sangerwaker
Commander
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2004
- Messages
- 2,022
My mom emailed this to me tonight. I'm sure a lot of you non-Minnesotans may not find this all too intereting, but I found it an enlightening read. Hey, even a few pertain to boats and/or lakes!<br /><br /><br /> 1. Minnesotan baseball commentator Halsey Hal was the first to say 'Holy Cow' during<br />a baseball broadcast.<br /><br /> 2.The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of 78 football fields --- 9.5<br />million square feet.<br /><br /> 3. Minnesota Inventions: Masking and Scotch tape, Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, HMOs,<br />the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, and Green Giant vegetables<br /><br /> 4. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 allowing oceangoing ships to reach Duluth.<br /><br /> 5.Minneapolis is home to the oldest continuously running theater (Old Log Theater)<br />and the largest dinner theater (Chanhassan Dinner Theater) in the country.<br /><br /> 6.The original name of the settlement that became St. Paul was Pig's Eye. Named for<br />the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had led squatters to<br />the settlement.<br /><br /> 7. The world's largest pelican stands at the base of the Mill Pond dam on the<br />Pelican River, right in downtown Pelican Rapids. The 15 1/2 feet tall concrete statue was<br />built in 1957.<br /><br /> 8.The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the largest urban sculpture garden in the<br />country.<br /><br /> 9. The Guthrie Theater is the largest regional playhouse in the country.<br /> (Minneapolis famed skyway system connecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of<br />downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.<br /><br /> 10. Minneapolis has more golfers per capita than any other city in the country.<br /><br /> 11.The climate-controlled Metrodome is the only facility in the country to host a<br />Super Bowl, a World Series and a NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship.<br /><br /> 12. Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and<br />Hawaii combined.<br /><br /> 13.The nations first Better Business Bureau was founded in Minneapolis in 1912.<br /><br /> 14. The first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant in the United<br />States were done at the University of Minnesota.<br /><br /> 15. Bloomington and Minneapolis are the two farthest north latitude cities to ever<br />host a World Series game.<br /><br /> 16. Madison is the "Lutefisk capital of the United States".<br /><br /> 17. Rochester is home of the world famous Mayo Clinic. The clinic is a major<br />teaching and working facility. It is known world wide for its doctor's expertise and the<br />newest methods of treatments.<br /><br /> 18. The Bergquist cabin, built in 1870 by John Bergquist, a Swedish immigrant, is<br />the oldest house in Moorhead still on its original site.<br /><br /> 19. For many years, the world's largest twine ball has sat in Darwin. It weighs<br />17,400 pounds, is twelve feet in diameter, and was the creation of Francis A. Johnson.<br /><br /> 20. The stapler was invented in Spring Valley.<br /><br /> 21. In 1956, Southdale, in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, was the first enclosed<br />climate-controlled suburban Shop in 50 states.<br /><br /> 22. Private Milburn Henke of Hutchinson was the first enlisted man to land with the<br />first American Expeditionary Force in Europe in WWII on January 26, 1942.<br /><br /> 23.The first practical water skis were invented in 1922 by Ralph W. Samuelson, who<br />steam-bent 2 eight-foot-long pine boards into skies. He took his first ride behind a<br />motorboat on a lake in Lake City.<br /><br /> 24. In Olivia a single half-husked cob towers over a roadside gazebo. It is 25 feet<br />tall, made of fiberglass, and has been up since 1973.<br /><br /> 25.The first Children's department in a Library is said to be that of the<br />Minneapolis Public Library, which separated children's books from the rest of the<br />collection in Dec. 1889.<br /><br /> 26.The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed in June 1926 by McGraw Electric<br />Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster. The retail price was $13.50.<br /><br /> 27.On September 2, 1952, a 5 year old girl was the first patient to under go a heart<br />operation in which the deep freezing technique was employed. Her body temperature, except<br />for her head, was reduced to 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Floyd Lewis at the Medical School<br />of the University of Minnesota performed the operation.<br /><br /> 28.The first Aerial Ferry was put into Operation on April 9, 1905, over the ship<br />canal between Duluth to Minnesota Point. It had room enough to accommodate 6 automobiles.<br />Round trip took 10 min.<br /><br /> 29. Rollerblades were the first commercially successful in-line Roller Skates.<br />Minnesota students Scott and Brennan Olson invented them in 1980, when they were looking<br />for a way to practice Hockey during the off-season. Their design was an ice hockey boot<br />with 3 inline wheels instead of a blade.<br /><br /> 30.The first Intercollegiate Basketball game was played in Minnesota on February<br />9,1895.<br /><br /> 31. In 1919 a Minneapolis factory turned out the nations first armored cars.<br /><br /> 32. Tonka Trucks were developed and are continued to be manufactured in Minnetonka.<br /><br /> 33. Hormel Company of Austin marketed the first canned ham in 1926. Hormel<br />introduced Spam in 1937.<br /><br /> 34. Introduced in August 1963, The Control Data 6600, designed by Control Data Corp.<br />of Chippewa Falls, was the first Super Computer. It was used by the military to simulate<br />nuclear explosions and break Soviet codes. These computers also were used to model complex<br />phenomena such as hurricanes and galaxies.<br /><br /> 35. Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the Milky Way candy bar in<br />1923. Mars marketed the Snickers bar in 1930 and introduced the 5 cent Three Musketeers<br />bar in 1937. The original 3 Musketeers bar contained 3 bars in one wrapper. Each with<br />different flavor nougat.<br /><br /> 36. A Jehovah's Witness was the first patient to receive a transfusion of<br />artificial blood in 1979 at the University of Minnesota Hospital. He had refused a<br />transfusion of real blood because of his religious beliefs.<br /><br /> 37. Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people, more than any other<br />state.<br /><br /> 38. There are 201 Mud Lakes, 154 Long Lakes, and 123 Rice Lakes commonly named in<br />Minnesota.<br /><br /> 39. The Hull-Rust mine in Hibbing became the largest open-pit mine in the world.<br /><br /> 40. Minnesota's waters flow outward in three directions: north to Hudson Bay in<br />Canada, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.<br /><br /> 41. At the confluence of the Big Fork and Rainy Rivers on the Canadian border near<br />International Falls stands the largest Indian burial mound in the upper midwest. It is<br />known as the Grand Mound historic site.<br /><br /> 42. Author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove.<br /><br /> 43. Akeley is birthplace and home of world's largest Paul Bunyan Statue. The<br />kneeling Paul Bunyan is 20 feet tall. He might be the claimed 33 feet tall, if he were<br />standing.<br /><br /> 44. Hibbing is the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the<br />business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson - who opened the first bus<br />line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. The bus line grew to<br />become Greyhound Lines, Inc.<br /><br /> 45. The first official hit in the Metrodome in Minneapolis was made by Pete Rose<br />playing for the Cincinnati Reds in a preseason game.<br /><br /> 46. Polaris Industries of Roseau invented the snowmobile.<br /><br /> 47. Twin Cities-based Northwest Airlines was the first major airline to ban smoking<br />on international flights.<br /><br /> 48. Alexander Anderson of Red Wing discovered the processes to puff wheat and rice<br />giving us the indispensable rice cakes.<br /><br /> 49. In 1898, the Kensington Rune stone was found on the farm of Olaf Ohman, near<br />Alexandria. The Kensington Rune stone carvings allegedly tell of a journey of a band of<br />Vikings in 1362.
