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Curious Minnesota

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Curious Minnesota

Who was James Ballentine and why is the Uptown VFW named for him?

Post 246 in Minneapolis got its name more than a century ago.
December 27, 2024
Curious Minnesota

The stranger-than-fiction tale of how a real Minnesota island became ‘Moosylvania’

Rocky and Bullwinkle creator Jay Ward leased a tiny isle on Lake of the Woods as a publicity stunt and took a silly bid for statehood all the way to the White House.
December 20, 2024
Curious Minnesota

What’s the coldest Minnesota has ever been?

On the coldest day in state history, a man in Tower hammered nails with a banana.
December 13, 2024
Curious Minnesota

Minnesota’s Metro Gang Strike Force was shut down in scandal. But did officers face punishment?

“Nobody talks and everybody walks,” one lawyer involved said about the fallout from a 2009 corruption probe.
December 6, 2024
Curious Minnesota

Who deals with animals that meet their untimely demise on the road in Minnesota?

Roadkill typically ends up in one of three places: a shallow grave in the ditch, a special compost heap or on someone’s dinner table.
November 29, 2024
Curious Minnesota

What happened to Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America?

Some Minnesotans are still nostalgic for the Mall of America’s original, Peanuts-themed amusement park. Here’s why it became Nickelodeon Universe.
November 22, 2024
Curious Minnesota

How was the giant Canada goose rediscovered in Rochester after being declared extinct?

A Mayo brother’s private flock led to a rediscovery of these big birds. Decades later, the geese nearly took over town.
November 16, 2024
Curious Minnesota

What are Lake Superior’s most famous shipwrecks?

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank nearly half a century ago in “the gales of November.” But the lake has taken hundreds of other ships, too.
November 8, 2024
Curious Minnesota

What are Minnesota’s weirdest laws?

Statutes about collecting gopher bounties and chasing greased pigs are on the books. But some of our most oft-repeated loony laws are simply tall tales.
November 1, 2024
Pigs named after Monsters Inc. movie characters Boo, Sully, Mike, and Randall eat Halloween pumpkins at Sunnyside Farm  near River Falls, Wis.
Curious Minnesota

Minnesota’s ghost towns are a relic of grand visions gone awry

Many of the state’s abandoned places vanished without a trace. But some still attract visitors.
October 25, 2024
Curious Minnesota

How did earthworms invade Minnesota?

They aren’t native to the state. And the toothless, wriggly creatures are destroying our forest floors.
October 18, 2024
A major threat to the goblin fern is the invasive earthworms destroying the forest floor that are being spread by anglers improperly dumping bait and movement from ATV tires. ] Brian Peterson ¥ brian.peterson@startribune.com
Curious Minnesota

What’s behind the stereotype that Minnesotans don’t like spicy food?

Conventional wisdom holds that many of the state’s residents just can’t handle the heat.
October 11, 2024
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