Home › States & Territories › The 50 States
Minnesota
The Land of 10,000 Lakes, headwaters of the Mississippi
Minnesota wears its water in its nickname — the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and in truth there are nearly 12,000. Left behind by the glaciers that scraped the state flat to gently rolling, the lakes, wetlands, and forests blanket the north, while the south opens into prairie and corn. Here three great watersheds meet: rivers from Minnesota flow north to Hudson Bay, east to the Atlantic by way of the Great Lakes, and south to the Gulf of Mexico down the Mississippi, which rises at modest Lake Itasca.
The northeastern "Arrowhead" is the wildest corner — the Boundary Waters, a vast roadless maze of interconnected lakes and canoe routes, and the rocky North Shore of Lake Superior. Eagle Mountain, the high point at 2,302 feet (701 m), stands nearby, oddly close to the state's lowest point at the lake. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul anchor the population and economy at the meeting of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, the urban heart of an outdoors-minded northern state.
Economy
Minnesota has a notably diverse economy and an outsized number of major corporate headquarters for its size, including Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, and UnitedHealth, plus the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. Healthcare and medical devices are a particular strength, alongside agriculture across the south and iron mining on the Iron Range in the north.
Politics
Minnesota carries 10 electoral votes and has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1976 - the longest such streak of any state. Its politics are anchored by the Twin Cities, while rural areas and the historically Democratic Iron Range have grown more competitive in recent years.