Many vendors once offered an only-at-the-fair experience. That is changing.
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How the State Fair’s mascot was inspired by a real-life Fairchild
Fairchild and his nephew Fairborne have become enduring symbols of the fair.
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How did the Minnesota Star Tribune get its start?
The Strib is as old as the city of Minneapolis. It grew out of several strikingly different papers.
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What did Minneapolis’ Block E used to look like?
The Hennepin Avenue commercial strip was once called “exotic, energetic, occasionally evil and full of life.”
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Where is the real Lake Wobegon?
Garrison Keillor’s famous fictional town took inspiration from central Minnesota — including some businesses that remain open today.
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Why do Minnesotans have accents?
How to understand the unique pronunciations and the meaning behind favorite phrases.
August 8, 2024
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How did Minneapolis get its name?
The debate over a name for the baby burg was once so fierce that citizens had to “agree to disagree.”
August 2, 2024
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What happened to all the leeches in Leech Lake?
The bloodsucking invertebrates appear to be on the decline in their namesake lake.
July 31, 2024
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Where were some of the Twin Cities’ most notorious speakeasies?
Caves, hotels and other businesses hosted illegal drinking in the 1920s. Some are open today.
July 26, 2024
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How Quonset huts helped solve the post-WWII housing crisis in the Twin Cities
Pop-up neighborhoods were filled with the ‘ugly but necessary’ corrugated steel sheds. Then they disappeared.
July 12, 2024
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Why Wisconsin claims — incorrectly — to have more lakes than the Land of 10,000 Lakes
America’s “water states” don’t quite agree on the definition of a lake.
July 5, 2024
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Why did Minneapolis bury Bassett Creek?
The waterway was used as an industrial dumping ditch. Then city leaders tunneled it out of sight.
June 14, 2024
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Introducing the Curious Minnesota Collection. Every question we’ve answered — now in one place
Our new searchable database is home to more than 260 stories about Minnesota history and culture, all inspired by reader questions.
March 8, 2024