Interesting Facts about Minnesota

• There are so many lakes in Minnesota that novel names are scarce. There are 91 Long Lakes, and other bodies of water also have identical names.
• In 1838 an unsavory character built a cabin at present-day St. Paul and called the place Pig's Eye. Fortunately, Father Lucian Galtier renamed the place after St. Paul when he built a chapel there in 1841.
• The execution of 37 Sioux for their part in the Sioux War was the largest official wholesale execution in U.S. history. The Indians went to the scaffold singing a war song.
• The Falls of St. Anthony have "traveled." Their waters have continued to cut into the soft limestone, causing them to move upstream about 4 miles since their discovery.
• Charles Mayo, of the famed Mayo medical family, began his career at age nine by administering ether during operations.
• The great Cuyuna iron range was named for Cuyler Adams and his dog Una (Cuy-Una).
• The red-colored stone of Pipestone National Monument is found nowhere else. It was a sacred place to the Indians, who carved their peace pipes from its soft redstone.