Driftless Area

The Driftless Area, also called Bluff Country or the Paleozoic Plateau, is a region of the American Midwest covering southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the far northwestern corner of Illinois, spanning about 24,000 square miles. It takes its name from its lack of glacial drift, the silt, gravel, and rock deposited by glaciers, because unlike the surrounding region it remained unglaciated during the most recent ice age. The result is a landscape of steep hills, forested ridges, deeply cut river valleys, and karst geology with spring fed waterfalls and cold water trout streams, with elevations ranging from 603 to 1,719 feet, and its plant and animal life resembles that of the Great Lakes and New England more than the surrounding Midwest or Great Plains. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/