Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

• Chilly Minnesota
• Explore Minnesota
• Lakes of Minnesota
• Minnesota Moon
• Minnesota Morning
• Morning in Minnesota
• Southern Minnesota

Quotes

• The long, cold Minnesota winters instilled in me a fascination for exotic far off places; I aspired toward a career in tropical diseases and world health problems. (Peter Agre)
• The Minnesota spirit of compassion and help for people in need has moved countless Minnesotans to step forward to provide relief for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. (Jim Ramstad)
• My father has never forgiven me for Main Street...Main Street condemned me in his eyes as a traitor to my heritage--whereas the truth is, I shall never shed the little, indelible 'Sauk-centricities' that enabled me to write it. (Sinclair Lewis)
• Until it became a suburb, Brooklyn Park was some of the best farmland in Minnesota. (Garrison Keillor)
• When you close your eyes and try to imagine small town America, a place like Walker shimmers into view. (Eddy L. Harris)

Minnesota Symbols

• Nicknames: The North Star State; Land of 10,000 Lakes; The Gopher State; The Bread and Butter State; New England of the West
• Slogan: Explore Minnesota
• Motto: The star of the north
• Song: Hail, Minnesota (words by Truman E. Richard and Arthur E. Upson, music by Truman E. Richard)
• Folk Dance: Square Dance
• Bird: Common Loon
• Fish: Walleye Pike
• Butterfly: Monarch
• Tree: Red Norway Pine
• Flower: Pink and White Lady Slipper
• Grain: Wild Rice
• Gemstone: Lake Superior Agate
• Beverage: Milk
• Muffin: Blueberry Muffin
• Fruit: Honeycrisp Apple
• Mushroom: Morel
• Pro Sports Teams: MN Timberwolves(basketball), MN Vikings(football), MN Twins(baseball)

Facts About Minnesota

• Capital: St. Paul
• Residents: Minnesotans
• State Name Origin: from a Dakota Sioux word meaning "sky-tinted water"
• Admitted to Statehood: 11 May 1858
• Order of Admission: 32nd state
• Coastline/Shoreline: 0/90,000 miles (more than CA, FL and HI combined)
• Length: 400 miles
• Width: 250 miles
• Area: 86,939 square miles
• Size Rank: 12
• Number of Counties: 87
• Lakes: 11,842 lakes (10 acres or more in size)
• There are 201 Mud Lakes, 154 Long Lakes, and 123 Rice Lakes commonly named in MN
• Streams and Rivers: 91,944 miles
• Geographic Center: 10 miles SW of Brainerd in Crow Wing Co.
• Mean Elevation: 1,200 feet
• Highest Point: Eagle Mountain, 2,301 feet
• Lowest Point: Shore of Lake Superior, 602 feet
• Agricultural Products: corn, wheat, rye, alfalfa, sugar beets, butter, eggs, milk, potatoes, green peas, barley, soybeans, oats, livestock
• Commercial Products: tourism, industrial machinery, printing and publishing, computers, scientific and medical instruments, iron ore
• Average Annual Rainfall: 26.4 inches
• Record Low Temperature: -60 degrees (2 Feb 1996 Tower)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 83 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 114 degrees (6 Jul 1936 Moorhead)
• More information about Minnesota

Items of Interest

• Products invented or introduced in MN: masking tape, Scotch tape, the stapler, Wheaties cereal, Hormel Spam (1937), Bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, rice cakes, in-line Roller Skates, the Snowmobile, armored cars (1919), Tonka Trucks and Green Giant vegetables
• Minneapolis is home to the oldest continuously running theater (Old Log Theater) and the largest dinner theater (Chanhassan Dinner Theater) in the country.
• The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country.
• Minneapolis' famed skyway system connecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.
• The nation's first Better Business Bureau was founded in Minneapolis in 1912.
• The first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant in the United States were done at the University of Minnesota.
• The first practical water skis were invented in 1922 by Ralph W. Samuelson, who steam-bent two eight-foot-long pine boards into skies. He took his first ride behind a motorboat on a lake in Lake City.
• The first Children's department in a Library is said to be that of the Minneapolis Public Library, which separated children's books from the rest of the collection in December 1889.
• The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed in June 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster. The retail price was $13.50.
• In August 1963, Control Data Corp. of Chippewa Falls introduced the first Super Computer. It was used by the military to simulate nuclear explosions and break Soviet codes. These computers were also used to model complex phenomena such as hurricanes and galaxies.
• Candy maker Frank C. Mars introduced Milky Way candy bars in 1923 and Snickers bar in 1930. Mars introduced the 5¢ Three Musketeers bar in 1937, it contained three bars in one wrapper--each with different flavor nougat.
• Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people, more than any other state.
• The Hull-Rust mine in Hibbing became the largest open-pit mine in the world.
• Minnesota's waters flow outward in three directions: north to Hudson Bay in Canada, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
• Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. The bus line grew to become Greyhound Lines, Inc.
• In 1898, the Kensington Rune stone was found on the farm near Alexandria. The carvings allegedly tell of a journey of a band of Vikings in 1362.

Notable Natives

Some of these were born here, others just lived a while in the state.

• LaVerne, Maxene, and Patti Andrews - singers (Minneapolis)
• Warren E. Burger - supreme court justice (Saint Paul)
• William Demarest actor (Saint Paul)
• Bob Dylan (1941- ) - songwriter, singer, his protest songs made him a hero to civil-rights and student movements of the 1960s (Duluth)
• William Orville Douglas (Maine)
• Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) - novelist (Saint Paul)
• James Earle Fraser - sculptor (Winona)
• Judy Garland (1922-1969) - actress, singer (Grand Rapids)
• Jean Paul Getty - oil executive (Minneapolis)
• Duane Hanson - sculptor (Alexandria)
• Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978) - U. S. senator and vice president, Democratic candidate for president in 1968.
• Garrison Keillor - humorist (Anoka)
• Jessica Lange - actress (Cloquet)
• Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) - Nobel Prize-winning author (Sauk Center)
• Edward Lowe - inventor (Saint Paul)
• Cornell MacNeil - baritone (Minneapolis)
• John Madden - sportscaster (Austin)
• Roger Maris - baseball player (Hibbing)
• E. G. Marshall - actor (Owatonna)
• Charles Horace Mayo (1865-1939) and William J. Mayo(1861-1939) - physicians, founded the Mayo Clinic
• Eugene J. McCarthy - senator (Watkins)
• Kate Millett - feminist (Saint Paul)
• Walter Frederick Mondale (1928- ) - 42nd U.S. vice-president, Democratic candidate for president in 1984 (Celyon)
• Lauris Norstad - commander of NATO forces (Minneapolis)
• Westbrook Pegler - columnist (Minneapolis)
• John S. Pillsbury (1828-1901) - helped found the Pillsbury company in 1872, governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1882
• Jane Russell - actress (Bemidji)
• Winona Ryder - actress (Winona)
• Harrison E. Salisbury - journalist (Minneapolis)
• Charles Monroe Schulz - cartoonist (Minneapolis)
• Kevin Sorbo actor (Mound)
• Maurice H. Stans - secretary of commerce (Shakopee)
• Harold Edward Stassen - government official
• Michael Todd - producer (Minneapolis)
• Jesse Ventura - politician, entertainer (Minneapolis)
• Laura Ingalls Wilder - author (lived on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove)

The Minnesota State Flag
The flag is blue with a narrow gold border and gold fringe. In the center is the state seal. Around the seal is a wreath of lady slippers (state flower). There are nineteen stars around the wreath. They represent Montana as the nineteenth state, after the original 13 colonies, to join the union. The seal has a farmer plowing a field with an ax and gun nearby; an Indian on a horse; a river and waterfall. The word "Minnesota" is printed in red letters below the inner circle.

You Know You're From Minnesota If...

• You know how to pronounce Wayzata, Mahtomedi, and Shakopee.
• "Vacation" means going to Valleyfair.
• You measure distance in minutes.
• You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
• You know where the "Iron Range" is.
• Everyone in your family has hit a deer at least once.
• You have refused to buy something because it's too "spendy."
• Stores don't have bags; they have sacks.
• You believe that the Vikings would have won four Super Bowls by now if they were still playing in Metropolitan Stadium.
• You are convinced the Twins will never win the pennant because the owners are too cheap to pay the good players, so they all leave.
• You were proud when you turned twelve and got a pair of "5 bucklers" for your birthday.
• You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "If you go to town I wanna go with."
• You have a nickname for your chain saw and you pat it on the fuel tank at the end of a hard day's sawing.
• You have either a pet or a child named "Kirby."
• Someone mentions Old Hubie or the Humph, and you know exactly who they mean.
• You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" is.
• You may not have actually eaten it, but you have heard of Lutefisk.
• Your town has an equal number of bars and churches.
• The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page but requires six pages for sports.
• You have ever had a long telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number.
• You don't understand why everyone thinks Garrison Keillor is so funny.
• You think that deer season is a national holiday.
• You find -20 degrees F "a little chilly".
• Your town isn't trying to be ironic when it plans a "winter carnival."
• You have ever worn shorts and a parka at the same time.
• You know if another Minnesotan is from southern, middle or northern Minnesota as soon as they open their mouth.
• You have friends who schedule their wedding in the middle of January without a thought about weather conditions.
• Your bank has the name of your town included in its name.
• Your town has an annual festival honoring a fruit, vegetable or ethnic food.
• You consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping the food will swim by.
• You keep the snow tires on your truck or car all year because it's not worth taking them off for only two months.
• You grew up thinking rice was only for dessert.
• You think that ketchup is a little too spicy.
• Every January, from age two to 13, you let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on a steel post.
• Your gas station thinks "full service" means filling your gas tank, washing the windshield, checking the oil and being friendly to the customers.
• You praise the parents of the state's top basketball player for pulling him off of the team until his grades improve.
• The temperature in March is above freezing for three days in a row, and you think it's summer.
• You can recite, from memory, more than a half-dozen "Ole and Lena" jokes.
• You know people named Ole and Lena.
• You remember the thrill of going to the top of the Foshay Tower.
• You laugh out loud every time you see a news report about a blizzard shutting down the entire east coast.
• You voted for Mondale.

Songs about Minnesota

• Biggest Ball Of Twine in Minnesota - Weird Al Yankovic (1989)
• Chilly Minnesota - Ace Troubleshooter (1996)
• Minneapolis - Lucinda Williams (2003)
• Minneapolis Polka - Dick Rodgers (1997)
• Minnesota Moon - Vern Sutton and Philip Brunelle (1980)
• My Minnesota Home - Meryl Streep (2006)
• Southern Minnesota - Mason Jennings (1997)