The Grand Meadow Quarry is the source of a distinctive grey chert located near Grand Meadow in Mower County, Minnesota. American Indian people living in the upper Midwest mined this chert for stone tools for at least 9,000 years. Since this chert is a very high quality material for stone tools, people traveled to the quarries to collect it and traded it with others. Tools made from Grand Meadow Chert have been found at sites throughout the upper Midwest and eastern Plains.

The Grand Meadow Quarry site is the only known open pit chert quarry site in Minnesota that was in continuous use by American Indian people from the Paleoindian period up to contact with Europeans. Quarries are important archaeological sites because they allow archaeologists to study changes in tool-making methods and stone procurement strategies over long periods of time.

I chose these objects because the Science Museum of Minnesota was instrumental in preserving an undisturbed portion of this historically significant property. Former SMM Curator Dr. Orrin Shane promoted and raised the funds necessary for the Archaeological Conservancy to purchase the pristine undisturbed 7 acre portion of the site and save it for future generations. The preservation of cultural heritage, both artifacts and sites, is another important contribution the Science Museum of Minnesota provides to communities throughout Minnesota.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology