This digital rendering shows the landscape of the Ranelius site.  The area of the Ranelius site is outlined in red.  The site is located on a high terrace that directly overlooks modern-day Spring Lake.  The terrace is backed, to the south, by a tall glacial ridge and surrounded by a deep gully.  Originally, the site would have overlooked not open water, as it does today, but a wide marsh.  The Bremer site, another settlement occupied at about the same time is located to the east on a similar terrace, separated by a wide gully.