Big Stone County was a virgin county when I began the ascent of it. It took me two attempts to complete it, on November 14 and 27, 2004. The high points are located in Sections 15 & 22 of Big Stone Township, section 7 of Artichoke Township, and Section 2 of Malta Township. I completed points 1-4 and 7 on November 14, after completing Lac Qui Parle County, and points 5-6 on the 27th, my first attempt of the day.
Upon entering Big Stone County from the south on Lac Qui Parle County Road 7, I took C.R. 15 north to U.S. Highway 12, turned right, and then went north on U.S. Highway 75 for 5 miles to C.R 10 (paved), and drove east on C.R. 10 for 1/8 mile to the road crest.
I parked on the road crest,
and hiked up to area 1 on the south side of C.R. 10. From the top, it looked shorter than Area 2, just across the road.
I crossed over to area 2, and confirmed that area 1 is lower.
Area 3 seemed shorter than area 2, but area 4 seemed higher than area 3.
When I got to area 4, I concluded that it was higher than area 3, and about as high as area 2.
I spent 16 minutes exploring this group.
On my first visit, I was somewhat unprepared for this pair since I had not programmed the coordinates for either of them into my GPS. What I had was a topo map (NAD 27) with the midpoint between the two hills in the center.
From the group of 4, I continued east on C.R. 10 for 6.18 miles to C.R. 21. I turned left (north) on C.R. 21 for 1.82 miles, then right (east) on gravel C.R. 8 for 2.8 miles. When I arrived at the point on the road nearest area 5, I was disappointed to see that it was covered with standing corn. Not having a clear idea of where either area was, I decided to come back at a later date and try it again with coordinates pre-programmed.
On my second visit, I approached from the north, from Minnesota State Highway 28 west through Johnson, and south on C.R. 21 to C.R. 8. Then I parked on the road side and quickly ascended area 5, an 11-minute hike there and back. It was a cold wind after a recent snowfall, but at least, the corn was down.
Then I drove around to the east and south, arriving at a wide field approach on the other side of the road from area 6. I walked through the plowed corn field for 6 minutes, then crossed a barb wire fence into a field of harvested soy beans, and continued 5 more minutes to the top of area 6.
I visited this area, on a farmplace, on November 14. From my aborted attempt to summit areas 5 and 6, I returned west on C.R. 8 to C.R. 21, going north 6 miles to gravel C.R. 56 (C.R. 4 goes west), and turned right for about 1.5 miles (I overshot the driveway and had to turn around) into driveway number 65592. I knocked on the door, but received no response. The highpoint area is to the north and east of the house. I walked around as little as possible and drove away--less than 5 minutes out of my truck.
On my first attempt, I drove north toward Traverse County.
On my second attempt, I drove east on S.H. 28 toward Swift County.
| Family Member | Count |
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| Mark | 81 |
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http://www.topozone.com
Minnesota Atlas & Gazeteer by Delorme, 3rd Edition, 2001.
| File Name: | |
| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
| on: |