyCountyMN-geo-stub

See also

References