Welcome to Minnesota - Grand Portage MN
Posted by: 
PeterNoG
N 48° 00.002 W 089° 35.560
16U E 306605 N 5319556
This Minnesota Historical Marker is at the Grand Portage State Park Welcome Center on Highway 61 less than 1/2 mile southwest of the Canadian Border.
Waymark Code: WMEYXV
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 07/24/2012
Views: 12
~ text from marker ~Welcome to MinnesotaKnown to her citizens as the North Star State or the Gopher State, Minnesota has never claimed to be the Land of Giants. But two famous American giants do hail from Minnesota. The giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan cut the pine forest to the north that helped build America's towns and cities, and the Jolly Green Giant towers over the south's lush corn, vegetable, and soybean fields, a part of the midwest's fertile farm belt.
Like its neighbors, the thirty-second state grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. Two of the nation's favorite fictional small towns -- Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon -- reflect that heritage. But the vast forests, the huge open pit iron ore mines, and the busy shipping lanes of Lake Superior attracted different settlers with different skills and made Minnesota a state of surprising diversity.
Best known for its 15,000 lakes. Minnesota has some 65 towns with the word "lake" in their names, not counting those whose names mean "lake" or "water" in the Chippewa or Dakota Indian languages. There are also 13 "falls," 10 "rivers," 5 "rapids," and a smattering of "isles," "bays," and "beaches." Even the state name itself means "sky colored water" in Dakota. The mighty Mississippi River starts as a small stream flowing out of Minnesota's Lake Itasca, and a Minneapolis waterfall called Minnehaha inspired "The song of Hiawatha," even though Longfellow never actually visited the falls his poem made known to every schoolchild.
Minnesotans are proud of their state's natural beauty and are leaders in resource conservation and concern for the quality of life.
~ Erected by The Minnesota Historical Society ~
1991There are already eight other "Welcome to Minnesota" Historical signs spread around the edge of the state:
Welcome to Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-IA I-35)
Welcome to Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-ND I-94)
Welcome to Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-SD I-90)
Welcome to Minnesota Historical Marker – rural Worthington, MN (
visit link) (MN-IA Hwy 59)
Welcome to Minnesota/Minnesota's Fashionable Tour - I-90 Rest Area (
visit link) (MN-WI I-90)
Welcome To Minnesota - Duluth, Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-WI I-35)
Welcome to Minnesota - International Falls, Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-ON Canada Hwy 53)
Welcome to Minnesota (
visit link) (MN-ND Hwy 2)