Minnesota Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

When Ruttger’s Bay Lake Lodge in Deerwood (pop. 590) opened in 1898, $5 bought a week’s bed, board, and boat at this state’s oldest family-owned resort.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

The 120-foot High Falls on the Pigeon River is the showpiece of Grand Portage State Park, which operates as a partnership between the state and the Ojibwe Indians.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Donn Kreofsky built LARK Toy Co. in Kellogg (pop. 439) into the nation’s largest independent toy store, a 31,500-square-foot attraction with a carousel and toy museum.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Built in 1871 with limestone from Mantorville (pop. 1,054), the Dodge County Courthouse is the state’s oldest.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Stillwater (pop. 15,143) is built atop 8 to 10 acres of mudslide left by torrential rains that flooded the St. Croix Valley in May 1852 and broke a dam on Lake McKusick.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

With seating for nearly 1,000 and covering 90,000 square feet, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Chanhassen (pop. 20,321) is the nation’s largest such establishment.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Sleepy Eye (pop. 3,515) is named after the beloved Sisseton Dakota Chief Ish Tak Ha Ba, called Chief Sleepy Eye because of a droopy eyelid.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

In 1926, brothers Allan and Leonard Odell posted signs along Route 35 between Albert Lea (pop. 18,356) and Minneapolis to promote their father’s brushless shaving cream: “Shave the Modern Way—Fine for the Skin—Druggists Have It—Burma-Shave.” Sales jumped, and over time, the brothers added wit and rhyme. The roadside ads didn’t run out of gas for 40 years.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

Organized in 1866, the Minnesota State Horticultural Society in Falcon Heights (pop. 5,572) has blossomed into one of the largest state horticultural societies, with 20,290 members last year.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

The state’s first public high school opened in Winona (pop. 27,069) in 1860.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

During a University of Minnesota football game on Nov. 2, 1898, student Johnny Campbell jumped in front of the crowd and led an organized yell, becoming the nation’s first cheerleader.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Novelist Anne Tyler, born Oct. 25, 1941, in Minneapolis, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Breathing Lessons.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

The town of Warroad (pop. 1,722) gets its name from a route once used by warring Chippewa and Sioux Indian tribes.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

A grasshopper plague forced a desperate Gov. John Pillsbury to call for a statewide day of prayer on April 26, 1877. A snowstorm that day froze the locust eggs, and grateful residents of Cold Spring (pop. 2,975) built Grasshopper Chapel to praise divine intervention.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Established in 1891, Itasca State Park is the state’s oldest park and is home to the Mississippi River’s headwaters.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

In 1996, the Edina School Board delayed the daily opening of high school until 8:30 a.m. to mesh with teen sleep patterns, prompting some other Minnesota schools to follow suit.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

An outdoor Norwegian pantry called a stabbur can be seen at the Don and Alta Peterson farm near Milan (pop. 326). In 1987, a Norwegian taxi driver, Halvard Pettersen, gave the stabbur to the United States as a “thank you” for sending care packages during World War II.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

Scientists say Minnesota was covered by giant ice flows 2 million years ago, and when the glaciers retreated they left behind thousands of lakes.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

In downtown Montevideo (pop. 5,346) stands a bronze statue of Jose Artigas, the father of Uruguayan independence, given in 1949 by sister city Montevideo, Uruguay. The cities have exchanged goodwill gifts since 1905.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

The 1869 Fillmore County Jail in Preston (pop. 1,426) now is the JailHouse Inn where guests pay to sleep behind bars.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

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