How Did Minnesota Become The Gopher State?
Growing up in Wisconsin I learned early in school that the Badger State I lived in wasn't named because there were a lot of badgers living there. It in fact was a reference to miners in the southern part of the state that lived in burrows in the ground. They simply dug a temporary hole in the ground and lived there while mining. These burrows resembled badger holes and hence, Wisconsin became known as the Badger State.
I simply never gave much thought as to how other states got their nicknames. Let's take a look.
While we're discussing animals, a reminder to download the free KRFO Radio Ap and following post season Husky baseball and softball wherever you go this spring.
Jupiterimages Townsquaremedia Jupiterimages Townsquaremedia1North Dakota
North Dakota is known as the Flickertail State. I just assumed it was some type of native bird. Boy was I wrong. The name Flickertail comes from the movement of the ground squirrel's tail. And North Dakota like many states has plenty of squirrels.
tkacchuk Townsquaremedia tkacchuk Townsquaremedia2Iowa
Once again without giving much thought, I simply thought a Hawkeye was some type of bird or a variation of the hawk. There are actually two possibilities in naming Iowa the Hawkeye State. One is that it is a reference to the Indian Chief Black Hawk. Another says it relates to the guide in James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans.
Yury Shchipakin Townsquaremedia Yury Shchipakin Townsquaremedia3Minnesota
Once again I simply thought Gopher State was a reference to all the gophers living here. In fact it dates back to the early days of Minnesota when the legislature was considering offering a $5 million loan to railroad tycoons to build railroads in the state. A political cartoonist R.O. Sweeney drew a cartoon showing the rich tycoons as rodents or more specifically gophers pulling a wagon with easy to influence politicians. The cartoon referred to the Gopher train and gradually the name Gopher and Minnesota became forever wedded.
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