IMPRINT, the Bell Museum's quarterly magazine for members, offers stories of scientific adventure and discovery, insight into today's rapid environmental changes, updates on museum programs and exhibits, and fun activities for kids. IMPRINT is published quarterly and is available as a benefit of Bell Museum membership.

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Photographs by Chris Faust

Between 1911 and the 1950s, the creators of the Bell Museum’s dioramas set out to portray Minnesota in its "natural state." Most of the museum’s dioramas depict actual places that were protected sites and retained remnants of native habitat. When we revisited the sites in 2000, we discovered that nature is truly a dynamic force, and preserving it is not as simple as it may seem. These photographs by Chris Faust show three of the Bell Museum’s dioramas—sandhill cranes, elk, and tundra swans—and document what those sites look like today.

These photographs were originally published in a special issue of IMPRINT, the Bell Museum’s magazine for members, along with essays by Lansing Shepard, illuminating the forces that have shaped these landscapes. For a copy of this special issue, write to amiex001@tc.umn.edu. Click here for information on becoming a museum member.

Sandhill Crane Site: Agassiz Dunes, northwestern Minnesota, early spring 2000.

Compare this photo to the right side of the diorama. The sand dunes in the distance were laid down thousands of years ago by glacial Lake Agassiz. Today the dunes are completely obscured by trees. Suppression of prairie fires has allowed these trees to grow. The right side of the photo is part of a prairie preserve. The left side is a farm field that is in a conservation program and planted in brome grass, a non-native species. Which has a greater diversity of plants? Which looks more like a prairie? Less than one percent of native prairie remains in Minnesota today, and these conservation areas are important for providing large, grassy areas necessary for some species to survive.

In the dunes, the prairie is alive and well. Here you can still find plenty of dry sand prairie grasses and sedges, Indian rice grass, rush pink and bent grass, and the place abounds with prairie forbs and wildflowers.

Settled by Europeans between 1870 and 1890, the Red River Valley has been one of the most intensely farmed regions in the country. This plowed field is adjacent to the site of the sandhill crane diorama. The diorama site is a former agricultural field that has been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to set aside a portion of their land. Today the site, as seen in the left side of the photo above, resembles a restored prairie, but it is not. The grass growing there is European brome, a pervasive weed.

Elk Diorama Site, Inspiration Peak, northwest of Alexandria, Minnesota, fall 2000.
Inspiration Peak is a high mound of sand and gravel left behind by glaciers. It was once covered by oak savanna—scattered and stunted bur oaks interspersed with prairie grasses. This landscape is typical of the border between prairies and the forests. Compare this photo to the left side of the diorama. Notice that trees now cover most of the landscape and prairie plants remain only at the very top of the peak. Elk were hunted out of Minnesota in the early 20th Century.

Swan Diorama Site, Long Meadow Lake, Minnesota River Valley, Bloomington, spring 2000.

This photo was taken from atop a beaver dam that now occupies the mud flat seen on the left side of the diorama. Beavers have returned to the Twin Cities since this diorama was made in the 1940s. Notice how office buildings have replaced the farm fields on the hillside. Though Canada geese are now much more common, swans still use this river refuge in the midst of a sprawling metropolis. The Mall of America is less than one mile from this site, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport is two miles away. How else has this site changed?

Today, the Mall of America is less than one mile from the site of the tundra swan diorama. There, fields of asphalt have replaced farms. This has probably reduced the amount of soil eroding into Long Meadow Lake, but it has made storm floods more severe. Oil, anti-freeze, road salt, and other pollutants flow in with the runoff.