Driftless Area
![Relief map showing primarily the Minnesota part of the Driftless Area. The wide diagonal river is the Upper Mississippi River. In this area, it forms the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin. The rivers entering the Mississippi from the west are, from the bottom up, the Upper Iowa, Root, Whitewater, Zumbro, and Cannon Rivers. A small portion of the upper reaches of the Turkey River are visible west of the Upper Iowa. To the west, outside the Driftless Area where more regular topography is evident, tributaries of the Wapsipinicon and the Cedar Rivers are seen.](/Images/godic/202501/10/SoutheastMN1456.gif")
![Typical terrain of The Driftless Area as viewed from Wildcat Mountain State Park in Vernon County, Wisconsin](/Images/godic/202501/10/TypicalDriftless1456.jpg")
![USDA climate map. The purple area is zone 4b, lavender 4a. The reddish-orange is zone 3b. Light green is 5a.(USDA, United States National Arboretum)](/Images/godic/202501/10/USDA_North-Midwest_Climate_zones1456.jpg")
![Northern monkshood](/Images/godic/202501/10/Monkshood_garyTonhouse1456.jpg")
The Driftless Area or Paleozoic Plateau is a region in the American Midwest noted mainly for its deeply carved river valleys. While primarily in southwestern Wisconsin, it includes areas of southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and extreme northwestern Illinois. The region includes elevations ranging from 603 to 1,719 feet (184 to 524 m) and covers an area of 16,203 square miles (42,000 km). The region's peculiar terrain is the result of its having escaped glaciation in the last glacial period.