Fort Towson

The Minnesota Portal

The Flag of Minnesota

Minnesota (/ˌmɪnəˈstə/ MIN-ə-SOH-tə) is a state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" for having more than 14,000 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each; roughly a third of the state is forested; much of the remainder is prairie and farmland. More than 60% of Minnesotans (about 3.7 million) live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", the state's main political, economic, and cultural hub and the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Other minor metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas include Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, and St. Cloud.

Minnesota, which gets its name from the Dakota language, has been inhabited by various Indigenous peoples since the Woodland period of the 11th century BCE. Between roughly 200 and 500 CE, two areas of the indigenous Hopewell tradition emerged: the Laurel complex in the north, and Trempealeau Hopewell in the Mississippi River Valley in the south. The Upper Mississippian culture, consisting of the Oneota people and other Siouan speakers, emerged around 1000 CE and lasted through the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. French explorers and missionaries were the earliest Europeans to enter the region, encountering the Dakota, Ojibwe, and various Anishinaabe tribes. Much of what is now Minnesota formed part of the vast French holding of Louisiana, which the United States purchased in 1803. After several territorial reorganizations, the Minnesota Territory was admitted to the Union as the 32nd state in 1858. Minnesota's official motto, L'Étoile du Nord ("The Star of the North") is the only state motto in French; this phrase was adopted shortly after statehood and reflects both the state's early French explorers and its position as the northernmost state in the contiguous U.S.

As part of the American frontier, Minnesota attracted settlers and homesteaders from across the country. Its growth was initially based on timber, agriculture, and railroad construction. Into the early 20th century, European immigrants arrived in significant numbers, particularly from Scandinavia, Germany, and Central Europe; many were linked to the failed revolutions of 1848, which partly influenced the state's development as a center of labor and social activism. Minnesota's rapid industrialization and urbanization precipitated major social, economic, and political changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the state was at the forefront of labor rights, women's suffrage, and political reform. Consequently, Minnesota is unique among Midwestern states in being a relative stronghold of the Democratic Party, having voted for every Democratic presidential nominee since 1976, longer than any other U.S. state. (Full article...)

Recognized content - show another

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Fort Snelling in 1844, by John Caspar Wild

The territorial era of Minnesota lasted from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to Minnesota's achieving statehood in 1858. The Minnesota Territory itself was formed only in 1849 but the area had a rich history well before this. Though there was a long history of European presence in the area before 19th century, it was during the 19th century that the United States began to establish a firm presence in what would become Minnesota.

Many of the facets of Minnesota culture that are perceived as the area's early history in fact originated after this period. Notably, the heavy Scandinavian immigration for which the state is known, and the pioneering days chronicled by author Laura Ingalls Wilder occurred after statehood in the later 19th century. Unlike these later years, the first half of the 19th century was characterized by sparsely populated communities, harsh living conditions, and to some degree, lawlessness. (Full article...)
List of recognized articles

Selected article - show another

The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities moniker for the two adjacent cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

The franchise was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1901 as the Washington Senators. The team moved to Minnesota and was renamed the Minnesota Twins for the start of the 1961 season. The Twins played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome from 1982 to 2009. The team has played at Target Field since 2010. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various Minnesota-related articles on Wikipedia.

Did you know - load new batch

Related portals

Topics

Largest cities

2020 Rank City 2020 Census[1] 2010 Census[2] Change County
1 Minneapolis † 429,954 382,578 +12.38% Hennepin
2 Saint Paul †† 311,527 285,068 +9.28% Ramsey
3 Rochester † 121,395 106,769 +13.70% Olmsted
4 Bloomington 89,987 82,893 +8.56% Hennepin
5 Duluth † 86,697 86,265 +0.50% St. Louis
6 Brooklyn Park 86,478 75,781 +14.12% Hennepin
7 Plymouth 81,026 70,576 +14.81% Hennepin
8 Woodbury 75,102 61,961 +21.21% Washington
9 Maple Grove 70,253 61,567 +14.11% Hennepin
10 Blaine 70,222 57,186 +22.80% Anoka
Ramsey

 †  County seat
 ††  State capital and county seat

See List of cities in Minnesota for a full list.

Categories

New articles

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-03-27 22:21 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.














Tasks


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wikivoyage
    Free travel guide
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus

Sources

  1. ^ "United States Census Bureau". U.S. Census Bureau. August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  2. ^ "2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File". American FactFinder2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census. Retrieved November 24, 2012.[dead link]
Discover Wikipedia using portals