Welcome To Minnesota - Duluth, Minnesota
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 46° 43.773 W 092° 12.339
15T E 560694 N 5175417
Historical marker giving a few facts and figures about the state. Located at the Minnesota Welcome Center in Duluth.
Waymark Code: WM2QW8
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 12/09/2007
Views: 44
Welcome to Minnesota
Known 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,
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. ~ text of marker