Historic and Cultural Places in Lake Benton
Buffalo Ridge
Lake Benton is located on the Bemis Moraine, more commonly referred to as the Buffalo Ridge. The ridge is a moraine, which is a pile of sediment (silt, sand, gravel, and boulders), that were left at the edge of a glacier. There is a 1.6 kilometer-wide break in the moraine in Lake Benton. Buffalo Ridge, dividing the great watersheds of America - the Missouri and Mississippi, provides opportunities for overlooks and interpretation.
Buffalo Ridge is a large expanse of rolling hills in the southeastern par of the larger Coteau des Prairies, which is part of the inner coteau and is the highest point of the Coteau des Prairies in Minnesota. With a peak of 1,994 feet above sea level, Hole-in-the-Mountai County Park is among the highest points of Buffalo Ridge which, at its peak, reaches 1,995 feet above sea level.
Buffalo Ridge is 60 miles long and approximately 10 miles wide. The ridge begins in northwestern Iowa and stretches 60 miles through Minnesota and inot South Dakota.
Snyder Log Cabin
Home of early settlers is nestled within a clearing within Hole-in-the-Mountain Campground.
When you visit Hole-in-the-Mountain park, you will find the Snyder family cabin remaining from the first settlement in Lake Benton in 1860. Driving east of this location, you pass Snyder's Flats. In 1888, it was the site of the GAR Civil War Encampment, at which time over 5,000 visitors came by special trains from all over the Midwest.
Osbeck House
One of Lake Benton's most prominent houses, built in 1887 for Ernest Osbeck, a prosperous grocery merchant in Lake Benton.
Burial Mounds
Built by the mound builders approximately 10,000 years ago - located in Memorial Hill Cemetery in Lake Benton
Site of 1862 Trading Post
Sites of Major Brown's 1862 Trading Post and the Taylor Family Home are both marked on Horse Hill.