The Brule River splits around a mass of rhyolite in Judge C. R. Magney State Park. The eastern half drops fifty feet in two steps and carries on downstream. The western half pours into a pothole and, for decades, appeared to go nowhere: people threw in dye, ping-pong balls and reportedly a car, and nothing was ever seen again. In 2017 hydrologists did the obvious thing nobody had done, and measured the flow above the falls and below it. The two readings were virtually identical. Nothing is being lost. The water simply rejoins the Brule just below, and the plunge pool churns hard enough to hold anything floating under until it is destroyed. It is a strenuous 1.1 mile walk with nearly 200 stairs, and it is still worth doing. Cook County, Minnesota, off Highway 61.
Judge C. R. Magney State Park, Minnesota
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