Minnesota Soil Atlas - Hibbing Sheet

Abstract

Information is lacking on the soils and landscape characteristics of large areas of Minnesota. Many planning agencies simply have to go without information needed for their work. Detailed soil surveys published on a scale of 1:20,000 or 1:15,840 are being made by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station to fill this need. Because they cannot be supplied rapidly enough for broad planning, the Soil Atlas is being developed. It is not intended to replace detailed soil survey reports, which are essential for planning the use of smaller pieces of land. Detailed soil survey work, carried on in most counties but unavailable in published form, has been assembled and supplemented to compile the Hibbing Sheet of the Minnesota Soil Atlas. Until detailed soil surveys are available for all Minnesota counties, broad planning can be facilitated by the eleven sheets to be published in the Minnesota Soil Atlas series (see inside cover). As detailed soil surveys become available, the broad view of large planning will still be necessary. It is proposed that this series of maps be published with explanatory texts for each quadrangle in the state. For uniformity the Atlas Sheets are being published on the same scale as the U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps and other maps prepared by the Minnesota Geological Survey. The Hibbing Sheet encompasses approximately 4,004,600 acres in northeastern Minnesota: from 47° to 48 o north latitude and from 92 o to 94 o west longitude, including parts or all of five counties. No published surveys of this area are available. Appendix B indicates the extent of modern detailed soil surveys in this area.