PLATE LI. 



OTTER TAIL COUNTY, 1888. WARREN UPHAM. 



With no rock outcrops, this county is about two-thirds covered by timber, the 

 prairie region being in the west. There is also a sprinkling of prairie patches through 

 the rest of the county, and especially in a belt which extends north and south across 

 the central portion of the county. 



According to Mr. Upham's mapping three chief morainic belts converge south- 

 ward to the Leaf hills, which are near the centre of the south boundary of the county. 

 The western belt, in its southern part, consists of three parts or series of ridges 

 elongated about north and south, this triple composition being most conspicuous 

 south of the latitude of Fergus Falls, yet traceable indistinctly through the central 

 and northern parts of the county, with interruptions. The central belt is less con- 

 tinuous and blends with the eastern portion of the western belt. The eastern belt is 

 narrow and quite persistent and distinct, running from Pine lake southward, with a 

 curvature toward the east, to the Leaf hills. Indeed, this belt is called Leaf hills 

 southward from the Leaf lakes. While this description covers the greater part of 

 the morainic areas, yet there is a spur running eastward through Inman and Oak 

 Valley into Todd county, and another southeastward into Douglas county through 

 Effington and the southwestern part of Parker's Prairie. 



Large areas in the central and eastern portions of the county are composed of 

 modified drift, usually flat, but sometimes in rolling or hilly contour. The rolling 

 tracts of modified drift are sometimes marginal portions of moraines, or are in the 

 form of fringes or bands that lie between the moraines and the gravelly plains. 



This county has, by actual count, 1,029 lakes, not including sloughs and ponds, 

 the largest being Otter Tail lake, eight miles long and two and a half in width, lying 

 in a flat country of gravel and sand. The water area of the county is given at 

 162,749.67 acres. In this county the Leaf river, also the Crow Wing, the Pomme de 

 Terre, the Chippewa and the Long Prairie take their source, while the Otter Tail, or 

 Red River of the North, flows across the county from northeast to southwest, taking 

 the surplus waters of most of its lakes. This last stream is entirely a post-glacial 

 one, having taken its tortuous course amongst the hills of the region since the depar- 

 ture of the ice, and probably since the withdrawal of lake Agassiz, since it formed 

 no delta deposits in that lake. 



This county embraces the heart of the " Park Region " of the state, a designa- 

 tion which is very appropriate, and is due to the beauty of landscape, the diversity of 

 land and water, the hilly contour, the irregular distribution of the forest and prairie 

 areas, the abundance of game and the salubrity of the summer climate. N. H.-W. 



