Yes, Minnesota is the land of forests, farms, and lakes. But ask a Minnesotan about the state and he or she is just as likely to mention good government.

State government and programs such as the highly touted open enrollment education initiative and the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act have consistently led the way for the rest of the nation.

But the state is perhaps more widely known for the steady stream of national leaders it has produced, from Harold Stassen, the "boy wonder" governor and one-time serious presidential candidate, to the trio of Minnesota senators who also ran for president: Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter Mondale.

From the beginning, the Minnesota tradition has largely been a liberal one. One of the first acts of the Minnesota Legislature was to authorize the sale of $5 million in railroad bonds to stimulate business in the wake of the economic Panic of 1857.

In 1871, when big railroads were commonly looked upon as the enemy, Minnesota created its own railroad commission — years before the federal Interstate Commerce Commission was formed.

At the turn of the century, "conservative" Governor Samuel VanSant began a lawsuit against the Northern Securities Company, a massive railroad conglomerate. Its later breakup was the first step toward making then President Theodore Roosevelt’s reputation as a trust buster.

That strong tradition of government regulation of business, borne from the Populist roots of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) in 1944, continues to this day. And it’s a constant point of friction at the state Capitol between the DFL and the Republican Party (R), whose traditional roots are also very strong in the state.

There have been long stretches of Republican domination — despite Minnesota’s reputation as a liberal state. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Minnesota’s electoral votes. And it wasn’t until 1972 that the DFL gained a majority in both the state House and Senate.

The 1998 elections threw a new wrinkle into the political history of the state. One-time professional wrestler Jesse Ventura won the race to be governor, giving the Reform Party, later changed to the Independence Party, its first significant
victory. And voters elected a majority of Republicans to the House for the first time in 12 years. With the DFL holding a majority in the Senate, Minnesota began an experiment with "tripartisan" government.

he popular slogan on Minnesota license plates boasts that the state is the "land of 10,000 lakes." Actually, there are 15,291 lakes of more than 10 acres each, giving the state more shoreline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined.

And as can be expected, water has been a central theme in the lore of the people who have inhabited Minnesota for centuries. The creation myth of the Ojibway Indians of northern Minnesota holds that the earth was created when Winabijou, the legendary trickster, finds himself at the top of a pine tree surrounded by water. He asks a muskrat to retrieve mud from the bottom. The muskrat does, and Winabijou makes an island which grows to the size of the earth.

Minnesota pioneers turned to Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox for their creation story. Legend has it that Paul and Babe, headed west from Maine to Washington, and are responsible for creating "the land of 10,000 lakes" with their deep footprints.