Minnesota Statehood- 150 Years

Minnesota is where the Mississippi River begins, where the world’s coldest temperature was recorded, and where you can “shop’ til you drop” at the world’s largest shopping mall, Mall of America. Minnesota has been called the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and between the lakes are abundant prairies, rolling hills, northern forests, the shoreline of Lake Superior and the canoe area at the Boundary Waters. State history includes many stories: those of Native Americans, French-Canadians, iron miners, lumbermen, lighthouse keepers and hardy pioneers from Germany, Scandinavia and Central Europe.

There’s Mississippi River lore and stories about Paul Bunyan, a mythical lumberjack of huge size and strength and his companion, Babe the Blue Ox. On May 11, 1858 Minnesota joined the Union as the 32nd state; this year marks the 150th Anniversary of statehood. Our display case takes a deeper look at this state and its famous citizens.

We have many wonderful books about Minnesota like “How to Talk Minnesotan” by Howard Mohr, and “Six feet under” a graveyard guide to Minnesota by Stew Thornley. We also have new books like “Minnesota State Fair” and “Cabins of Minnesota”. For children there are Mary Casanova’s award winning “Moose Tracks”, “Meet Kirsten” of the American Girl series and of course Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic “On the Banks of Plum Creek”. Check out a book and read about Minnesota.