Destination Sites
How to Get There: From Ortonville, seven miles northwest along State Highway 7. Watch for brown highway signs.
What You Will Find: This State Park offers semi-modern camping, hiking, picnicking, swimming, fishing, and nature watching among remnant prairies and mixed hardwoods at two main recreational areas: Bonanza area (15 miles north of Ortonville) offers primitive camping, hiking, picnicking and bird watching among its virgin prairies; the Meadowbrook area (8 miles north of Ortonville) has tent/trailer camping with electric hookups, a picnic/playground area, swimming beach, hiking path and fishing.
Services at This Site: The Bonanza Education Center, located at the Bonanza unit of the park, is open only by appointment. The park office has limited hours and is seasonal.
Big Stone Lake State Park is nestled on the shores of Big Stone Lake, which Dakota people called lake Bde Iŋyaŋ Takiŋyaŋyaŋ, referring to the granite outcrops found in the area. In 1839, a Dakota village existed on an island at the south end of the lake, perhaps the village of Upi Iyahdeya, or Extended Tail Feathers, the chief who was present at the Treaty of 1851 at Traverse des Sioux. The lake is the source of the Minnesota River.
This state park offers visitors a quiet camping experience complete with great fishing, swimming, hiking and bird watching. The park landscape includes native hillside prairie, oak basswood forest, oak savanna woodland, cattail wetlands and spring-fed streams.
The park has two units separated by about eight miles. Bonanza Education Center is located in the northern unit, the Bonanza Area. The Bonanza Scientific and Natural Area is located within the park and protects more than 80 acres of native oak savanna and glacial till prairie habitat, as well as 50 acres of oak basswood forest and spring-fed ephemeral streams.
The southern unit is the Meadowbrook area with camping, swimming, and a picnic area.
Things to Do: Destination Site, Outdoor Activities
