Fergus Falls Rock and Prairie stops

On the riverfront in Fergus Falls sits Otto the Otter, a large, cheerful statue of an otter reclining beside the water, one of Minnesota's many oversized roadside figures and a local landmark. Sometimes billed as the world's largest otter, Otto is a nod both to Otter Tail County and to the fur-bearing animals that drew trappers and traders to this river country generations ago.

Otto belongs to a proud Minnesota tradition of giant roadside sculptures, from Paul Bunyan to enormous fish and fowl, built to give travelers a reason to pull over and smile. He makes an easy, free stop on a stroll along the river, and he is part of what gives the town its friendly, unpretentious character.

The real natural treasures of the area are its prairies. This corner of Minnesota holds some of the largest and best-restored tallgrass prairie in the state, part of a broad conservation effort along the eastern edge of the Great Plains. Preserves near Fergus Falls protect rolling grassland where big bluestem, Indian grass, and a wealth of prairie flowers grow, alive with prairie birds and butterflies.

These grasslands are a window into the landscape that once covered much of Minnesota before the plow, a sea of grass with roots reaching deep into the soil. Managed with controlled fire and careful stewardship, the preserves keep that vanished world alive, and a walk through them in high summer, with the grass rippling and the sky enormous overhead, is a quietly powerful experience.

Fergus Falls sits right on a great natural seam, where the flat bed of glacial Lake Agassiz to the west gives way to the rumpled hills, kettles, and lakes left by the melting glaciers to the east. The result is a landscape of surprising variety, prairie ridges, wooded draws, wetlands, and clear lakes all within a short drive.

This is Dakota and Ojibwe country, part of Mni Sota Makoce, where both peoples traveled and lived across the prairie and lake country with the seasons. The bison that grazed these grasslands and the fur-bearing animals of the rivers were central to life here long before any town or preserve, and the Dakota and Ojibwe nations remain part of Minnesota today.

Summer is the season for the prairies, when the grass grows tall, the wildflowers bloom in changing waves, and prairie birds fill the air, best enjoyed early or late to beat the heat on the open ground. The lakes and river draw boaters and anglers, and the town's riverfront is pleasant to stroll.

Fall turns the grasslands and the wooded hills to gold and copper under wide skies, one of the finest times to walk the preserves. Spring greens up the prairie and returns the birds, while winter lays the open country bare and quiet under snow and wind, and the giant otter keeps his post by the frozen river regardless of the season.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.