Example of an esker

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail travels through the edges of the glacier that passed into Wisconsin. The glacier most recently flowed into Wisconsin about 25,000 years ago and reached its greatest extent, covering approximately two-thirds of the State, about 14,000 to 16,000 years ago before melting back. The retreat of the ice front was interrupted a number of times by readvances; the last one touched northwestern Wisconsin about 10,000 years ago. Streams flowing over, under, and beyond the glacier left deposits that vary our landscape. The conical hills of water-rounded sand and cobbles called kames, that stud parts of the Kettle Moraine, are deposits of streams that flowed downward through cracks in the ice. The sinuous eskers, such as the one near the Mondeaux Flowage in Taylor County and the Parnell Esker in Sheboygan County, are ridges of rounded sand and gravel deposited by streams that flowed through tunnels at the base of the glacier.

• Keywords: iatr; eskers; kames; Trails; Glacial landforms; Mounds; Landscapes