Minnesota Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for Minnesota trivia? Try our list Minnesota little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—Founded in 1910, Olsen Fish Co. in Minneapolis is the world’s largest lutefisk processor. The company processes about 650,000 pounds of the Norwegian dried cod each year, then ships it mostly to Scandinavian communities across the nation for lutefisk suppers held during the Christmas season.
first appeared: 5/18/2008
—Minneapolis ranks No. 1 in a study of “America’s Most Literate Cities” of 2007. The annual ranking of reading habits in major U.S. cities examines newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—The fabric roof on the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis is 10 acres of Teflon-coated fiberglass and requires 20 electric fans, blowing 250,000 cubic feet of air pressure per minute, to remain inflated. Spectators enter through revolving doors that prevent release of the air that keeps the dome upright.
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—The state’s coldest day on record was set on Feb. 2, 1996, when the thermometer dropped to minus 60 degrees in Tower.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—The total area of Orono (pop. 7,538) is about 24 square miles. Land area is 16 square miles and lake area is about 8 square miles.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing has been brightening white laundry since 1883 and is manufactured in Bloomington. A traveling salesman, Al Stewart, began mixing the liquid bluing in his home in the 1870s and sold the rights to the formula to Luther Ford in 1883.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—The first circular concrete grain elevator in the United States was the Peavey-Haglin experimental concrete grain elevator, built in 1899 and 1900 in St. Louis Park (pop. 44,126). Earlier grain elevators were wooden.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—One of the state’s nicknames is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but the state actually has 11,842 lakes that are 10 acres or more in size.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—Fairmont (pop. 10,889) first was named Fair Mount for the rolling hills surrounding the adjacent lakes. The town was platted in 1857.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—Savage (pop. 21,115), formerly Hamilton, was named in 1904 after Marion W. Savage, a businessman who in 1902 bought famous racehorse Dan Patch for $60,000. The beloved horse drew huge crowds whenever he raced or toured the country, and even inspired a movie. When Dan Patch died in 1916, Savage died within hours, some say of a broken heart.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
—On the state’s coldest day, the temperature dropped to minus-60 degrees on Feb. 2, 1996, near Tower (pop. 479).
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—At the end of the year, the state will prohibit the sale of U.S. flags that are made outside of the United States. Violations are punishable with a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail.
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—Built on a hilltop near Hampton (pop. 986) is one of the nation’s largest Cambodian Buddhist temples. The 50-foot-high ornate temple took five years to build and replicates the traditional holy structures of Southeast Asia.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—“America’s Greatest Thinker” is Joe Kaiser, a Minneapolis musician and arts administrator, who won the 2007 Great American Think-Off in New York Mills (pop. 1,158). The national philosophy contest gives ordinary people a chance to voice their opinions on life’s perplexing questions. Kaiser argued that a person should trust the heart, more than the head, in making decisions.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—The Steamboat Minnehaha gliding on Lake Minnetonka between Excelsior (pop. 2,393) and Wayzata (pop. 4,113) is an early 1900s “streetcar boat,” built by the Twin City Rapid Transit Co. The steamboat resembles a streetcar, right down to its split-cane seats.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—The oldest human remains found in the state belonged to the Browns Valley Man, who lived about 9,000 years ago. His remains were discovered in 1933 in a gravel pit near Browns Valley (pop. 690).
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—Completed in 1929 and modeled on the Washington Monument, the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis was the first skyscraper built west of the Mississippi River.
first appeared: 8/19/2007
—The state’s oldest library, the Minnesota State Law Library in St. Paul, was created in 1849 in a small tavern room. Today, the library occupies more than 33,000 square feet in the Minnesota Judicial Center.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—The state is the first to adopt an official state mushroom. In 1984, the morel mushroom, also known as the sponge mushroom or honeycomb mushroom, became the official state fungus.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
—Underwater Adventures Aquarium, located beneath the Mall of America in Bloomington, teems with 4,500 sea creatures, including sharks, stingrays and sea turtles, in 1.2 million gallons of water.
first appeared: 7/1/2007
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