A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....09-19-03....Minnesota ~ "L'Etoile du Nord"

Mama_Bear

[Mama_Bear]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Mama_Bear, dansangel, dutchess, Aquamarine ~

Please join us as we take a cyber-tour of another great state in this Union of ours. As we discover and spotlight each of our 50 states we also salute the proud FReepers who call their state 'home'.

Over the coming months each "Finest" hostess will profile her own home state - I will be presenting all the other states in random order. Please FReepMail me if you would like to participate in spotlighting your state. I would love to have your input on what you would like to see highlighted.

These are the states that have been presented to date:

05-23-03 Alabama
06-27-03 Maryland
07-11-03 Vermont
07-25-03 Utah
08-05-03 Texas
08-22-03 Nevada
08-26-03 Washington DC
09-05-03 Tennessee
09-17-03 Florida

Today we are visiting "The North Star State", aka: the milk and blueberry muffin state. ;-)

Mama_Bear

The White-tailed Deer -
and more Minnesota state symbols...

Click on the Loon above to hear it's call.


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A bit of history.....

In 1848 the Minnesota Territory was formed by the US government. Ten years later, in 1858, Minnesota was admitted to the USA as the 32nd state. The state gets its name from the Dakota word "minisota", meaning "water that reflects the sky." Minnesota's state nicknames are the "Gopher State" and the "North Star State", and is the 12th largest state in the US.

Despite the convenient access to the state, immigration was slow until the second half of the 19th century, when people in the east started to hear about Minnesota's woodlands and fertile prairie. Between 1850 and 1857, the state population skyrocketed from 6,077 to more than 150,000. Long before that, the Ojibwa (Chippewa) and Dakota (Sioux) tribes made the land their home. For them state borders were nonexistent, so their territory extended well beyond what is today Minnesota. The French claimed the territory in the mid-1600s. It became U.S. territory through the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Louisiana Purchase (1803).

What makes this state important? For one, its waterways are vital to the state's and the nation's economies. Besides its quantity of lakes, it is the northernmost stop of the Mississippi River and the westernmost point of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which runs through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Minnesota today is a leader in farming, lumbering, and milling, as well as printing and iron production.

Click on the Capitol Building for some interior panoramic photos.
This is one of the most beautiful Capitol buildings I have seen.

Facts and Trivia
about our 32nd state...
(Yes, there will be a test.)

• Minnesotan baseball commentator Halsey Hal was the first to say 'Holy Cow' during a baseball broadcast.
   
• The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of 78 football fields --- 9.5 million square feet.
   
  
• Minnesota Inventions: Masking and Scotch tape, Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, and Green Giant vegetables
   
• The original name of the settlement that became St. Paul was Pig's Eye. Named for the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had led squatters to the settlement.
   
  
• Minneapolis has more golfers per capita than any other city in the country.
   
• The climate-controlled Metrodome is the only facility in the country to host a Super Bowl, a World Series and a NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship.
   
  
• Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.
   
• The first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant in the United States were done at the University of Minnesota.
   
• Rochester is home of the world famous Mayo Clinic.
   
• The stapler was invented in Spring Valley.
   
• Private Milburn Henke of Hutchinson was the first enlisted man to land with the first American Expeditionary Force in Europe in WWII on January 26, 1942.
   
• The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed in June 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster. The retail price was $13.50.
   
• Tonka Trucks were developed and are continued to be manufactured in Minnetonka.
   
• Hormel Company of Austin marketed the first canned ham in 1926. Hormel introduced Spam in 1937.
   
  
  "My friend pork shoulder
  I return to you. This time
  I've brought mayonnaise."
  
  more funny "Famous Spam Haikus"
  by Michael Lubic
  Yummy Spam Recipes
  
  
• Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people, more than any other state.
   
• Minnesota's waters flow outward in three directions: north to Hudson Bay in Canada, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
   
• The first official hit in the Metrodome in Minneapolis was made by Pete Rose playing for the Cincinnati Reds in a preseason game.
   
• In 1898, the Kensington Rune stone was found on the farm of Olaf Ohman, near Alexandria. The Kensington Rune stone carvings allegedly tell of a journey of a band of Vikings in North America in 1362.
   
• Minneapolis’ famed skyway system connecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.
   
  

More about the Minneapolis Skyways...

Minneapolis is unique in many ways, but the skyway system is one of it's most striking, one-of-a-kind assets. When the weather turns sour, you can use the skyway system to get where you need to go.

One floor above ground, this system links buildings together with enclosed walkways. It connects most of downtown Minneapolis in climate-controlled bliss.

When the temperature plummets or the rain falls, ditch the coat in the hotel room. Explore downtown Minneapolis through more than 7 miles of glass-enclosed skyways. They provide a lively thoroughfare filled with specialty shops, restaurants and services.



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Last but not least, a link to one of my
favorite teams, the Minnesota Vikings!
Good luck this season!




Thank you to the following websites for information and graphics:

Minnesota History - A Chronology
Minnesota Facts and Trivia
THE KENSINGTON RUNE-STONE

Thank you for joining us on our cyber trip to Minnesota. I am sure I have overlooked many interesting facts and points of interest, so please help us celebrate Minnesota by joining in and posting what you know about this Fine state.

Have a nice FRiday and a great weekend!

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 09-15-03...Military Monday 09-16-03...This One's For You T Man 09-17-03...Florida - The Sunshine State 09-18-03...John's Two Cents - JohnHuang2

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4)If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me an FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

[Mama_Bear]

[Mama_Bear]

If you would like to be added to the Finest ping list, we would love to have you! If you would like to be removed, let me know via FReepMail, I will do so immediately.

[Mama_Bear]

If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie; Dansangel; Dutchess; Mama_Bear; Aquamarine; FreeTheHostages, and we will add their name to this list. As we pray for them, we pray also for all our nation’s leaders, military personnel, and their families and friends.

[Mama_Bear]

Good morning! Since I don't have you on my ping list, you get your own personal ping. :-)

Hope you came through the storm okay. I never heard Charlotte mentioned in the news, so that is good. Fortunately, you are far enough inland so that you probably just got the fringes of the storm.

[The Mayor]

Coffee tastes better with blueberry muffins : )

[dansangel]

Absolutely beautiful tribute to the state of Minnesota (((((Mama_Bear))))))

The fact that startled me was the amount of shoreline. When you think about it, the Great Lakes coupled with islands and so on would make for a huge amount. Wow!

And *SPAM*??? LOL! I'll have to check out the "yummy recipes" - watch out .45MAN!!

Excellent post - have a wonderful FRiday!

[Mama_Bear]

Coffee tastes better with blueberry muffins : )

Yours sure does, because it's Finest coffee.

Good morning to you!

[Aquamarine]

Good morning! Nice layout Mama Bear, you're really good at this!

[Calpernia]

Morning to the Finest!

[Calpernia]

Lovely job today Mama_Bear. I had NO IDEA about the enclosed skyways! Plus you enticed me to consult a map to see what was meant by more shoreline that CA and FL!

[Mama_Bear]

Absolutely beautiful tribute to the state of Minnesota (((((Mama_Bear))))))

Thank you. :-) :-)

And *SPAM*??? LOL! I'll have to check out the "yummy recipes" - watch out .45MAN!!

LOL!!! Isn't Spam funny? There are even several websites devoted to Spam Haikus! Everyone loves to make fun of Spam.

There is even a Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota

I checked out some of those recipes, but when you get right down to it, no matter what you do to it, it's still Spam. LOL.

Good morning (((((((((((dansy and .45 Man))))))))))))))!

[Calpernia]

Lake Superior Facts

Lake Superior is the world's largest freshwater lake - a huge, rock-bound lake that is capable of piling ice high against the shore, and producing ocean sized currents and waves. Waves as large as 31 feet have been recorded, and Lake Superior is the grave of more than 325 ships. Lying between the 47th and 49th parallels of latitude, it stretches 380 miles east to west and 160 miles across at its widest. The big lake has 2900 miles of shoreline, 31820 square miles of surface area, an average depth of 489 feet and a maximum sounding depth of 1333 feet. Water clarity is incredible, with visibility recorded to as much as 65 to 75 feet. Average water temperature is 40º F and it can effect a difference in air temperature as much as 20º F as far as 20 miles from its shores.

Lake Superior Geology

Lake Superior is located in a downward fold, or trough, of Precambrian rock. The basin resulted from a combination of geologic events. The gradual processes that formed the Lake Superior basin began during the Late Precambrian Period some 1150 million years ago when the earth's crust split apart, with great floods of molten rock spewing forth on the surface as lava flows or cooling off and hardening below. This activity continued for some 20 million years. As the flows congealed into new earth crust, the bedrock beneath gradually sank, tilting the overlying mass eastward. The depression continued to sink even after the volcanic period, developing into an impressive basin. Wind and water erosion over the next millions of years laid down a thick layer of mud, sand, and gravel until the basin was a broad low plain. About a million years ago, the great glaciers of the Ice Age began their slow work of carving the coast. Four successive waves of mile-thick ice gouged out the basin, exposing the intricate and varied volcanic formations of the basin rim while depositing the sediments hundreds of miles to the southeast. During glacial retreat, meltwaters filled this basin far above present levels. The Lake Superior of that time (about 12,000 years ago) is called Glacial Lake Duluth by geologists. As outlets to the south and east opened, the lake level subsided. Eventually the lake reached its present surface elevation of 602 feet above sea level.

Virtually all of the bedrock of the North Shore consists of Upper Precambrian volcanic rocks poured out from a giant rift about 1.1 billion years ago, as the continent started to tear itself apart. A few intrusive rocks exist, such as the massive jointed sill at Silver Cliff, and irregular intrusive bodies such as the diabase at Silver Bay and Beaver Bay. These diabase bodies host very large inclusions, such as the white one that Split Rock Light House is built upon

[dansangel]

I checked out some of those recipes, but when you get right down to it, no matter what you do to it, it's still Spam. LOL.

I agree! :-)

Kind of like - and I know I'm going to get flamed for this - grits. You *can't* do a whole lot with grits!

[Mama_Bear]

Nice layout Mama Bear, you're really good at this!

Awwww........thank you. :-)

Good morning, sistah Aqua. Happy FRiday to you!

[Mama_Bear]

Good morning, Calpernia!

I had NO IDEA about the enclosed skyways!

Isn't that the most creative idea? People shopping in downtown Minneapolis just don't need to deal with the weather at all.

Did you get much of the hurricane up your way?

[Long Cut]

PING!!!!!!!!!!! Click here for a great story.

Greetings from Iceland and all us Sailors, Airmen, and Soldiers serving here!

[MeekOneGOP]

Mornin', everybody ! Happy Friday !!

note to self: no wellstone posts here today ...

[MeekOneGOP]

Why is it that Greenland is more icy than green, and the Iceland is more green that ice ?? :O)

My Dad was stationed in Thule 'Top of the World', Greenland and Goose Bay, Labrador in 1964 ...

[Temple Owl]

Good morning Mama_Bear and all. Hurricane Isabel paid us a visit last night and deposited This 75-year-old spruce tree in our front yard.

The beautiful tree had graced the mini-park across from us until this hussy--obviously a Democrat-- did her dirty work.

[Mama_Bear]

Thanks for the post about Lake Superior. So many interesting facts!

Waves as large as 31 feet have been recorded, and Lake Superior is the grave of more than 325 ships.

Wow! I have never seen any of the Great Lakes, but it is hard to imagine lakes that are so huge they are like oceans.

I was wondering which lake is the eternal resting place of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and it is Lake Superior.

The sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald - November 10, 197

"The lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy."