Authorities say someone left the mattresses at the public access to Rice Lake, near Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Little Falls Township.<\/p>\n
Investigators believe the dumping occurred between Wednesday, November 11, and Thursday, November 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
The sheriff’s office is now asking the public to help identify those responsible.<\/p>\n
Approximately 40 Mattresses Found at Public Access<\/h3>\n
The sheriff’s office announced the investigation in a public Facebook post on Friday, November 13.<\/p>\n
The department titled its message “Rice Lake Is Not a Landfill.”<\/p>\n
Officials expressed concern about the unusually large amount of waste left at the public access.<\/p>\n
Approximately 40 mattresses were abandoned at the location, creating a significant cleanup problem.<\/p>\n
Authorities emphasized that illegal dumping places an unnecessary financial burden on others who must remove the discarded materials.<\/p>\n
The sheriff’s announcement did not identify a suspect or provide an estimated cleanup cost.<\/p>\n
Investigators Narrow Down Possible Dumping Dates<\/h3>\n
Based on preliminary findings, investigators believe the mattresses were left sometime between November 11 and November 12.<\/p>\n
Authorities are particularly interested in anyone who recently transported or disposed of a large number of mattresses.<\/p>\n
Investigators also want information about vehicles seen carrying unusually large loads of mattresses around that time.<\/p>\n
The sheriff’s office has not publicly identified a vehicle connected to the incident.<\/p>\n
Dumping Occurred Near Protected Wildlife Area<\/h3>\n
Rice Lake is near Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>, southeast of Little Falls.<\/p>\n The refuge protects important wetlands, prairie habitats, and wildlife areas in central Minnesota.<\/p>\n According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge provides habitat for numerous bird and animal species.<\/p>\n The reported dumping location was a public lake access near the refuge. Authorities did not state that the mattresses were dumped on federal refuge property.<\/p>\n Investigators are encouraging residents to share information that could help identify whoever abandoned the mattresses.<\/p>\n Anyone who recently noticed a vehicle transporting numerous mattresses is encouraged to contact authorities.<\/p>\n Information about businesses or individuals disposing of a large number of mattresses may also help investigators.<\/p>\n Anyone with information should contact the Morrison County Sheriff’s Office at 320-632-9233.<\/strong><\/p>\n The investigation remains ongoing, according to the sheriff’s public announcement.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong> Morrison County Sheriff’s Office Facebook announcement<\/a> and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n I’m Adrian Cole reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morrison County deputies investigate 40 mattresses illegally dumped at Rice Lake near Little Falls and ask the public for help identifying those responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[32449,32448,7610,32450,32451,32446,32447,32452,786],"trf_mt_town":[],"trf_mt_county":[],"trf_mt_topic":[29493],"trf_mt_series":[],"class_list":["post-73461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-crane-meadows-wildlife-refuge","tag-illegal-dumping-minnesota","tag-little-falls-minnesota","tag-little-falls-township","tag-morrison-county-news","tag-morrison-county-sheriff","tag-rice-lake-mattress-dumping","tag-rice-lake-public-access","tag-trf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73472,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73461\/revisions\/73472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73461"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_town","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_town?post=73461"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_county","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_county?post=73461"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_topic?post=73461"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_series?post=73461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Morrison County Sheriff’s Office Requests Public Assistance<\/h3>\n
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