Collections of these dome-like hills are common in landscapes throughout the United States. Depending on your region, you might know them as Mima mounds, hogwallow mounds, or even pimple mounds–and their origin isn’t always clear. Theories range from seismic activity to gophers—and even just an accumulation of sediment. The prairie mounds on our homepage today are part of Oregon’s Zumwalt Prairie, a protected grassland area in northeast Oregon. Encompassing some 330,000 acres, it’s of one of the largest remaining tracts of bunchgrass prairie in North America. Once part of an extensive grassland in the region, this portion has remained preserved due to its high elevation, which made farming difficult.
Mysterious prairie mounds abound
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Eye of the cave
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Manatee Awareness Month
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Groundhog Day arrives—beyond a shadow of a doubt
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Welcome to the Year of the Pig
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Labor Day
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Turning darkness into light
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Procida, Italy
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A truly American monument
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Defying gravity on a swing ride
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International Cheetah Day
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Everglades National Park turns 75
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Where fire meets water
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The forecast calls for blooms
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Landscape Architecture Month
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It’s Giving Tuesday
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Jane’s Carousel delights
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Jaguar in the Pantanal wetlands
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Ski touring in Austria
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Ready. Set. Snow.
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A fair that s star-studded
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Pretty poetic for a pit
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World Turtle Day
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Does this shark have an Irish accent?
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World Jellyfish Day
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Flag Day
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Storseisundet Bridge, Norway
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Who s there? The largest owl in the world
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National Trails Day
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Bellissima!
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Palouse farmland, Washington state