Minnesota ( ) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States
. The twelfth largest state by area in the
U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million
residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the
Minnesota Territory and admitted
to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as
the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a
Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those
waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer
residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational
opportunities.
Nearly
sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul
metropolitan area
known as the Twin Cities, the center of transportation,
business and industry, education and home to an internationally
known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of
western
prairies now given over to intensive
agriculture;
deciduous forests in the
southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated
North Woods, used for mining, forestry,
and recreation. The large majority of residents are of
Nordic (especially
Norwegian and
Swedish) or
German descent,
but ethnic diversity has increased in recent decades with influxes
of
African,
Asian, and
Latin America immigrants who
have joined the descendants of
European immigrants and the original
Native
American inhabitants.
The state is known for its moderate to progressive politics and
social policies, civic involvement, and high
voter turnout. Minnesota ranks among the
healthiest states, and has a highly
literate population.
Etymology
The word
Minnesota comes from the
Dakota name for the
Minnesota River:
Mnisota. The root
Mni (also spelled
mini or
minne) means,
"water".
Mnisota can be translated as
sky-tinted
water or
somewhat clouded water.
Native Americans
demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water
and calling it
mnisota.
Many locations in the state have similar
names, such as Minnehaha
Falls
("waterfall"), Minneiska
("white water"), Minneota
("much water"), Minnetonka
("big water"), Minnetrista
("crooked water"), and Minneapolis
, which is a combination of mni and
polis, the Greek word for "city".
Geography
Minnesota, showing roads and major
bodies of water
Minnesota
is the northernmost state apart from Alaska
; its
isolated Northwest
Angle
in Lake of the Woods
is the only part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of
the 49th Parallel. The
state is part of the U.S. region known as the
Upper Midwest.
The state shares a Lake Superior
water border with Michigan
and Wisconsin
on the northeast; the remainder of the eastern
border is with Wisconsin. Iowa
is to the
south, North
Dakota
and South
Dakota
to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario
and Manitoba
to the north. With 86,943 square miles
(225,181 km²), or approximately 2.25% of the United States,
Minnesota is the twelfth-largest state.
Geology and terrain
Minnesota contains some of the oldest rocks found on earth,
gneisses some 3.6 billion years old, or 80%
as old as the planet. About 2.7 billion years ago,
basaltic lava poured out of
cracks in the floor of the primordial
ocean;
the remains of this
volcanic rock formed the
Canadian Shield in northeast
Minnesota. The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of
Precambrian seas formed the
Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a
period of
volcanism 1.1 billion years ago,
Minnesota's geological activity has been more subdued, with no
volcanism or mountain formation, but with repeated incursions of
the sea, which left behind multiple strata of sedimentary
rock.
In
more recent times,
massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the
landscape of the state and sculpted its current terrain. The
Wisconsin glaciation left
12,000 years ago. These glaciers covered all of Minnesota except
the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams
that cut into the
bedrock. This area is
known as the
Driftless Zone for its
absence of glacial drift. Much of the remainder of the state
outside of the northeast has 50 feet (15 m) or more of
glacial till left behind as the last
glaciers retreated.
Gigantic Lake Agassiz
formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago.
Its bed
created the fertile Red River
valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley
of the Minnesota River.
Minnesota is geologically quiet today; it experiences
earthquakes infrequently, and most of them are
minor.
The
state's high point is Eagle Mountain
at 2,301 feet (701 m), which is only
13 miles (20.9 km) away from the low of 602 feet
(183 m) at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding
dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a
gently rolling
peneplain.
Two
continental divides meet in the
northeastern part of Minnesota in rural Hibbing
, forming a triple watershed. Precipitation can follow the
Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico
, the Saint
Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the
Arctic Ocean.
The state's nickname,
The Land of 10,000 Lakes, is no
exaggeration; there are 11,842 lakes over 10
acres (.04 km²) in size. The Minnesota portion of
Lake Superior is the largest at 962,700 acres (3,896 km²)
and deepest (at ) body of water in the state. Minnesota has 6,564
natural rivers and streams that cumulatively flow for
69,000 miles (111,000 km).
The Mississippi River
begins its journey from its headwaters at
Lake
Itasca
and crosses the Iowa border downstream.
It is
joined by the Minnesota River at Fort
Snelling
, by the St. Croix River near
Hastings
, by the Chippewa River at Wabasha
, and by many smaller streams. The Red
River, in the bed of glacial Lake Agassiz, drains the
northwest part of the state northward toward Canada's Hudson
Bay. Approximately 10.6 million acres (42,900 km²)
of wetlands are contained within Minnesota's borders, the most of
any state except Alaska.
Flora and fauna
Minnesota has four ecological provinces:
Prairie Parkland in the southwestern and
western parts of the state, the
Eastern Broadleaf Forest
(
Big Woods) in the southeast, extending in
a narrowing strip to the northwestern part of the state, where it
transitions into
Tallgrass
Aspen Parkland, and the northern
Laurentian Mixed Forest, a transitional
forest between the northern
boreal forest and
broadleaf forests to the south. These northern forests are a vast
wilderness of
pine and
spruce trees mixed with patchy stands of
birch and
poplar.
of Minnesota's northern forest underwent logging at some time,
leaving only a few patches of
old
growth forest today in areas such as in the
Chippewa
National Forest
and the
Superior National Forest
where the
Boundary
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
has some 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) of unlogged
land. Although logging continues, regrowth keeps about one third of
the state forested. Nearly all of Minnesota's prairies and oak
savannas have been destroyed or fragmented because of farming,
grazing, logging, and suburban development.
While loss of habitat has affected native animals such as the
pine marten,
elk,
woodland caribou, and
bison, others like
whitetail deer and
bobcat thrive. The state has the nation's largest
population of
timber wolves outside Alaska, and
supports healthy populations of
black bear and
moose. Located on the
Mississippi Flyway, Minnesota hosts
migratory waterfowl such as
geese and
ducks, and game birds such as
grouse,
pheasants, and
turkeys. It is home to
birds of prey including the
bald eagle,
red-tailed
hawk, and
snowy owl. The lakes teem
with sport fish such as
walleye,
bass,
muskellunge,
and
northern pike, and streams in the
southeast are populated by
brook,
brown, and
rainbow trout.
Climate
Minnesota endures
temperature extremes
characteristic of its
continental
climate; with cold winters and hot summers. The record high and
low span is 174 degrees (from -60 to 114 degrees)
Fahrenheit (span of 96C°; from -51°C to 45°C).
Meteorological events include
rain, snow,
blizzards, thunderstorms, hail,
derechos,
tornadoes, and high-velocity
straight-line winds. The growing season varies
from 90 days per year in the
Iron Range
to 160 days in southeast Minnesota near the Mississippi River, and
mean average temperatures range from 36 °F (2 °C) to
49 °F (9 °C). Average summer
dew
points range from about 58 °F (14.4 °C) in the south
to about 48 °F (8.9 °C) in the north. Depending on
location, average annual precipitation ranges from 19 in
(48.3 cm) to 35 in (88.9 cm), and droughts occur
every 10 to 50 years.
Protected lands
Minnesota's first state park, Itasca State
Park
, was established in 1891, and is the source of the Mississippi
River. Today Minnesota has
72 state parks and recreation
areas,
58 state
forests covering about four million acres (16,000 km²),
and numerous state wildlife preserves, all managed by the
Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources.
There are 5.5 million acres
(22,000 km²) in the Chippewa and Superior National Forests. The Superior National Forest in the
northeast contains the Boundary
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which encompasses over a million acres
(4,000 km²) and a thousand lakes. To its west is
Voyageurs
National Park
. The
Mississippi
National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), is a long corridor
along the Mississippi River through the Minneapolis-St. Paul
Metropolitan Area connecting a variety of sites of historic,
cultural, and geologic interest.
History
Before European settlement, Minnesota was populated by the
Anishinaabe, the
Dakota,
and other
Native
Americans. The first Europeans were
French fur traders
that arrived in the 1600s. Late that century,
Ojibwe Indians migrated westward to Minnesota,
causing tensions with the Sioux. Explorers such as
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du
Lhut, Father
Louis Hennepin,
Jonathan Carver,
Henry Schoolcraft, and
Joseph Nicollet, among others, mapped out
the state.
The portion of the state east of the Mississippi River became a
part of the United States at the end of the
American Revolutionary War, when
the
Second Treaty of Paris
was signed. Land west of the Mississippi River was acquired with
the
Louisiana Purchase, although
a portion of the
Red River Valley
was disputed until the
Treaty of
1818. In 1805,
Zebulon Pike
bargained with Native Americans to acquire land at the
confluence of the Minnesota and
Mississippi rivers.
The construction of Fort Snelling
followed between 1819 and 1825. Its soldiers built a
grist mill and a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls
, the first of the water-powered industries around
which the city of Minneapolis later grew. Meanwhile,
squatters, government officials, and tourists had settled near the
fort. In 1839, the Army forced them to move downriver, and they
settled in the area that became St. Paul.
Minnesota Territory was formed on March
3, 1849. Thousands of people had come to build farms and cut
timber, and Minnesota became the
32nd U.S. state on
May 11, 1858.
Treaties between European settlers and the Dakota and Ojibwe
gradually forced the natives off their lands and on to smaller
reservations. As conditions deteriorated for the Dakota, tensions
rose, leading to the
Dakota War of
1862.
The result of the six-week war was the
execution of 38 Dakota — the largest mass execution in United
States history — and the exile of most of the rest of the Dakota to
the Crow Creek Reservation in
Nebraska
. As many as 800 white settlers died during
the war.
Logging and farming were mainstays of Minnesota's early economy.
The
sawmills at Saint Anthony Falls, and logging centers like Marine on
St. Croix
, Stillwater
, and Winona
, processed high volumes of lumber. These
cities were situated on rivers that were ideal for transportation.
Later, Saint Anthony Falls was tapped to provide power for flour
mills. Innovations by Minneapolis millers led to the production of
Minnesota "patent" flour, which commanded almost double the price
of "bakers" or "clear" flour, which it replaced. By 1900, Minnesota
mills, led by
Pillsbury,
Northwestern and
the Washburn-Crosby Company (a forerunner of
General Mills), were grinding 14.1% of the
nation's grain.
The state's iron-mining industry was established with the discovery
of iron in the
Vermilion
Range and the
Mesabi Range in the
1880s, and in the
Cuyuna Range in the
early 1900s.
The ore was shipped by rail to Duluth
and Two Harbors
, then loaded onto ships and transported eastward
over the Great
Lakes
.
Industrial development and the rise of manufacturing caused the
population to shift gradually from rural areas to cities during the
early 1900s. Nevertheless, farming remained prevalent. Minnesota's
economy was hard-hit by the
Great
Depression, resulting in lower prices for farmers, layoffs
among iron miners, and labor unrest. Compounding the adversity,
western Minnesota and the Dakotas were hit by drought from 1931 to
1935.
New Deal programs provided some
economic turnaround. The
Civilian Conservation Corps and
other programs around the state established some jobs for Indians
on their reservations, and the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
provided the tribes with a mechanism of self-government. This
provided natives a greater voice within the state, and promoted
more respect for tribal customs because religious ceremonies and
native languages were no longer
suppressed.
After
World War II, industrial
development quickened. New technology increased farm productivity
through automation of
feedlots for hogs and
cattle, machine milking at dairy farms, and raising chickens in
large buildings. Planting became more specialized with
hybrid of corn and wheat, and the use of
farm machinery such as
tractors and
combines became the norm.
University
of Minnesota
professor Norman
Borlaug contributed to these developments as part of the
Green Revolution. Suburban development accelerated due to increased
postwar housing demand and convenient transportation. Increased
mobility, in turn, enabled more specialized jobs.
Minnesota became a center of technology after the war.
Engineering Research
Associates was formed in 1946 to develop computers for the
United States Navy. It later
merged with
Remington Rand, and then
became
Sperry Rand.
William Norris left Sperry in 1957 to form
Control Data Corporation
(CDC).
Cray Research was formed when
Seymour Cray left CDC to form his own company.
Medical device maker
Medtronic also
started business in the Twin Cities in 1949.
Cities and towns
Saint
Paul
, located in east-central Minnesota along the banks
of the Mississippi River, has been Minnesota's capital city since
1849, first as capital of the Territory of Minnesota, and then as
state capital since 1858.
Saint
Paul is adjacent to Minnesota's most populous city, Minneapolis; they and their suburbs are known collectively as
the Twin
Cities
metropolitan area,
the thirteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States and
home to about 60% of the state's population. The remainder
of the state is known as "
Greater
Minnesota" or "Outstate Minnesota".
The state has seventeen cities with populations above 50,000 (based
on 2005 estimates).
In descending order of size they are
Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Rochester
, Duluth, Bloomington
, Plymouth
, Brooklyn Park
, Eagan
, Coon Rapids
, Saint Cloud
, Burnsville
, Eden Prairie
, Maple Grove
, Woodbury
, Blaine
, Lakeville
, and Minnetonka
. Of these only Rochester, Duluth, and Saint
Cloud are outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Minnesota's population continues to grow, primarily in the urban
centers.
The populations of metropolitan Sherburne
and Scott Counties
doubled between 1980 and 2000, while 40 of the
state's 87 counties lost residents over the same
decades.
Demographics
Map of Minnesota's population
change.
Population
From fewer than 6,100 people in 1850, Minnesota's population grew
to over 1.7 million by 1900. Each of the next six decades saw
a 15% increase in population, reaching 3.4 million in 1960.
Growth then slowed, rising 11% to 3.8 million in 1970, and an
average of 9% over the next three decades to 4.9 million in
the
2000 Census. As of July 1, 2008, the
state's population was estimated at 5,220,393 by the
U.S. Census
Bureau. The rate of population change along with age and gender
distributions approximate the national average. Minnesota's growing
minority groups, however, still form
a significantly smaller percentage of the population than in the
nation as a whole.
The center
of population of Minnesota is located in Hennepin
County
, in the city of Rogers
.
Race and ancestry
The principal ancestries of Minnesota's residents in 2008 has been
surveyed to be the following:
Ancestries claimed by less than 3% of the
population include American, Italian, Dutch , and Czech, each between 2 and 3%; Danish, Scottish,
French Canadian, and Scotch-Irish, each between 1 and 1.9%;
and less than 1% each for Russian,
Welsh, Swiss, Arab,
Hungarian, Ukrainian, Greek, Slovak,
Lithuanian, Portuguese, and West Indian
.
The state's racial composition in the 2008
American Community Survey
was:
Religion
Although
Christianity is dominant,
there is a long history of non-Christian faiths.
Ashkenazi Jewish pioneers
set up Saint Paul's first
synagogue in
1856, and there are now appreciable numbers of adherents to Islam,
Buddhism, and other traditions. The majority of Minnesotans are
Protestants, though Roman Catholics make up the largest single
Christian denomination. A 2008 survey by the
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
showed that 32.0% of Minnesotans were affiliated with
Protestant traditions, 21.0% with
Evangelical Protestants, 28.0% with
Roman Catholic, 1.0%
each with Jewish,
Muslim,
Buddhist, and Black Protestant traditions, smaller
amounts for other faiths, and 13.0% unaffiliated. This is broadly
consistent with the results of the 2001 American Religious
Identification Survey, which also gives detail on percentages of
many individual denominations.
Economy
Once primarily a producer of raw materials, Minnesota's economy has
transformed in the last 200 years to emphasize finished products
and services. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the
economy is its diversity; the relative outputs of its business
sectors closely match the United States as a whole. The economy of
Minnesota had a
gross domestic
product of $262 billion in 2008. Thirty-three of the United
States' top 1,000 publicly traded companies (by revenue in 2008)
are headquartered in Minnesota, including
Target,
UnitedHealth Group,
3M,
Medtronic,
General Mills,
U.S. Bancorp, and
Best Buy. The largest privately owned U.S.
company,
Cargill, is headquartered in
Minnetonka.
The
per
capita personal income in 2008 was $42,772, the tenth-highest
in the nation. The three-year
median household income from 2002 to
2004 was $55,914, ranking fifth in the U.S. and first among the 36
states not on the Atlantic coast. White families earned more income
than the national average but among the population under age 18,
more than 20% of Asians and Hispanics, more than 40% of African
Americans and more than 40% of Native American females in Minnesota
lived in poverty.
Industry and commerce
Minnesota's earliest industries were fur trading and agriculture;
the city of Minneapolis grew around the
flour
mills powered by
St. Anthony
Falls. Although less than 1% of the population is employed in
the agricultural sector, it remains a major part of the state's
economy, ranking 6
th in the nation in the value of
products sold. The state is the U.S.'s largest producer of
sugar beets,
sweet
corn, and
green peas for processing,
and farm-raised
turkeys.
Forestry remains strong, including
logging,
pulpwood processing
and paper production, and forest products manufacturing. Minnesota
was famous for its soft-ore mines, which produced a significant
portion of the world's
iron ore for over a
century. Although the high-grade ore is now depleted,
taconite mining continues, using processes
developed locally to save the industry. In 2004, the state produced
75% of the country's usable iron ore.
The mining boom
created the port of Duluth which continues to be important for shipping ore,
coal, and agricultural products. The manufacturing sector
now includes technology and
biomedical
firms in addition to the older food processors and heavy industry.
The
nation's first indoor shopping mall
was Edina's
Southdale
Center
and its largest is Bloomington's Mall of
America
.
Minnesota is one of 42
U.S. states with
its own
lottery; its games include
Powerball,
Hot Lotto
(both
multi-state),
and
Gopher 5.
Energy use and production
The state produces
ethanol fuel and is
the first to mandate its use, a 10% mix (
E10), and a 20% mix (E20) in 2013. There are more
than 310 service stations supplying
E85 fuel. A
2%
biodiesel blend has been required in
diesel fuel since 2005. As of December
2006 the state was the country's fourth-largest producer of
wind power, with 895
megawatts installed and another 200 megawatts
planned, much of it on the windy
Buffalo
Ridge in the southwest part of the state.
State taxes
Minnesota has a slightly
progressive income tax structure; the
three brackets of state
income tax rates
are 5.35%, 7.05% and 7.85%. Minnesota is ranked as the 6th highest
in the nation for per capita total state taxes. The
sales tax in Minnesota is 6.875%, but there is no
sales tax on
clothing,
prescription medications, some
service, or
food
items for home consumption. The
state legislature may allow
municipalities to institute local sales taxes and special local
taxes, such as the 0.5% supplemental sales tax in Minneapolis.
Excise taxes are levied on alcohol, tobacco,
and motor fuel. The state imposes a
use tax
on items purchased elsewhere but used within Minnesota. Owners of
real property in Minnesota pay
property tax to their county,
municipality, school district, and special taxing
districts.
Culture
Fine and performing arts
Minnesota's major
fine art museums include
the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
, the
Walker Art Center
, and the
Frederick R.
Weisman Art Museum. The
Minnesota Orchestra and the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
are prominent full-time professional
musical ensembles that perform concerts and
offer educational programs to the community. Attendance at
theatrical,
musical, and
comedy events in the area is strong.
The
Guthrie
Theater
moved into a new building in 2006, boasting three
stages and overlooking the Mississippi River. In the United States,
the Twin Cities' number of theater seats per capita ranks behind
only New York
City
; with some 2.3 million theater tickets sold
annually. The
Minnesota
Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of
theatre,
dance,
improvisation,
puppetry, kids' shows,
visual
art, and musicals. The summer festival consists of over 800
performances over 11 days in Minneapolis, and is the largest
non-juried performing arts festival in the United States.
Minnesota
has found its way into the classical music repertoire in the form
of Ferde Grofe's Mississippi Suite, a movement of which
depicts the birth of the Mississippi
River by Lake
Itasca, and the Chippewa
Indians who reside there.
Literature
The rigors and rewards of pioneer life on the
prairie were the subject of
Giants in the
Earth by
Ole Rolvaag and of the
Little House series of
children's books by
Laura Ingalls
Wilder. Small-town life was attacked by
Sinclair Lewis in the novel
Main Street, and more gently
and affectionately satirized by
Garrison Keillor in his tales of
Lake Wobegon. St. Paul native
F. Scott
Fitzgerald wrote of the social insecurities and aspirations of
the young city in stories such as
Winter Dreams and
The Ice Palace
(published in
Flappers and
Philosophers).
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem
The Song of Hiawatha was inspired
by Minnesota and names many of the state's places and bodies of
water.
Entertainment
Minnesotan musicians of many genres include rock star
Prince, harmony singers
The Andrews Sisters,
rockabilly star
Eddie
Cochran, folk musician
Bob Dylan,
garage rock band
The Castaways, pop
songwriters
Jimmy Jam &
Terry Lewis, indie rock artists
Jonny
Lang and
Soul Asylum, and cult
favorites such as
Hüsker Dü and
The Replacements.
Minnesotans have made significant contributions to comedy, theater,
and film.
Ole and Lena jokes are best
appreciated when delivered in the accent of
Scandinavian Americans.
Garrison Keillor is known around the
country for resurrecting old-style
radio
comedy with
A Prairie
Home Companion, which has aired since the 1970s. Local
television had the
satirical show
The Bedtime Nooz in the
1960s, while area natives
Lizz
Winstead and
Craig Kilborn helped
create the increasingly influential
Daily Show decades later. Actors from
the state include
Eddie Albert,
Judy Garland,
Jessica Lange,
Winona
Ryder.
Joel and Ethan Coen,
Terry Gilliam and
Mike Todd contributed to the art of
film, and others brought the offbeat
cult shows Mystery Science Theater
3000 and
Let's Bowl to
national
cable from the Twin
Cities.
Popular culture
Stereotypical Minnesotan traits include
manners known as "
Minnesota nice,"
Lutheranism, a strong sense of community
and shared culture, and their distinctive brand of
North Central American
English sprinkled with Scandinavian-sounding words such as
uff da.
Potlucks, usually with a variety of
hotdish casseroles, are popular at community
functions, especially church activities. Minnesota's Scandinavian
heritage makes
lutefisk a traditional
holiday dish. Movies like
Fargo,
Juno,
A
Serious Man,
Drop
Dead Gorgeous,
New in
Town,
Grumpy Old
Men and
Grumpier Old
Men; the television series
Mystery Science Theater
3000,
The Golden
Girls, and
Coach; the
radio show A Prairie Home Companion; and
the book
How to Talk
Minnesotan lampoon (and celebrate) Minnesotan culture,
speech and mannerisms.
The
Minnesota
State Fair
, advertised as The Great Minnesota
Get-Together, is an icon of state culture. In a state
of 5.2 million people, there were almost 1.8 million visitors to
the fair in 2009, breaking the previous record set in 2001. The
fair covers the variety of life in Minnesota, including
fine art,
science,
agriculture, food preparation,
4H displays, music,
the
midway, and corporate merchandising. It is known for its
displays of
seed art,
butter sculptures of
dairy princesses, the birthing
barn, and the "fattest pig" competition. One can also find dozens
of varieties of food on a stick, such as
Pronto Pups,
cheese curds, and deep fried
candy bars. On a smaller scale, many of these attractions are
offered at numerous county fairs.
Other
large annual festivals include the Saint Paul Winter Carnival,
Minneapolis' Aquatennial and
Mill City Music Festival, Moondance
Jam in Walker, the Judy Garland
Festival in Grand Rapids, and Detroit Lakes'
10,000 Lakes
Festival and WE Fest.
Health
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
The people of Minnesota have a high rate of participation in
outdoor activities; the state is ranked first in the percentage of
residents who engage in regular exercise. Minnesotans have the
nation's lowest premature death rate, third-lowest
infant mortality rate, and the
second-longest life expectancies. According to the U.S. Census
Bureau, 91% of Minnesotans have health insurance, more than in any
other state. These and other measures have led two groups to rank
Minnesota as the fourth-healthiest state in the nation.
On October 1, 2007 Minnesota became the seventeenth state to enact
a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and bars with the enactment
of
Freedom to Breathe
Act.
Medical care is provided by a comprehensive network of hospitals
and clinics, headed by two institutions with international
reputations. The
University of Minnesota
Medical School is a highly rated teaching institution that has
made a number of breakthroughs in treatment, and its research
activities contribute significantly to the state's growing
biotechnology industry.
The Mayo Clinic
, a world-renowned medical practice, is based in
Rochester. Mayo and the University are partners in the
Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, a
state-funded program that conducts research into
cancer,
Alzheimer's
disease,
heart health,
obesity, and other areas.
In March
2008, The American State Litter Scorecard, presented at the
American
Society for Public Administration national conference, rated
Minnesota along with Vermont
as topmost Best states for litter/debris removals
from public properties (roadways, streams, trails), resulting in an
overall healthy environmental quality status.
Education
One of
the first acts of the Minnesota Legislature when it opened in 1858
was the creation of a normal school at
Winona. This commitment to education has
contributed to a literate and well-educated population; the state
ranked 13
th on the 2006–2007
Morgan Quitno Smartest State Award, and is
first in the percentage of residents with at least a high school
diploma. But while more than 90% of high school seniors graduated
in 2006, about 6% of white, 28% of African American, 30% of Asian
American and more than 34% of Hispanic and Native American students
dropped out of school. Minnesota students earn the highest average
score in the nation on the
ACT
exam. While Minnesota has chosen not to implement
school vouchers, it is home to the first
charter school.
The state supports a network of public
universities and colleges, currently 32
institutions in the
Minnesota State
Colleges and Universities System, and five major campuses of
the
University of
Minnesota. It is also home to more than 20 private colleges and
universities, six of which rank among the top 100
liberal arts colleges, according to
U.S. News and World Report.
Transportation
Transportation in Minnesota is overseen by the
Minnesota Department of
Transportation (MnDOT for short and used in the local news
media).
Principal transportation corridors radiate
from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and Duluth. The major
Interstate highways are
I-35,
I-90, and
I-94,
with I-35 and I-94 passing through the Minneapolis-St. Paul
metropolitan area, and I-90 going east-west along the southern edge
of the state. In 2006, a
constitutional amendment was passed
that required sales and use taxes on motor vehicles to fund
transportation, with at least 40% dedicated to
public transit. There are nearly two dozen
rail corridors in Minnesota, most of
which go through Minneapolis-St. Paul or Duluth.
There is water
transportation along the Mississippi
River system and from the ports of Lake Superior.
Minnesota's principal airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport
(MSP), the headquarters and major passenger and
freight hub for Northwest
Airlines and Sun Country
Airlines. Most other domestic carriers serve the
airport. Large commercial jet service is provided at Duluth and
Rochester, with scheduled commuter service to six smaller cities
via Northwest Airlines subsidiary
Mesaba
Airlines.
Amtrak's daily Empire
Builder (Chicago-Seattle) train runs through Minnesota, calling
at Midway
Station
in St. Paul and five other stations.
Intercity bus service is provided by
Greyhound,
Jefferson Lines, and
Coach USA. Local public transit is provided by
bus networks in the larger cities and by the
Hiawatha Line electrified
light rail service linking downtown Minneapolis
with the Airport and Bloomington.
Law and government
As with the federal government of the United States, power in
Minnesota is divided into three branches: executive, legislative,
and judicial.
Executive
The executive branch is headed by the
governor. The current governor is
Tim Pawlenty, a
Republican whose first term
began on January 6, 2003 and who was
narrowly re-elected in
2006. The current
Lieutenant
Governor of Minnesota is
Carol
Molnau, who was also the head of the
Minnesota Department of
Transportation until the Senate refused to confirm her
appointment in February 2008. The offices of governor and
lieutenant governor have four-year terms. The governor has a
cabinet consisting of the
leaders of various state government agencies, called commissioners.
The other elected constitutional offices are
secretary of
state,
attorney
general, and
state
auditor.
Legislature
The Minnesota
Legislature is a
bicameral body consisting of the
Senate and the
House of Representatives.
The state has sixty-seven districts, each covering about sixty
thousand people. Each district has one senator and two
representatives (each district being divided into
A and
B sections). Senators serve for four years and
representatives for two years. In the November 2008 election, the
Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Party (DFL) gained two more house seats, giving them control of
the House of Representatives by 87-47. The Senate is also
controlled by the DFL with a
veto-proof
majority of 47-21.
Judiciary
Minnesota's court system has three levels. Most cases start in the
district courts, which are courts of
general jurisdiction. There are 272 district court judges in ten
judicial districts. Appeals from the trial courts and challenges to
certain governmental decisions are heard by the
Minnesota Court of Appeals,
consisting of sixteen judges who typically sit in three-judge
panels.
The seven-justice Minnesota
Supreme Court
hears all appeals from the Tax Court, the Worker's
Compensation Court, first-degree murder convictions, and discretionary appeals from the Court
of Appeals; it also has original
jurisdiction over election disputes.
Two specialized courts within administrative agencies have been
established: the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals, and the
Tax Court, which deals with non-criminal tax cases.
Regional
Below the city and county levels of government found in the United
States, Minnesota has other entities that provide governmental
oversight and planning. Some actions in the Twin Cities
metropolitan area are coordinated by the
Metropolitan Council, and many lakes
and rivers are overseen by
watershed
districts and
soil and water conservation
districts.
There are seven
Anishinaabe reservations
and four
Dakota communities in
Minnesota. These communities are self-governing.
Federal
Minnesota's
United States
senators are Democrat
Amy
Klobuchar and Democrat
Al Franken.
The outcome of the
United States
Senate election in Minnesota, 2008 was contested until June 30
the next year; when the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of
Franken, Republican
Norm Coleman
conceded defeat, and the vacant seat was filled.
The state has eight congressional districts; they are represented by Tim Walz (1st district; DFL), John Kline (2nd; R), Erik Paulsen (3rd; R), Betty McCollum (4th; DFL), Keith Ellison (5th; DFL), Michele Bachmann (6th; R), Collin Peterson (7th; DFL), and James Oberstar (8th; DFL).
Federal
court cases are heard in the United
States District Court for the District of Minnesota, which
holds court in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls
. Appeals are heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of
Appeals based in St. Louis, Missouri
and St. Paul.
Politics
Minnesota is known for a politically active citizenry, and
populism has been a longstanding force among the
state's
political parties. Minnesota
has a consistently high
voter turnout,
due in part to its liberal
voter
registration laws, with virtually no evidence of voter fraud.
In the
2008
U.S. presidential election, 77.9% of eligible Minnesotans
voted—the highest percentage of any U.S. state—versus the national
average of 61.2%. Previously unregistered voters can register on
election day at their
polls with evidence of
residency.
Hubert Humphrey brought national
attention to the state with his address at the
1948 Democratic National
Convention.
Eugene McCarthy's
anti-war stance and popularity in the 1968
New Hampshire Primary likely convinced
Lyndon B. Johnson to drop out of the
presidential
election. Minnesotans have consistently cast their Electoral
College votes for Democratic presidential candidates since 1976,
longer than any other state. Minnesota is the only state in the
nation that did not vote for
Ronald
Reagan in either of his presidential runs.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have major party status
in Minnesota, but its state-level "Democratic" party is actually a
separate party, officially known as the
Minnesota
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). Formed out of a 1944
alliance of the Minnesota Democratic and
Farmer-Labor parties, the DFL
now serves as a de-facto proxy to the federal
Democratic Party, and its
distinction from the Democratic Party, while still official, is now
a functional technicality.
The state has had active third party movements.
The Reform Party, now the
Independence Party,
was able to elect former mayor of Brooklyn
Park and professional
wrestler Jesse Ventura to the
governorship in
1998. The
Independence Party has
received enough support to keep major party status.
The Green Party, while no longer having
major party status, has a large presence in municipal government,
notably in Minneapolis and Duluth, where it competes directly with the DFL party for
local offices. Official "Major party" status in Minnesota
(which grants state funding for elections) is reserved to parties,
which receive 5% or more of the state's general vote in the U.S.
Presidential election. Status is revised every four years.
The state's
U.S. Senate seats have generally been split
since the early 1990s, and in the
108th and
109th Congresses, Minnesota's
congressional delegation was split, with four representatives and
one senator from each party. In the 2006 midterm election,
Democrats were elected to all state offices except for governor and
lieutenant governor, where Republicans
Tim
Pawlenty and
Carol Molnau narrowly
won re-election. The DFL also posted double-digit gains in both
houses of the legislature, elected
Amy
Klobuchar to the U.S. Senate, and increased the party's U.S.
House caucus by one.
Keith
Ellison
was elected as the first
African
American U.S. Representative from Minnesota as well as the
first
Muslim elected to Congress
nationwide.
Media
The Twin Cities area is the fifteenth largest
media market in the United States as ranked by
Nielsen Media Research.
The
state's other top markets are Fargo-Moorhead (118th nationally),
Duluth-Superior (137th),
Rochester-Mason City-Austin (152nd), and Mankato
(200
th).
Broadcast television in Minnesota and
the Upper Midwest started on April 27, 1948, when KSTP-TV
began broadcasting. Hubbard Broadcasting
Corporation, which owns KSTP, is now the only locally owned
television company in Minnesota. There are currently
39
analog broadcast stations and 23
digital channels broadcast over
Minnesota.
The four largest daily newspapers are the
Star Tribune in Minneapolis, the
Pioneer Press in
Saint Paul, the
Duluth News
Tribune in Duluth and
The
Minnesota Daily, the largest student-run newspaper in the
U.S. Sites offering daily news on the Web include
MinnPost, the Twin Cities
Daily
Planet, business news site
Finance and Commerce and
Washington D.C.-based
Minnesota Independent. Weeklies
including
City Pages and monthly
publications such as
Minnesota Monthly are
available.
Two of the largest
public radio
networks,
Minnesota Public
Radio (MPR) and
Public
Radio International (PRI), are based in the state. MPR has the
largest audience of any regional public radio network in the
nation, broadcasting on 37 radio stations. PRI weekly provides more
than 400 hours of programming to almost 800 affiliates. The state's
oldest radio station,
KUOM-AM, was launched in
1922 and is among the 10
oldest radio station in the
United States.
The University of Minnesota-owned station is still on the air, and since 1993
broadcasts a college rock
format.
Sports and recreation
Organized sports
Minnesota has professional men's teams in all major sports.
The
Hubert
H.
Humphrey Metrodome is home to the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.
The Metrodome formerly hosted The
Minnesota Twins of
Major League Baseball, winners of the
1987 and
1991 World Series.
The Twins are moving
to the newly constructed Target Field
for the 2010 season. The Minnesota Timberwolves of the
National Basketball
Association play in the Target Center
. The National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild team reached 300 consecutive
sold-out games in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center
on January 16, 2008. The Minnesota Thunder plays professional
soccer in the USL First Division,
the second tier of the American
Soccer Pyramid; it plays at the National
Sports Center
in Blaine.
Minor league baseball is
represented both by major league-sponsored teams and independent
teams such as the popular
St. Paul
Saints.
Professional women's sports include the
Minnesota Lynx of the
Women's National
Basketball Association, the
Minnesota Lightning of the
United Soccer Leagues W-League, the
Minnesota
Vixen of the
Independent Women's Football
League, and the
Minnesota
Whitecaps of the
National Women's Hockey
League.
The Twin
Cities campus of the University of Minnesota is a National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division I
school, with sports teams
competing in either the Big Ten
Conference or the Western Collegiate Hockey
Association. Four additional schools in the state compete
in NCAA Division I ice hockey: the University
of Minnesota Duluth
, Minnesota State University,
Mankato
, St. Cloud State University
, and Bemidji State University
. There are nine NCAA
Division II colleges represented by the
Northern Sun
Intercollegiate Conference in Minnesota, and nineteen NCAA
Division III colleges represented by
the
Minnesota
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and
Upper Midwest Athletic
Conference.
Winter Olympic Games medallists
from the state include eleven of the twenty members of the
gold medal 1980 ice
hockey team (coached by Minnesota native
Herb Brooks) and the bronze medallist
U.S. men's
curling team in the
2006 Winter Olympics. Swimmer
Tom Malchow won an Olympic gold medal in the
2000 Summer games and a silver
medal in
1996.
Grandma's Marathon is run every
summer along the scenic
North Shore of Lake Superior,
and the
Twin Cities Marathon
winds around lakes and the Mississippi River during the peak of the
fall color season.
Outdoor recreation
Minnesotans participate in high levels of physical activity, and
many of these activities are outdoors. The strong interest of
Minnesotans in
environmentalism has
been attributed to the popularity of these pursuits.
In the warmer months, these activities often involve water. Weekend
and longer trips to family
cabin on
Minnesota's numerous lakes are a way of life for many residents.
Activities include
water sports such as
water skiing, which originated in the
state,
boating,
canoeing, and
fishing. More
than 36% of Minnesotans fish, second only to Alaska.
Fishing does not cease when the lakes freeze;
ice fishing has been around since the arrival of
early
Scandinavian immigrants.
Minnesotans have learned to embrace their long, harsh winters in
ice sports such as
skating,
hockey,
curling, and
broomball, and snow sports such as
cross-country skiing,
alpine skiing,
snowshoeing, and
snowmobiling.
State and national
forests and the
seventy-two state parks are
used year-round for
hunting,
camping, and
hiking. There are
almost of snowmobile trails statewide. Minnesota has more miles of
bike trails than any other state, and a
growing network of
hiking trails, including
the
Superior Hiking Trail in
the northeast. Many hiking and bike trails are used for
cross-country skiing during the winter.
State symbols
Minnesota's state symbols:
See also
References
- Minnesota. Dictionary.com. The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
- Retrieved on 2009-07-04.
- Ecological Provinces, Ecological
Classification System, Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources (1999). Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
- Bison disappeared in the mid 1800s; the last bison was reported
in southwest Minnesota in 1879. As referenced in
- Gray Wolf Factsheet, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (January 2007). Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
- Steil, Mark and Tim Post. Hundreds of settlers killed in attacks.
Minnesota Public Radio. September 26, 2002.
-
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US27&-qr_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_DP2&-context=adp&-ds_name=&-tree_id=308&-_lang=en&-redoLog=true&-format=
- Selected Social Characteristics in the United
States: 2005-2007, Minnesota, U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on
2009-07-04.
- .
- Page 21
- S. Spacek, The American State Litter Scorecard, 2008.
- Minnesota's High Quality of Life,
ExploreMinnesota.com (state tourism agency). Retrieved on
2009-07-04.
- Members of the Minnesota House of Representatives
2009-2010 Minnesota House of Representatives. Retrieved
2009-07-05
- Minnesota Senate Members, Minnesota Senate.
Retrieved 2009-07-04.
- http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/
- Huefner, Steven F., Daniel P Tokaji, and Edward B. Foley
(2007), ‘'From Registration to Recounts: The Election Ecosystems
of Five Midwestern States'’, The Ohio State University Moritz
College of Law, p. 137. ISBN 978-0-9801400-0-2.
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