The natural landscape of Minnesota is etched in valleys, prairies, wilderness areas, high bluffs, rocky shores, and thousands and thousands of lakes. For most of its people, the Land of the Sky-Blue Waters is a huge playground--dotted with romantic place-names like Ah-Gwah-Ching (Chippewa for out-of-doors) and Blooming Prairie and Minnetonka Beach and Sleepy Eye and Lac qui Parle (French for lake that speaks). To look after the wildlife that survive on the land, Minnesota has set aside more millions of acres in game refuge areas than any other state has allotted for such preservation and protection.
Although the prosperity of Minnesota has historically rested upon its land, income from manufacturing began to exceed agricultural income in the early 1950s. This great dairy state has become a leading high-technology and electronics center. Control Data, 3M, and Honeywell are all Minnesota-based firms. General Mills, Pillsbury, and Land O'Lakes are all located in Minnesota too. Food processing is the second most important industry in the state. For its bountiful wheat crops, flour mills, and high rank in butter making, Minnesota is sometimes referred to as the Bread and Butter State.
For a long time Minnesota has provided most of America's iron ore, though mining has become less important to the state's economy as the supply of ore has dwindled. Discoveries of huge taconite (low-grade iron ore) deposits on the southern edge of Minnesota's Mesabi Range and the development of a commercially feasible method of processing the taconite gave new thrust to this valuable industry for a time; however, in the 1980s low-cost foreign steel reduced the need for American steel production, and lower-cost foreign ores replaced Minnesota's taconite in steel mills.
Minnesota is named for the river bearing that name. The Sioux Indians called the river Minisota from the words minni, meaning water, and sotah, meaning sky-tinted or clouded, because blue clay washed into the river. Minnesota is called the North Star State, a translation of the French motto on the state seal (L'Etoile du Nord). It is also nicknamed the Gopher State, for the striped gopher common on the prairies.
Minnesota lies near the center of North America. To the north are the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. The border with Ontario is formed by the Rainy River and a string of lakes. The state is bounded on the east by Lake Superior and the state of Wisconsin, across the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers. Iowa is to the south. On the west are the Dakotas. The Red River of the North is the boundary with North Dakota.
