Minnesota Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

Looking for Minnesota trivia? Try our list Minnesota little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

In 1918, Eric Enstrom of Bovey (pop. 662) photographed Charles Wilden, a humble bearded man with his head bowed before a loaf of bread. Enstrom couldn’t keep up with demands for the image, Grace, which became the state’s official photograph in 2002.

first appeared: 4/6/2003

The Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul developed the first hybrid popcorn, Minhybrid 250, for commercial use in 1934.

first appeared: 3/30/2003

Nicknamed the “Root Beer Lady,” Dorothy Molter became famous for her hospitality and homemade root beer served to canoeists who visited her wilderness cabin on the Isle of Pines on Knife Lake where she lived for 50 years. After her death in 1986, fans established the Dorothy Molter Museum in Ely (pop. 3,724).

first appeared: 3/23/2003

Known as the Home of the Loon, Vergas (pop. 311) has a 20-foot replica of the state bird in its City Park.

first appeared: 3/16/2003

Built in 1896, the Edna G. Tugboat pulled ore boats along the shores of Lake Superior until her retirement in 1981 to Agate Bay in Two Harbors (pop. 3,613).

first appeared: 3/9/2003

Average driving time to work for Minnesotans is 21.9 minutes, compared to the national average of 25.5 minutes.

first appeared: 3/2/2003

Black bears can be observed in the wild at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary in Orr (pop. 249).

first appeared: 2/23/2003

At Kuempel Chime Clock Works & Studio in Excelsior (pop. 2,393), the company prefers hiring older employees because they’re as dependable as clockwork.

first appeared: 2/16/2003

Lake Bronson State Park claims to be home to the nation’s largest jack pine—measuring 56 feet tall, with a trunk 116 inches around.

first appeared: 2/9/2003

The state’s only surviving authentic covered bridge, which once channeled stagecoach traffic, was built in 1869 over the Zumbro River in Zumbrota (pop. 2,789).

first appeared: 2/2/2003

Covering 288,800 acres, Red Lake in Beltrami County is the state’s largest lake.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

Shakopee (pop. 20,568) is named after Dakota Indian Chief Shakopee, whose tribe once lived in a nearby village along the Minnesota River.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

Known as the Father of Prohibition, Rep. Andrew Volstead (1860-1947) served as a prosecuting attorney and mayor of Granite Falls (pop. 3,070) before spearheading passage of the 1919 National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

American Indian activist Winona LaDuke, who lives on the White Earth Indian Reservation, was Ralph Nader’s vice presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

The state’s six iron mining and processing operations produce two-thirds of the iron ore used to make steel in the United States.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

An estimated 10,000 black bears inhabit the state, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Before starting his world-famous clinic in Rochester in the 1880s, Dr. William Worrall Mayo practiced frontier medicine at his country home in Le Sueur (pop. 3,922).

first appeared: 12/15/2002

Sculptor James Earle Fraser, who designed the buffalo nickel, was born in Winona (pop. 27,069) in 1876 and grew up listening to tales of the Old West.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

The 1875 Schech Mill on Crooked Creek in Caledonia (pop. 2,965) is the state’s only operating gristmill.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

Three TV moms—Barbara Billingsley of Leave it to Beaver, Marion Ross of Happy Days, and Debra Jo Rupp of That ’70s Show—popped open a giant can of Spam in June to officially open the $8 million Spam Museum in Austin (pop. 23,314), home of Hormel Foods.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

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