Pennington County's 17 Highest Points are located in Sections 12, 23, 24, 25, 26, 34, 35, and 36 of Reiner Township. It is the flattest-top county in the state--although the same number of highest contour areas, the ones in Chippewa County are small and distinct. The ones in Pennington are generally larger. I attempted to summit this county on May 27, 2005, in the waning hours of the day, after completing Red Lake County. I completed this county on September 23, 2005--to skip to that, click here.
The high point areas in Pennington county resemble an upside-down question mark. I numbered the areas 1-17, beginning with the curvy part on the southwest corner. There are a lot of wooded areas, but the topographic maps do not show them.
From the southeast corner of Red Lake County, I drove 1 mile north to State Highway 92, and turned right.
I continued east on S.H. 92 for 8.65 miles to 270th Street.
I turned left (almost straight), and drove east on 270th St for 1.57 miles, and turned left onto Polk County Road 2.
I continued north on C.R. 2 (changed to C.R. 27 at the Pennington County Line) for 23.83 miles to a point approximately in the middle of area 1.
Area 1 appeared to me to be purely road build-up. In addition to appearing to be as flat as the road north and south of it, it was well built-up, at least 5 feet (the contour interval for this quad) above the surrounding terrain, so it is not a candidate for the county high point.
I then turned around, and drove back south on C.R. 27 for 0.8 mile. I turned left onto 160th St. NE, toward areas 2 & 3. I turned into the driveway at house number 39444, about 0.3 mile east of the intersection to ask permission. I received no response.
I continued east and parked on the road near the half-section line. I hiked north along the road there, which was the business driveway for that homestead. I walked between parked farm equipment. The road here was muddy and wet in places, as the nearby pond spread out following recent rains.
On my way to area 2, I heard what sounded like two shotgun blasts coming from the farmplace, but I continued walking. I arrived at area 2 in about 4 minutes. It was in a newly planted wheat field and was barely perceptible as a rise above the surrounding farmland. I then turned toward area 3, and watched as a pickup truck driving on the muddy field road approached my position and parked just south of area 2. The sound of the pickup made me think that the sound I heard was not shotgun blasts but engine backfire. The driver exited and we walked toward each other. He was concerned that I had entered the land to steal gas and batteries from the farm equipment. He asked me if I was the county assessor, but I told him that no, I was a county highpointer. I briefly explained my purpose. He told me that the owner was his father and that they were at a birthday party. He walked away mentioning the word "trespassing" and expressing a desire to have been previously notified.
I watched him go, and proceeded to area 3, which was just about as flat. Time for this pair was about 15 minutes.
I skipped the areas in section 36
and continued to the 7-area group in Sections 24 & 25. I parked at the intersection of Sections 23, 24, 25 & 26. Leading east is a "Minimum Maintenance Road" that crosses the ditch at the half-section line and continues as a field road east for another 1/4 mile into the woods.
Area 8 is relatively well-defined, the top of which is near a lone steel bin in a grassy area.
Area 9 is just south of the "Min Maint" road, is smaller and lower than Area 8.
I continued east to the large area 12
At first, I thought that the road that goes north from the end of the "Min Maint" road was on natural ground. Then I concluded that it was built up from dredging out the ditch. I identified some higher points to the east of that and visited those.
I then followed the field road east along the section line, which turned to woods about where the contour begins.
I followed the woods road to where it ended and bushwhacked a little to claim this point.
I then proceeded through the newly planted wheat field to the small area 14, which showed no rise at all above the surrounding terrain.
I then returned to area 12, and crossed the ditch (not shown on the topo map) to its southern part. Next to the ditch were several small hills, which I eventually concluded was piled up from digging the ditch. Difficult to say where the natural ground was, and did not see any rise to the east.
I skipped area 11 when I saw area 10
Like most of the other areas, I could see that area 10, as large as it is, showed very little vertical changes. It, too was in a newly-planted wheat field.
From my parking spot at Spot Elevation 1180, as I walked east at the start of this hike toward area 8, I glanced north several times toward area 7, looking for some kind of rise, but did not see it. Then, on the way back to my car, I decided to try it anyway. As I walked toward it, I noticed that it still appeared flat, and the whole area both before arriving at the contour and while in the contour was under 2-3 inches of water. That was the last straw for me, as I skipped the remaining areas and drove toward Thief River Falls on S.H. 1.
not visited on this attempt
I did get to Thief River Falls and drove north on U.S. Highway 59 toward Kittson County.
| Family Member | Count |
|---|---|
| Mark | 160 |
I returned to this county on September 23, along with Bob Schwab, the leading midwestern county highpointer. I needed his expertise in dealing with this essentially flat-top county. During the summer, he was progressing through the state, and had completed all counties except Pennington and Ramsey as I had. Together we accomplished the first ascent. We were also able to eliminate several of the contours, bringing the number of likely contours to 4.
We approached from the west on State Highway 1, and turned right onto County Road 27 (paved).
Area 1 (road build-up on County Road 27 between Sections 34 and 35)
This area appeared to me to be purely road build-up. In addition to appearing to be as flat as the road north and south of it, it was well built-up, at least 5 feet (the contour interval for this quad) above the surrounding terrain, so it is not a candidate for the county high point. We just drove past it.
Areas 2 & 3 (small pair in the south central part of Section 35)
We turned left at the next intersection (160th St. NE), and about half a mile to driveway #39444. Bob had made previous arrangements with the owner, ___. He was not home because unexpectedly good weather allowed him to harvest soybeans that day, but his son was there, the same individual who met me on my first visit. Bob explained our purpose to him, and he let us go.
The road that I had walked on the first time was dry, and Bob was able to drive his 4WD along the road to a point near area 2. The ground over areas 2 and 3 was heavily overgrown with weeds and was food for the herd of cows grazing in the area. They wandered over to us, but kept their distance. The fence was electrified, and gave me a small shock when I went over. Bob wisely used his walking stick to bend the wire down.
We walked around both areas, and, as before, did not see any perceptible rise.
We turned around in the field, and headed toward areas 4-6, which I had skipped the first time.
Area 4 (large contour with depression near middle, spread out across sections 35 and 36)
We drove up the driveway to a pair of trailer houses, which showed signs of recent occupation, but were unattended at the moment. Bob had made previous arrangements with the owner, ___, who granted us permission. We walked north on a vehicle track through the woods and into the field. We concluded that the highest point in the field was about 140 feet north of the edge of the woods. We also thoroughly walked in the woods in case there were any bumps in there. Not certain whether there was anything higher there. We then returned to the trailer area, and continued eastward along a field road that joined up with the sharp-cornered road, running mostly north-south through Section 36. From there we could see a clump of trees at the northern edge of area 5 that appeared higher. The issue of the conflicting contour intervals was solved when we saw the ditch that ran along the east side of this road, and the crossing of the 1185-foot contour line across the road, at high magnification on the topo map.
We returned to the trailers and drove south on that road, then turned left at the T-intersection toward the dead end road. We continued past the point where the topo map depicted the end of the road and continued to a fallen barbed-wire fence, parked there, and began investigating area 5.
Area 5 (large area with four small depressions in the south central part of Section 36)
We walked along the central ridge of this area through woods. At the north edge of the woods the clump of trees was visible from this side and definitely higher than what we had been walking on. We carefully walked through the ripe soybean field to the pair of wooded areas. We concluded that the highest part of this area was a point about half-way between the wooded areas. It was the highest apparent elevation that we had seen so far, with noticeable rise above the surrounding land. From here we could see area 6, and decided that we should visit that as well, so we returned west to the southern terminus of the sharp-cornered road. We drove that road north to S.H. 1. At the second corner, we noticed that the highest point in area 5 could be accessed from there.
Area 6 (central eastern part of section 36, overlapping into Beltrami County)
We turned right onto S.H. 1 and drove east 1/2 mile to the Beltrami County line and turned south on the road and into the driveway at the end of the road. Bob had made previous arrangements with the owner, ___ Coan. He was not available, but his wife was out mowing the lawn. She agreed to let us walk around her farmplace to evaluate the elevation. The highest point was in an elevated grassy area that appeared to be built up. We stood up there anyway, but thought that the highest natural ground was in some tall grass between the farm buildings and that hill. Hand leveling with the clump of trees in area 5 showed inconclusively(?) that area 5 was higher.
We returned to the highway and drove a mile west, then a mile north to the group of 8 areas (#7-14). Bob was able to drive 1/2 mile east on the Minimum Maintenance Road to the north-south ditch.
Area 7 (oval shaped contour in southwest quarter of Section 24)
While Bob went to explore this area, I stayed in his vehicle, since I had already explored this area. Also, I was feeling ill, due to a stomach ache. I ate a small meal, but felt worse afterward. From his hike, Bob concluded ____
Area 8 (small area in the northeast corner of the ditch/road)
This area is relatively well-defined, the top of which is near a lone steel bin in a grassy area. Each of us had visited this area on our first separate attempt and did not bother with it this time.
Area 9 (small area in north-central part of Section 25, just west of the ditch):
Just south of the "Min Maint" road, this is smaller and lower than Area 8. We ignored this area since it was obviously shorter than the steel bin..
Area 10 (large stomach-shaped area in northwestern quarter of Section 25, extending into Section 26)
When we completed the other areas in this group, we returned to the western part of the contour, driving up to the lone building shown in the topo map. There were bee hives there surrounded by an electric fence, which we later found out was to keep away bears, which live across the county line in the Red Lake Indian Reservation and wander into Pennington County.
Area 11 (medium area just south of area 12): I skipped area 11 when I saw area 10. What little rise there was, was probably due to dredging the ditch.
Area 12 (large area split between sections 24 & 25)
We had both investigated this area on our first trip and continued to Area 13.
Area 13 (small area split between sections 24 & 25)
We followed the woods road to where it ended and bushwhacked a little through the woods to claim this point.
Area 14 (small area in northeast quarter of section 25)
This was Bob's first visit to these two areas, so we evaluated the field and noticed that two lone trees were higher than the surrounding field, the higher one being at the southern end of area 13. Much of its elevation gain is due to rocks being piled up there.
Area 15 (long area across Sections 23 and 24 with sand pit near the middle)
We drove north about a mile to the driveway leading to the sand pit. Bob's previous contact with this owner revealed that he considered the highest point on his property to be near the steel bins at the end of the driveway at the field's edge. When we got there, we agreed that he was right.
We drove north to the Marshall County Line, then 1/2 mile along the county line road to ___'s Christmas Tree farm.
Area 16 is on their farmplace, with little discernable rise. Since I was still feeling ill, I martinized it.
Area 17 (large area in the northeast corner of the county)
The owner met us and escorted us (we followed his ATV in Bob's 4WD), first south, then east on a field road to the middle of the contour, where there was a pickup parked. It belonged to some bear hunters, whom we did not see. The owner carried a revolver and loaded it after disembarking his vehicle, but before walking with us. South of the field road were growing tall trees, too tall for the typical indoor tree, possibly for use by businesses or for outdoor trees. North of where we parked were young Christmas trees growing--3 feet tall. Beyond that area were taller trees again. The high point was obvious in the short growth. We walked the short distance and claimed the county.
In conclusion, I think that the 17 areas can be narrowed down to
Area 5 (between the clump of trees)
Area 6 (Coan's farm)
Area 8 (the steel bin)
Area 17 (Christmas tree farm)
These are the only contours that show any significant rise within them.
| Family Member | Count |
|---|---|
| Mark | 202 |
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Minnesota Atlas & Gazeteer by Delorme, 3rd Edition, 2001.
| File Name: | |
| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
| on: |