Susan Fiene

Braided Streams

Filled with the till of previous glaciers, ten thousand years ago the Mississippi River gorge was a floodplain. Geologists have found evidence of a braided stream covering the area that is now Saint Paul. As the last glacier retreated, the melt water flowed out on this flat canvas drawing a braided stream pattern.

Braided Streams is a sand map of what Saint Paul may have looked like 10,000 years ago. This temporary public art project was installed on Raspberry Island for the summer of 1987.