Forests of elm, sugar maple, basswood, and oak once covered more than 2000
square miles of south-central Minnesota, extending in a band 40 miles wide from
Mankato to Monticello. This band of forest contrasted markedly enough with the
surrounding prairies, savannas, and brushy oak and aspen woodlands that French
explorers traveling through Minnesota in the 1700's designated it the bois
fort or bois grand, which English - speaking inhabitants later
translated as "big woods". In the 1800's the presence of the Big
Woods in southern Minnesota, with its bears, wolves and other forest-dwelling
creatures was a curiosity to new inhabitants of the region.
N.H. Winchel an early surveyor said in 1875; " The existence of this
great spur of timber.... is a phenomenon in natural history of the State that
challenges the scrutiny of all observers". It was not until 100 years,
through careful study of the notes of public land surveyors from 1840s to 1850s
and examination of fossilized pollen grains left in bog and lake sediments,
that scientists worked out the origin of the Big Woods in detail. See this map
for location of the Big Woods. 
The development of the Big Woods was a recent event that coincided with the climate cooling over North America about 350 years ago. Before this cooling, fire maintained the brushlands, prairies, and oak savannas that covered southern and western Minnesota. When the climate cooled, wildfires diminished in the area that would become the Big Woods. Forests spread outward from small, isolated groves into the brushlands and prairies. Fires remained frequent enough on the flatter and often drier lands surrounding the Big Woods region that brushlands, prairies, and savannas persisted in these areas.
Settlers who located their farms in the Big Woods region found the regions
soils made good cropland and they cleared away patches of the forest to develop
their homesteads. Although European-American settlers began farming in the Big
Woods region in the 1840s, sizable areas of the forest persisted into the late
1800s. By 1930s, however, farmers had converted most of the Big Woods to
cropland, leaving a patchwork of widely scattered wood lots. 
With less than a quarter of the remaining Big Woods forests protected in parks or preserves, hundreds of acres have been disappearing each year, converted to subdivisions, golf courses, roads and other developments as the Twin Cities and surrounding communities spread outward. With time running short, the survival of many Big Woods forests will likely depend on individuals who value the forests for their place in the history of the region and for the habitat they provide for animals and plants, and who, importantly, are willing to act directly and quickly to protect them.adapted from: The Minnesota Volunteer, July-August 1998.
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