3 miles SE on US Hwy 10, then E on Co Rd 3 for 2.5 miles to Elk River.
Site is accessible by boat downstream on river.
T his SNA, gifted by the family of Harry W. Cater who homesteaded here, covers a sandy river terrace deposited by glacial meltwaters draining through here about 10,000 years ago. Fire and herds of grazing bison and elk probably limited development of woody vegetation. Today's communities include dry, upland oak savanna, mesic and wet-mesic prairie openings in aspen groves, floodplain forest along the Elk River, wet meadow and marsh on peat. Of these, the bur oak savanna and wet-mesic prairie are most significant. Straight-trunked bur oak trees, grown in open light, cover roughly half the savanna.