THE SPRINGS OF THE WINCHELL TRAIL The Winchell Trail is a path through the Mississippi River gorge in Minneapolis, named after state geologist Newton Horace Winchell, who published a classic study of the post-glacial retreat of St. Anthony Falls, which carved the gorge.  The V.O. Hammon Company of Chicago published a beautiful series of postcards in the 1920s featuring views of the trail.  There are a number of interesting geologic features along this trail, including ice caves, tumblerock, an analog of St. Paul's Hidden Falls, and some of my favorite springs...
	Calvin Alexander collecting water samples at Hajduk Spring in the early 1990s.  Hajduk Spring (pronounced High Duck), named after a local resident, is located north of the Milwaukee Road trestle.  The spring issues from a bentonite layer within the Platteville Limestone.  It's the best example of a falling spring in the Twin Cities.  The spring has deposited a tufa curtain coated with cryptogamic plants such as mosses and liverworts.
							The Weeping Wall.  Located on the river bluff below Fairview Hospital.  The water that issues from the Platteville Limestone creates a melt apron and thermal oasis in winter, such that on extremely cold days you will see birds, etc, here, that you will not find elsewhere.  The water also flows out onto the road in Riverside Park and freezes, creating a hazard for automobiles. Paradoxically, springs with smaller flow rates produce larger ice formations, because if the water is really flowing out fast it will melt everything in the vicinity.