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All about Minnesota
Historical Note:
A Pig's Eye . . .
The capital of Minnesota, St. Paul, was once called "Pig's Eye." Named after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrent, a French-Canadian Whiskey trader who led a group of squatters to establish a settlement at the fork of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, near Fort Snelling. Although the Federal Government had driven out other like-minded settlers from that area, Pig's Eye 's settlement stuck . . .and so did the unfortunate name. Until a year later when Father Lucien Galtier built a log chapel for his patron saint, St. Paul, and convinced the townspeople to change the name to a more uplifting image.
Name Origin: Indian. ("Sky-Colored Water")
Capital: St. Paul
Population: 4,067,000
Area: 84,402 square miles
Statehood: May 11, 1858 (32nd)
Nickname: The North Star Star, or The Gopher State
Motto: "The star of the North"
Famous For: Hi-Tech, Grain, Timber, Corn, Sugar Beets, Dairy, Rice, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Twin Cities (St. Paul & Minneapolis), Prairies, Lake Superior, Falls
    
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