Old Aerials

[maplelakeduckslayer]

https://www.lib.umn.edu/apps/mhapo/

Kinda cool to look through and see how areas have changed

[deet]

That's really cool. 60 years ago there appears to have been only two residents on my 4-mile stretch of county road. Now there are 25.

[shnelson]

That's awesome, thanks for the link. Pretty neat to see what used to be in the neighborhood before development went into full effect.

[greatwhitehunter3!]

That's awesome seeing our farms since the mid 30s!

[h2ofwlr]

Imagine if there were aerials from say 150 yrs ago what the wetlands would look like in the WSW 1/2 of MN.

I think most Minnesotans would be simply floored as to how much the landscape has changed. From the loss of the big pines in NE Mn, how much of the forests in the middle area of MN are now fields VS woods (example is Carver Cty was almost all woods), meaning the forest line was much farther to the WSW than it is now.

And of course the loss of hundreds of thousands of wetlands in the WSW 1/2 of MN. Many do not understand that wetland draining started almost immediately once the settlers arrived and by end of 1890s they were using ox drawn ditching (mechanical) apparatus to make 5' deep ditches to drain type I and II wetlands. Then the steam bucket shovels and drag lines came, etc, etc.

[greatwhitehunter3!]

And of course the loss of hundreds of thousands of wetlands in the WSW 1/2 of MN. Many do not understand that wetland draining started almost immediately once the settlers arrived and by end of 1890s they were using ox drawn ditching (mechanical) apparatus to make 5' deep ditches to drain type I and II wetlands. Then the steam bucket shovels and drag lines came, etc, etc.

And thanks to them I live in beautiful farm country!

[Nershi]

Cool link. Thanks for sharing.