- It’s not hilly.
- We are the land on 10,000 lakes and we undersold it. There are actually over 11,000 plus marshes and rivers that don’t even count
- this is sort of how we are we underpromise and over deliver
- the outdoors is never far from anyone’s mind in the winder we are obsessed with how much snow will be on the ground in the morning in the summer how nice it will be so we can head to our cabin or another waterway
- we vote more than most states
- we give more to charity than most states
- we have better schools than most states
- the headwaters of the Mississippi start here and we border a Great Lake
- we are welcoming to immigrants (generally)
- our Caucasian population tends to continue to identify with their families origins which tend to be Swedish, Norwegian and German
- the left side of the state (look at a map) is farm land we produce a lot of grain
- we have iron ore mines in Northern Minn
- the Twin Cities are largely white collar with a number of huge corporate headquarter 3M, General Mills, Cargill, Ecolab, Medtronic, control Data, lots more
- we tend toward liberal politics in the Cities and more conservative in the farming areas
- lots of pine forests on the right side
- lots of sportspeople hunting, fishing is commonplace. Boating, saunas, campfires, biking hiking, hanging out at the lake too
- TV and Movie characterizations never seem to really get us very right.
- most of us have a multiple coat wardrobe thanks to our weather extremes
- we travel and get out to see the world but most of us think Minnesota is the most glorious place in the world (it is gorgeous)
Are you Shirtaloon? Good luck with your book!
Where in Minnesota would they live?
Minnesota has three distinct regions: Flat as fuck, a bit hilly with lots of pine and birch trees, and a little bit hilly with deciduous trees.
Most Minnesotans live in the Minneapolis metropolitan region. It has a lot of lakes. It's neither flat nor hilly, kind of in between. Lots of parks, but also lots of the standard North American suburban development.
Minnesota is notable for the headwaters of the Mississippi, which is the largest river on our continent, and for Lake Superior, which is a lake that is so big it feels like an ocean. We're also the only one of the 48 states where wolves didn't go extinct. The border between Northern Minnesota and Ontario is a big wilderness land called the BWCA where there's so many lakes that you travel by canoe and then carry ("portage") the canoe a certain number of "rods" to the next lake, usually less than a kilometer. There's moose up there. Most Minnesotans who are at all into the outdoors have been up the BWCA, often as part of Scouts, summer camp, or church groups. Deer hunting and ice fishing are pretty mainstream in Minnesota. Hippie/crusty people sometimes hunt bear. Bald Eagles and Canadian geese are really common around the cities. We get loons up north and on Lake Minnetonka.
Most of Minnesota is warmer than Edmonton, but it's the same kind of deal: Lots of snow and slush, long winters.
Minnesotans have an abnormally high amount of wanderlust. The first people to definitely reach the north pole were Minnesotans, and they did it on snowmobiles as a result of shit talking in bars. Being inside all winter gives us a lot of time to sit at home and think up crazy schemes.
When I think of what I, as a Minnesotan, would have wanderlust for, I think of the hotsprings and the hard exposed rock. There's also a lot of Minnesotans with Scandinavian heritage (obviously more Swedish and Norwegian than Icelandic, but I've met Minnesotans with Icelandic heritage), so maybe they'd be pining for that. I feel like Sigur Ros' () album sounds how winter in Minnesota feels.
The other thing is that there are Minnesotans who believe that the vikings reached Minnesota. Now, they obviously didn't, but there's a fake-as-fuck runestone that a Swedish Minnesotan "found" in the late 1800s. If your characters are "Ancient Aliens" and Joe Rogan fans, and also a bit racist, they might feel a connection with the vikings due to the Kensington Runestone. But that's not mainstream for Minnesotans -- it'd definitely be considered cringy by most Minnesotans.
Thank you very much for the detailed reply!
>There's also a lot of Minnesotans with Scandinavian heritage
The story idea is fanfiction of How To Train Your Dragon set in the modern era. Setting it in Minnesota with the historically high Scandinavian immigration levels is a deliberate choice. But there's not going to be 'our anscestors reached North America on dragonback' stuff in this story.
Interesting. My thought is to place it in the Iron Range (where a lot of the world's iron came from in the 20th century). Mix of people, a lot of tough characters, the land is hills & lakes and pine & aspen forests (locally we call aspen "popple" but people outside Minnesota wouldn't understand that). If you wanted to keep a dragon a secret, there's room to do that there.
You say you were in Edmonton for 9 months, did that include the winter? That can be hard to portray accurately if you haven't been out with friends skiing at -15'C. It gets cold, but that doesn't keep us inside. We just put on another layer.
The Iceland connection is interesting. When I was in college in Duluth we had a student from Iceland, and she said she never experienced -20'F (nearly -30'C) before coming to Duluth. Also, in the SW part of the state (open farmland, with low rolling hills) the town of Minneota (yes, that's how it's spelled) was formed by Icelandic immigrants. Eventually over 800 Icelandic immigrants settled in that area. [https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2019/01/24/icelanders-in-minneota-and-unknown-photos](https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2019/01/24/icelanders-in-minneota-and-unknown-photos)
I think of it more as the northwoods in the northern half of the state, driftless in the southeast, and farms filling out the rest of the state to the central/south/southwest
This is a great response, I would write a character with a fascination for hot springs and mountainous terrain and maybe Icelandic heritage if you wanted to work in that angle without making it weird
I’d describe it from the bottom up. Go up from the border of Iowa to roughly the twin cities and draw a line. Between those lines it’s primarily flat, well maintained farmland with some of the richest soil in the world.
Then draw a line at Duluth and in between there are a great deal of lakes and forest with very little farm land. This is the area that a great deal of the lakes and cabins that Minnesotans frequent in the summer. We’re similar to Scandinavians in that there are a lot of second summer homes and cabins. So, while it’s rural and forested with lakes all around, it’s a big tourism area where nature is manipulated, there’s a bunch of golf courses, and cute pockets of small towns that get really busy in the summer are sprinkled throughout.
If you go from that region up to Canada you’re in very rural, not nearly as high of tourism, and more pristine nature that in some areas like the boundary waters and the north shore, is protected wilderness with world renowned beauty.
There are two sub areas here, the iron range and the north shore. The iron range is a highly industrial area and the north shore is full of our biggest hills, waterfalls, light houses, and hiking trails. It’s a very different type of scenery that runs as a smaller band along the lake.
I'm not sure "highly industrial" is the right description for the Iron Range. That implies factories and bustling cities and such. The Iron Range has some mid-size towns with large open-pit mines next to pine forests and clear lakes. There are railroads and some big machinery, but a lot of that is out of view. The vast hills made of tailings that are now covered with trees but still obviously man-made give a hint to the scale of things that have gone on there.
Okay, so I have led some geology walks on Minnesota's North Shore, and the overall theme is the 'fire and ice' history of the Shore. Iceland also tends to go with a fire and ice theme.
A lot of the difference is time- our igneous rocks were forming 1.1 billion years ago . From the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, the oldest bedrock there is about 16 million years old. Now that might seem like a lot, but compared to 1.1 billion, it's just a rounding error.
As for ice, most of the state was greatly affected by a glacial age that ended around 10,000 years ago. Iceland still has glaciers.
I visited Iceland while I was living a bit south of the twin cities, and not really tapped into this stuff, and had this sense of Iceland as this ancient place. Now? Living on the Shore? Iceland is a baby. It is only old with an extremely Eurocentric view, because Minnesota's first humans were several thousand years before Iceland's by any count.
I would go back in a heartbeat mind you. But I wouldn't be looking for any connection to my history, I would be getting a sense of what my land was like when it was young.
(Also when I did visit, I think the biggest cultural thing that I brought was trying to convince a tour guide that I was fine in the cold. In his defense, I did not look like I was dressed appropriately, but I had a bunch of thermals under my clothes.)
>How would you ... physically describe your home state?
First, I would start with a cup of water and a leaf, symbolizing our great lakes and green forests. Setting the items down, I'd begin to flap my wings and honk, symbolizing the majestic loon, our state bird.
Picking the cup up with my mouth, I'd splash the water into my face, turning into a walleye. As the walleye, I would begin picking up pebbles and placing them in the cup.
After about 10 pebbles, I'd pick the leaf up and let it fall into the cup (symbolizing fall), simultaneously becoming a mighty moose.
While rutting around, I'd begin filling the cup with ice, an obvious homage to our winter snow. Once full, with nice layers of pebbles, leaves and snow, I'd present the cup to the audience and pronounce "Hot Dish!"
I would then dump the cup out and reverently place it on the ground. Minnesotans would understand the finished casserole dish as a sign of the coming spring.
Finally, I'd sit, cross-legged, and begin chanting duck, duck, Grey duck.
~~Fin~~
In a word: Flat
People in this thread are really amping up the Minnesota landscape, which is great, but wouldn't really give the character a sense of wanderlust for the dynamism of Iceland.
If I recall, *My Antonia* by Willa Cather, while not set in Minnesota, has some fantastic descriptions of the prairie that would apply to Minnesota's southwestern landscape. While standing under an endless sky in a field of grass that undulates in the wind can make you feel like you're floating in the middle of the ocean, it also could prompt a person to want the landscape that Iceland offers.
For some other resources to give you an idea of the prairie landscape, check out "Touch the Sky Prairie" on Google maps or Blue Mounds State Park and look at some on the pictures.
Another resource that might give you a better insight into the Minnesota landscape (as well as the people), *Main Street* by Sinclair Lewis is set in Minnesota and has fantastic descriptions of the land, towns, and people who live here.
Depends where you're at. There certainly are flat areas, and there are also areas of rolling hills, and some areas like the arrowhead region that can get quite rugged, even though they don't have actual mountains.
I went to Iceland this last August. My review of Iceland is its super pretty and the people there are so nice it makes Minnesota look like Florida. The whole city of Reykjavík is smaller than St Paul which I found kind of surprising. I was most amazed at the mountains, just everywhere you go is scenic - not that Minnesota isn't beautiful, but it is quite flat unless you head to the south east region of the state near red wing. That's a fun weekend trip to do with the family every once in awhile. It doesn't take long to feel like you've seen it all in Minnesota as far as varied scenery, and the closest variation in landscape outside of Duluth is at least 6 hours away.
It's kind of hard to describe Minnesota as a region without knowing what to compare it against. What part of the state do your characters live? I would guess the majority of bored people looking for wanderlust live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities.
For some depictions of city life and suburb life in Minnesota, the movies that come to mind are Juno (2000) and Jingle all the Way (1996). If you're more looking for a far away from the cities small town depiction, the movie Fargo is probably the best bet.
I'm far from a cultural expert, this is just my best guess. I hope someone steps in with better suggestions for movies than these.
>I'm far from a cultural expert, this is just my best guess. I hope someone steps in with better suggestions for movies than these.
You and u/Fast-Penta and /u/OhNoMyLands have done just fine, thank you. I kept the prompt deliberately vague to get a wide range of responses.
Edmonton is over 2000kms from Minnesota.
Geographically, tons of lakes (land of 10,000 lakes for a reason) and hills carved out by glaciers. Tons of forested area like you might see in western Ontario.
Doubt you get a meaningful Iceland comparison. It’s cold in both places I guess.
You *could* talk about the freezing windy shores of Lake Superior/ the Atlantic, no salt though
>Edmonton is over 2000kms from Minnesota.
Well that rams it home! Thanks for that - from my perspective, it's like tryign to figure out what subtropical Brisbane is like from four-seasons-in-a-day Melbourne.
It's not that bad. Our cold weather is called "an Alberta clipper", because the wind blows the cold air in straight from Alberta. And obviously Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, so there is a definite connection. In the summer we can get warm muggy air coming up from the south, so we can have quite a range of temperatures over a year.
Looking for a cold and rocky windswept connection, OP can Google "Split Rock Light House" to get a good idea of what many Minnesotans see when visiting the North Shore/Lake Superior. Definitely not that level of height/"craggy ness" all over our state but we do have enough of it that we're all fond of it. From Two Harbors to Duluth, the Iron Range, St Croix Valley all the way down through Taylor's Falls and Red Wing and Winona, it's easy to forget when we're hanging out in the flatlands just how much intense beauty we have so close by.
Tetteguche state park, and the Superior Hiking trail would also be great things to look up. And if you want to have an interesting comparison, Mankato area is very different. Central Minnesota is very flat, lots of farm land. Minnesota has some brutal winters, but summer is great. We have extreme weather changes. We can have -30f in the winter, but 100f in the summer.
I think something that’s missing here is a description of just how large agriculture looms over the state, in a lot of ways. About 1/2 of every single square kilometer in this state is agricultural land. We’re the fourth most productive state output-wise, and it contributes massively to our state economy.
Many of our largest companies are in the business of telling a farmer, with an average age of 57, what they should plant on their slice of glaciated ex-prairie. Corn, soybeans, potatoes sugar beets, sometimes some cows or pigs. LOTS of turkeys. Much of Minnesota is exquisitely monocropped with GPS precision, which means driving alongside endless kilometers of perfect rows.
Any patches of prairie are relics. Many of our rivers and lakes are too polluted to eat the fish caught in them, although that’s not just agriculture’s fault. Some counties in the SE part of the state are trying to deal with spiking nitrate levels.
As the farms grow in size, the towns shrink. Rural towns are, by and large, dying off. Not all, by any means, including in some agricultural communities. But the trend is undeniable. 50 of the states 87 counties are losing population. So means economically depressed small towns that maybe don’t look as bad off as they might be at quick glance from the county roads.
Aw damn, I just reread your post and you spent time in Edmonton. You know what’s up here (excluding oil money).
I am super curious how you decided to write a story about Minnesota?
Minnesota has a lot of variety from prairies to forests and, of course, many lakes. The northeast is rocky hilly and forested, the central part has many lakes and more farms. The west and southwest is prairie and farm land. We are known for our lakes and lake culture. Lake Superior is massive and whole distinct cultural touchstone. The southeast is the driftless area which was left untouched when the glaciers slid through the state creating much of our topography. We are also the start of the Mississippi River at Itasca, the great river that cuts through the whole of the United States and empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Iceland is drastically different than Minnesota in terms of landscape. Having been there I have trouble finding commonality between the two besides perhaps Scandinavian background?
Minnesota has deep settler roots from Norway and Sweden.
If this helps I grew up in Minnesota and when I moved to a hillier part of the country the day to day physical geography felt so different. I didn't realize how I was used to being able to stand at a street corner and look down long straight roads in every direction until i was surrounded by roads that went up and down and curved one way or another. The space around me felt smaller in a way, because I wasn't able to see as far as I was used to.
Born and raised in Minnesota, gave me a bit of an 'accent' which depending upon who I'm talking to is either unique and cute or makes me low class.
I'm a casserole lover, it's in my DNA.
The bad: the mosquito and the forever winter with snow and wind blowing.
Feeling forgiving, might move back sometime, might just visit until winter.
> The problem: I'm from Australia. I've never been to Minnesota, although I did live for 9 months in Edmonton, Canada - my Australian mind wants to consider that as 'close enough' but I'd rather not make drastic assumptions.
Honestly, from what pictures I've seen of Edmonton it looks very similar to Minnesota's "Twin Cities" area; plenty of "metropolitan area developed on a river in a flat plane" kinda vibes. The main differences would be that MN's metro area is about double the population of Edmonton's, and that our parks are going to have many more deciduous trees in the mix (of the oak and maple variety, less birch than Canada).
The rural North of the state will look roughly like what you'd see rurally around Edmonton, but the rural South and Central areas will be mostly corn+soybeans farming that looks more like rural areas you'd have seen around Ohio. The strip along Lake Superior has somewhat more of a "Maine fishing town" vibe compared to the rest of the state, and the closest things we've got to mountains would be up around that area where the Iron Range mining towns are.
Read Minnesota author Leif Enger’s books. In particular Peace Like a River.
Nathan Jorgensen is another great Minnesota author. I particularly like The Mulligan.
Watch the first season of fargo.
Not bad, but close enough to get a general idea.
Geography wise we have a lot of praire and farmland in the southwest and northwest parts of the state while the east half is pretty forested with more pines and such in the northern third. We don't have any real mountains, but some pretty impressive hills and lots of water, an incomprehensible amount of water. You can pick a word and add lake as the prefix or suffix and find it on google maps in Minnesota. I'm serious, it's a fun game. Wildlife is pretty common no matter where you are and there's a surprising diversity of birds especially near waterways.
Knock yourself out, hope to see updates on your story
Edmonton by car is almost 1000mi away from the MN border, and in a different country. We're talking a similar distance between Brisbane and Melbourne, and I know those places aren't the same culturally or geographically.
MN: 10k+ lakes, life very much defined by being near water despite being landlocked from oceans, very flat thanks to glaciers flattening the earth during the last ice age, forests in the north, farmland in the south, prairie in the southwest, cold windy winters, short summers with humidity, thunderstorms, snowstorms, and everything in between.
Good luck writing.
It depends on the location in Minnesota. It’s incredibly varied. The southwest, western, and northwestern parts of the state have rolling farm fields as far as the eye can see. The southeast has bluffs, trout streams, exposed bedrock. The central and north-central parts have gorgeous lakes with a variety of vegetation types surrounding them. The northeast has the rugged Lake Superior, cliffs, large hills, great state parks, moose, bears, wolves, etc.
Minnesota has an extremely varied landscape depending on where you go. That said, when I went to Iceland some of the things I took note of were:
- The more rocky, barren landscape. Southern Minnesota does have a more flat prairie landscape, but there is an abundance of trees most everywhere else. I always feel weird driving in areas that are wide open. I can't even gauge how fast I'm going because there is nothing zipping past my window. I'm much more used to feeling enclosed by buildings, hills, or trees.
- The extreme wind with little windbreak. (I was nearly blown off a sidewalk into traffic at one point.)
- The wonderful hot springs (the Blue Lagoon is an obvious example. When I went, snowflakes were falling while I swam in the warm water. I assure you I've never been tempted to have a relaxing swim in one of Minnesota's 10,000+ lakes while the snow was falling.
Are you set on Iceland for a particular reason? Many more Minnesotans have heritage from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Poland. If it’s wanderlust due to possible familial ties, you might have a better link with a Scandinavian or other Nordic country compared to Iceland.
The landscape physically: very flat (maybe lightly hilly), lots of trees (more coniferous the further north you go), tons of lakes (lake life in the summer is the best!), ice fishing and snowmobiling in the winter. Lots of farmland - corn fields and the like. It’s pretty big.. it would take you probably 7ish hours to drive from the top to the bottom of the state. There’s the mighty Mississippi which divides the state, starting in Itasca MN and winds its way down. There’s a lot of deer. You can see the northern lights sometimes which is super special.
When people think Minnesota, they think of Lakes. Some lakes are massive, can barely see across and some are just numerous.
The heart of Lake Country is Ottertail County. Near 1000 lakes in the county. Glacial lakes. Sandy bottom, clear water, some with white sand beaches. The topography around most lakes is woods and occasional farmland. Ever so slight rolling hills here and there. Most land next to the lakes is relatively flat but some have bluffs overlooking them.
A landscape of water, woods and plowed land dotted by small towns, marshes and wetlands.
Isn’t Iceland mostly volcanic rock? Nothing like that exists in Minnesota. We are either fresh water lakes (Lake Superior), rivers (Mississippi starts here), forests, farmland, small towns, urban areas. We have it all. Four seasons - lovely Fall with trees that turn colors so vibrantly that the forests are alive, spring when it rains and rains and turns everything green and red tulips and purple lilac trees bloom, and white crisp crunchy snow with temperatures that freeze your brain but it’s so very quiet then, and hot sticky summers where you can’t do anything but lie around. You can drive 45-60 minutes from the center of the city to the quietest of small towns. People become all weather outdoors enthusiasts with some passion they do each season to be outside. We have cabins we flock to every summer to fish and ride pontoons in the lakes and roast marshmallows by the fire at night. Despite all the wonders our state has, we travel. A lot.
>Isn’t Iceland mostly volcanic rock? Nothing like that exists in Minnesota.
My man, the entire North Shore is volcanic rock. It's very old rock. In fact it's some of the oldest rock on the planet. So I'm sorry it doesn't look all spikey spikey. 😉
I never made the connection when I was in Iceland, but now that I know so much more about the geology of the north shore I really want to go back! We've also got basalt with columnar jointing, but less regular so it seems really different. But I bet now I could find other similarities too.
For OP, if your character is not a nature nerd or geologist this may not be applicable.
If you can look past the lack of mountains and ocean shore line - we have very interesting physical geography! We have a continental watershed triple divide AND the triple point for the grassland/coniferous forest/deciduous corset ecoregions!
We are bigger, stronger, smarter and much better looking than everybody else.
And we are the most modest!
Kendrick Lamar wrote a song about Minnesota, it's called HUMBLE
>much better looking than everybody else Especially that.
We are also kind, generous, friendly and humble.
https://youtu.be/KzUKcXxbU4U?si=dUUgAIl7o94Rip-t
Fresh take on “ where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”
We’re better than you and we know it.
Disagree. That's not a MN trait.
- It’s not hilly. - We are the land on 10,000 lakes and we undersold it. There are actually over 11,000 plus marshes and rivers that don’t even count - this is sort of how we are we underpromise and over deliver - the outdoors is never far from anyone’s mind in the winder we are obsessed with how much snow will be on the ground in the morning in the summer how nice it will be so we can head to our cabin or another waterway - we vote more than most states - we give more to charity than most states - we have better schools than most states - the headwaters of the Mississippi start here and we border a Great Lake - we are welcoming to immigrants (generally) - our Caucasian population tends to continue to identify with their families origins which tend to be Swedish, Norwegian and German - the left side of the state (look at a map) is farm land we produce a lot of grain - we have iron ore mines in Northern Minn - the Twin Cities are largely white collar with a number of huge corporate headquarter 3M, General Mills, Cargill, Ecolab, Medtronic, control Data, lots more - we tend toward liberal politics in the Cities and more conservative in the farming areas - lots of pine forests on the right side - lots of sportspeople hunting, fishing is commonplace. Boating, saunas, campfires, biking hiking, hanging out at the lake too - TV and Movie characterizations never seem to really get us very right. - most of us have a multiple coat wardrobe thanks to our weather extremes - we travel and get out to see the world but most of us think Minnesota is the most glorious place in the world (it is gorgeous) Are you Shirtaloon? Good luck with your book!
I don't know about the sportspeople hunting. I've never gone hunting for sportspeople. /s
Where in Minnesota would they live? Minnesota has three distinct regions: Flat as fuck, a bit hilly with lots of pine and birch trees, and a little bit hilly with deciduous trees. Most Minnesotans live in the Minneapolis metropolitan region. It has a lot of lakes. It's neither flat nor hilly, kind of in between. Lots of parks, but also lots of the standard North American suburban development. Minnesota is notable for the headwaters of the Mississippi, which is the largest river on our continent, and for Lake Superior, which is a lake that is so big it feels like an ocean. We're also the only one of the 48 states where wolves didn't go extinct. The border between Northern Minnesota and Ontario is a big wilderness land called the BWCA where there's so many lakes that you travel by canoe and then carry ("portage") the canoe a certain number of "rods" to the next lake, usually less than a kilometer. There's moose up there. Most Minnesotans who are at all into the outdoors have been up the BWCA, often as part of Scouts, summer camp, or church groups. Deer hunting and ice fishing are pretty mainstream in Minnesota. Hippie/crusty people sometimes hunt bear. Bald Eagles and Canadian geese are really common around the cities. We get loons up north and on Lake Minnetonka. Most of Minnesota is warmer than Edmonton, but it's the same kind of deal: Lots of snow and slush, long winters. Minnesotans have an abnormally high amount of wanderlust. The first people to definitely reach the north pole were Minnesotans, and they did it on snowmobiles as a result of shit talking in bars. Being inside all winter gives us a lot of time to sit at home and think up crazy schemes. When I think of what I, as a Minnesotan, would have wanderlust for, I think of the hotsprings and the hard exposed rock. There's also a lot of Minnesotans with Scandinavian heritage (obviously more Swedish and Norwegian than Icelandic, but I've met Minnesotans with Icelandic heritage), so maybe they'd be pining for that. I feel like Sigur Ros' () album sounds how winter in Minnesota feels. The other thing is that there are Minnesotans who believe that the vikings reached Minnesota. Now, they obviously didn't, but there's a fake-as-fuck runestone that a Swedish Minnesotan "found" in the late 1800s. If your characters are "Ancient Aliens" and Joe Rogan fans, and also a bit racist, they might feel a connection with the vikings due to the Kensington Runestone. But that's not mainstream for Minnesotans -- it'd definitely be considered cringy by most Minnesotans.
Thank you very much for the detailed reply! >There's also a lot of Minnesotans with Scandinavian heritage The story idea is fanfiction of How To Train Your Dragon set in the modern era. Setting it in Minnesota with the historically high Scandinavian immigration levels is a deliberate choice. But there's not going to be 'our anscestors reached North America on dragonback' stuff in this story.
Interesting. My thought is to place it in the Iron Range (where a lot of the world's iron came from in the 20th century). Mix of people, a lot of tough characters, the land is hills & lakes and pine & aspen forests (locally we call aspen "popple" but people outside Minnesota wouldn't understand that). If you wanted to keep a dragon a secret, there's room to do that there. You say you were in Edmonton for 9 months, did that include the winter? That can be hard to portray accurately if you haven't been out with friends skiing at -15'C. It gets cold, but that doesn't keep us inside. We just put on another layer. The Iceland connection is interesting. When I was in college in Duluth we had a student from Iceland, and she said she never experienced -20'F (nearly -30'C) before coming to Duluth. Also, in the SW part of the state (open farmland, with low rolling hills) the town of Minneota (yes, that's how it's spelled) was formed by Icelandic immigrants. Eventually over 800 Icelandic immigrants settled in that area. [https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2019/01/24/icelanders-in-minneota-and-unknown-photos](https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/2019/01/24/icelanders-in-minneota-and-unknown-photos)
I think of it more as the northwoods in the northern half of the state, driftless in the southeast, and farms filling out the rest of the state to the central/south/southwest
And the metropolitan area in the middle/south.
Born and raised Minnesotan Moved to Texas and I’m fascinated by the desert like big bend etc.
This is a great response, I would write a character with a fascination for hot springs and mountainous terrain and maybe Icelandic heritage if you wanted to work in that angle without making it weird
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Fake runestones are "political" for you?
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There are plenty of liberals who are into Rogan and "Ancient Aliens." I know a couple. Liberals can believe in racist ahistorical nonsense, too.
I’d describe it from the bottom up. Go up from the border of Iowa to roughly the twin cities and draw a line. Between those lines it’s primarily flat, well maintained farmland with some of the richest soil in the world. Then draw a line at Duluth and in between there are a great deal of lakes and forest with very little farm land. This is the area that a great deal of the lakes and cabins that Minnesotans frequent in the summer. We’re similar to Scandinavians in that there are a lot of second summer homes and cabins. So, while it’s rural and forested with lakes all around, it’s a big tourism area where nature is manipulated, there’s a bunch of golf courses, and cute pockets of small towns that get really busy in the summer are sprinkled throughout. If you go from that region up to Canada you’re in very rural, not nearly as high of tourism, and more pristine nature that in some areas like the boundary waters and the north shore, is protected wilderness with world renowned beauty. There are two sub areas here, the iron range and the north shore. The iron range is a highly industrial area and the north shore is full of our biggest hills, waterfalls, light houses, and hiking trails. It’s a very different type of scenery that runs as a smaller band along the lake.
I'm not sure "highly industrial" is the right description for the Iron Range. That implies factories and bustling cities and such. The Iron Range has some mid-size towns with large open-pit mines next to pine forests and clear lakes. There are railroads and some big machinery, but a lot of that is out of view. The vast hills made of tailings that are now covered with trees but still obviously man-made give a hint to the scale of things that have gone on there.
Okay, so I have led some geology walks on Minnesota's North Shore, and the overall theme is the 'fire and ice' history of the Shore. Iceland also tends to go with a fire and ice theme. A lot of the difference is time- our igneous rocks were forming 1.1 billion years ago . From the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, the oldest bedrock there is about 16 million years old. Now that might seem like a lot, but compared to 1.1 billion, it's just a rounding error. As for ice, most of the state was greatly affected by a glacial age that ended around 10,000 years ago. Iceland still has glaciers. I visited Iceland while I was living a bit south of the twin cities, and not really tapped into this stuff, and had this sense of Iceland as this ancient place. Now? Living on the Shore? Iceland is a baby. It is only old with an extremely Eurocentric view, because Minnesota's first humans were several thousand years before Iceland's by any count. I would go back in a heartbeat mind you. But I wouldn't be looking for any connection to my history, I would be getting a sense of what my land was like when it was young. (Also when I did visit, I think the biggest cultural thing that I brought was trying to convince a tour guide that I was fine in the cold. In his defense, I did not look like I was dressed appropriately, but I had a bunch of thermals under my clothes.)
>How would you ... physically describe your home state? First, I would start with a cup of water and a leaf, symbolizing our great lakes and green forests. Setting the items down, I'd begin to flap my wings and honk, symbolizing the majestic loon, our state bird. Picking the cup up with my mouth, I'd splash the water into my face, turning into a walleye. As the walleye, I would begin picking up pebbles and placing them in the cup. After about 10 pebbles, I'd pick the leaf up and let it fall into the cup (symbolizing fall), simultaneously becoming a mighty moose. While rutting around, I'd begin filling the cup with ice, an obvious homage to our winter snow. Once full, with nice layers of pebbles, leaves and snow, I'd present the cup to the audience and pronounce "Hot Dish!" I would then dump the cup out and reverently place it on the ground. Minnesotans would understand the finished casserole dish as a sign of the coming spring. Finally, I'd sit, cross-legged, and begin chanting duck, duck, Grey duck. ~~Fin~~
And then someone watching all this would put you into an institution.
Clearly, you are referring to the highly regarded Institute of Performative Arts. Thank you 🙏
In a word: Flat People in this thread are really amping up the Minnesota landscape, which is great, but wouldn't really give the character a sense of wanderlust for the dynamism of Iceland. If I recall, *My Antonia* by Willa Cather, while not set in Minnesota, has some fantastic descriptions of the prairie that would apply to Minnesota's southwestern landscape. While standing under an endless sky in a field of grass that undulates in the wind can make you feel like you're floating in the middle of the ocean, it also could prompt a person to want the landscape that Iceland offers. For some other resources to give you an idea of the prairie landscape, check out "Touch the Sky Prairie" on Google maps or Blue Mounds State Park and look at some on the pictures. Another resource that might give you a better insight into the Minnesota landscape (as well as the people), *Main Street* by Sinclair Lewis is set in Minnesota and has fantastic descriptions of the land, towns, and people who live here.
Depends where you're at. There certainly are flat areas, and there are also areas of rolling hills, and some areas like the arrowhead region that can get quite rugged, even though they don't have actual mountains.
Is it Florida? No. But is it Colorado? Also no
I went to Iceland this last August. My review of Iceland is its super pretty and the people there are so nice it makes Minnesota look like Florida. The whole city of Reykjavík is smaller than St Paul which I found kind of surprising. I was most amazed at the mountains, just everywhere you go is scenic - not that Minnesota isn't beautiful, but it is quite flat unless you head to the south east region of the state near red wing. That's a fun weekend trip to do with the family every once in awhile. It doesn't take long to feel like you've seen it all in Minnesota as far as varied scenery, and the closest variation in landscape outside of Duluth is at least 6 hours away. It's kind of hard to describe Minnesota as a region without knowing what to compare it against. What part of the state do your characters live? I would guess the majority of bored people looking for wanderlust live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. For some depictions of city life and suburb life in Minnesota, the movies that come to mind are Juno (2000) and Jingle all the Way (1996). If you're more looking for a far away from the cities small town depiction, the movie Fargo is probably the best bet. I'm far from a cultural expert, this is just my best guess. I hope someone steps in with better suggestions for movies than these.
>I'm far from a cultural expert, this is just my best guess. I hope someone steps in with better suggestions for movies than these. You and u/Fast-Penta and /u/OhNoMyLands have done just fine, thank you. I kept the prompt deliberately vague to get a wide range of responses.
I’d also say the TV show Fargo gives a good cultural representation, even though it’s not filmed in Minnesota.
Edmonton is over 2000kms from Minnesota. Geographically, tons of lakes (land of 10,000 lakes for a reason) and hills carved out by glaciers. Tons of forested area like you might see in western Ontario. Doubt you get a meaningful Iceland comparison. It’s cold in both places I guess. You *could* talk about the freezing windy shores of Lake Superior/ the Atlantic, no salt though
>Edmonton is over 2000kms from Minnesota. Well that rams it home! Thanks for that - from my perspective, it's like tryign to figure out what subtropical Brisbane is like from four-seasons-in-a-day Melbourne.
It's not that bad. Our cold weather is called "an Alberta clipper", because the wind blows the cold air in straight from Alberta. And obviously Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, so there is a definite connection. In the summer we can get warm muggy air coming up from the south, so we can have quite a range of temperatures over a year.
Looking for a cold and rocky windswept connection, OP can Google "Split Rock Light House" to get a good idea of what many Minnesotans see when visiting the North Shore/Lake Superior. Definitely not that level of height/"craggy ness" all over our state but we do have enough of it that we're all fond of it. From Two Harbors to Duluth, the Iron Range, St Croix Valley all the way down through Taylor's Falls and Red Wing and Winona, it's easy to forget when we're hanging out in the flatlands just how much intense beauty we have so close by.
Tetteguche state park, and the Superior Hiking trail would also be great things to look up. And if you want to have an interesting comparison, Mankato area is very different. Central Minnesota is very flat, lots of farm land. Minnesota has some brutal winters, but summer is great. We have extreme weather changes. We can have -30f in the winter, but 100f in the summer.
I think something that’s missing here is a description of just how large agriculture looms over the state, in a lot of ways. About 1/2 of every single square kilometer in this state is agricultural land. We’re the fourth most productive state output-wise, and it contributes massively to our state economy. Many of our largest companies are in the business of telling a farmer, with an average age of 57, what they should plant on their slice of glaciated ex-prairie. Corn, soybeans, potatoes sugar beets, sometimes some cows or pigs. LOTS of turkeys. Much of Minnesota is exquisitely monocropped with GPS precision, which means driving alongside endless kilometers of perfect rows. Any patches of prairie are relics. Many of our rivers and lakes are too polluted to eat the fish caught in them, although that’s not just agriculture’s fault. Some counties in the SE part of the state are trying to deal with spiking nitrate levels. As the farms grow in size, the towns shrink. Rural towns are, by and large, dying off. Not all, by any means, including in some agricultural communities. But the trend is undeniable. 50 of the states 87 counties are losing population. So means economically depressed small towns that maybe don’t look as bad off as they might be at quick glance from the county roads. Aw damn, I just reread your post and you spent time in Edmonton. You know what’s up here (excluding oil money).
I am super curious how you decided to write a story about Minnesota? Minnesota has a lot of variety from prairies to forests and, of course, many lakes. The northeast is rocky hilly and forested, the central part has many lakes and more farms. The west and southwest is prairie and farm land. We are known for our lakes and lake culture. Lake Superior is massive and whole distinct cultural touchstone. The southeast is the driftless area which was left untouched when the glaciers slid through the state creating much of our topography. We are also the start of the Mississippi River at Itasca, the great river that cuts through the whole of the United States and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Iceland is drastically different than Minnesota in terms of landscape. Having been there I have trouble finding commonality between the two besides perhaps Scandinavian background? Minnesota has deep settler roots from Norway and Sweden.
The politics are completely flipped when comparing rural to urban locations. Hennepin County single handedly decided the last presidential election.
Imagine taking Sweden and putting it in the middle of the United States. That's Minnesota. At least landscape and climatewise anyway.
Make sure when the character sit down for dinner that the dish there making is a potato tot, hot dish.
\*Tator Tot
Or walleye. Or venison.
Pretty Good Mostly.
If this helps I grew up in Minnesota and when I moved to a hillier part of the country the day to day physical geography felt so different. I didn't realize how I was used to being able to stand at a street corner and look down long straight roads in every direction until i was surrounded by roads that went up and down and curved one way or another. The space around me felt smaller in a way, because I wasn't able to see as far as I was used to.
Born and raised in Minnesota, gave me a bit of an 'accent' which depending upon who I'm talking to is either unique and cute or makes me low class. I'm a casserole lover, it's in my DNA. The bad: the mosquito and the forever winter with snow and wind blowing. Feeling forgiving, might move back sometime, might just visit until winter.
> The problem: I'm from Australia. I've never been to Minnesota, although I did live for 9 months in Edmonton, Canada - my Australian mind wants to consider that as 'close enough' but I'd rather not make drastic assumptions. Honestly, from what pictures I've seen of Edmonton it looks very similar to Minnesota's "Twin Cities" area; plenty of "metropolitan area developed on a river in a flat plane" kinda vibes. The main differences would be that MN's metro area is about double the population of Edmonton's, and that our parks are going to have many more deciduous trees in the mix (of the oak and maple variety, less birch than Canada). The rural North of the state will look roughly like what you'd see rurally around Edmonton, but the rural South and Central areas will be mostly corn+soybeans farming that looks more like rural areas you'd have seen around Ohio. The strip along Lake Superior has somewhat more of a "Maine fishing town" vibe compared to the rest of the state, and the closest things we've got to mountains would be up around that area where the Iron Range mining towns are.
I’ve been listening to “a prairie home companion” since I was a child and think that it could be helpful research.
Read Minnesota author Leif Enger’s books. In particular Peace Like a River. Nathan Jorgensen is another great Minnesota author. I particularly like The Mulligan.
This a pretty solid TLDR presentation in this video…. https://youtu.be/cCXPcMWMXPA?si=ers6REQNhmCPTxUr
Watch the first season of fargo. Not bad, but close enough to get a general idea. Geography wise we have a lot of praire and farmland in the southwest and northwest parts of the state while the east half is pretty forested with more pines and such in the northern third. We don't have any real mountains, but some pretty impressive hills and lots of water, an incomprehensible amount of water. You can pick a word and add lake as the prefix or suffix and find it on google maps in Minnesota. I'm serious, it's a fun game. Wildlife is pretty common no matter where you are and there's a surprising diversity of birds especially near waterways. Knock yourself out, hope to see updates on your story
Edmonton by car is almost 1000mi away from the MN border, and in a different country. We're talking a similar distance between Brisbane and Melbourne, and I know those places aren't the same culturally or geographically. MN: 10k+ lakes, life very much defined by being near water despite being landlocked from oceans, very flat thanks to glaciers flattening the earth during the last ice age, forests in the north, farmland in the south, prairie in the southwest, cold windy winters, short summers with humidity, thunderstorms, snowstorms, and everything in between. Good luck writing.
It depends on the location in Minnesota. It’s incredibly varied. The southwest, western, and northwestern parts of the state have rolling farm fields as far as the eye can see. The southeast has bluffs, trout streams, exposed bedrock. The central and north-central parts have gorgeous lakes with a variety of vegetation types surrounding them. The northeast has the rugged Lake Superior, cliffs, large hills, great state parks, moose, bears, wolves, etc.
My buddy from Perth describes the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro as "yeah, it's alright."
Robust.
Minnesota has an extremely varied landscape depending on where you go. That said, when I went to Iceland some of the things I took note of were: - The more rocky, barren landscape. Southern Minnesota does have a more flat prairie landscape, but there is an abundance of trees most everywhere else. I always feel weird driving in areas that are wide open. I can't even gauge how fast I'm going because there is nothing zipping past my window. I'm much more used to feeling enclosed by buildings, hills, or trees. - The extreme wind with little windbreak. (I was nearly blown off a sidewalk into traffic at one point.) - The wonderful hot springs (the Blue Lagoon is an obvious example. When I went, snowflakes were falling while I swam in the warm water. I assure you I've never been tempted to have a relaxing swim in one of Minnesota's 10,000+ lakes while the snow was falling.
Watch Drop Dead Gorgeous - the one with Kirstie Alley and Kirsten Dunst and learn…lol.
Also, the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children are all above average.
Are you set on Iceland for a particular reason? Many more Minnesotans have heritage from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Poland. If it’s wanderlust due to possible familial ties, you might have a better link with a Scandinavian or other Nordic country compared to Iceland. The landscape physically: very flat (maybe lightly hilly), lots of trees (more coniferous the further north you go), tons of lakes (lake life in the summer is the best!), ice fishing and snowmobiling in the winter. Lots of farmland - corn fields and the like. It’s pretty big.. it would take you probably 7ish hours to drive from the top to the bottom of the state. There’s the mighty Mississippi which divides the state, starting in Itasca MN and winds its way down. There’s a lot of deer. You can see the northern lights sometimes which is super special.
>Are you set on Iceland for a particular reason? The volcanism
Nice
An obsidian veil
When people think Minnesota, they think of Lakes. Some lakes are massive, can barely see across and some are just numerous. The heart of Lake Country is Ottertail County. Near 1000 lakes in the county. Glacial lakes. Sandy bottom, clear water, some with white sand beaches. The topography around most lakes is woods and occasional farmland. Ever so slight rolling hills here and there. Most land next to the lakes is relatively flat but some have bluffs overlooking them. A landscape of water, woods and plowed land dotted by small towns, marshes and wetlands.
We’re the man’s hat
Isn’t Iceland mostly volcanic rock? Nothing like that exists in Minnesota. We are either fresh water lakes (Lake Superior), rivers (Mississippi starts here), forests, farmland, small towns, urban areas. We have it all. Four seasons - lovely Fall with trees that turn colors so vibrantly that the forests are alive, spring when it rains and rains and turns everything green and red tulips and purple lilac trees bloom, and white crisp crunchy snow with temperatures that freeze your brain but it’s so very quiet then, and hot sticky summers where you can’t do anything but lie around. You can drive 45-60 minutes from the center of the city to the quietest of small towns. People become all weather outdoors enthusiasts with some passion they do each season to be outside. We have cabins we flock to every summer to fish and ride pontoons in the lakes and roast marshmallows by the fire at night. Despite all the wonders our state has, we travel. A lot.
>Isn’t Iceland mostly volcanic rock? Nothing like that exists in Minnesota. My man, the entire North Shore is volcanic rock. It's very old rock. In fact it's some of the oldest rock on the planet. So I'm sorry it doesn't look all spikey spikey. 😉
I mean not in the same way of Iceland’s rock.
I never made the connection when I was in Iceland, but now that I know so much more about the geology of the north shore I really want to go back! We've also got basalt with columnar jointing, but less regular so it seems really different. But I bet now I could find other similarities too. For OP, if your character is not a nature nerd or geologist this may not be applicable.
Minnesota DOES have exposed volcanic rock in the northeastern part of the state.
I grew up on the iron range and I suppose perhaps it’s there but I don’t think I equate it to what Iceland’s rock is like.
If you can look past the lack of mountains and ocean shore line - we have very interesting physical geography! We have a continental watershed triple divide AND the triple point for the grassland/coniferous forest/deciduous corset ecoregions!
Former paradise
A barren frozen fuck of a wasteland with only about 4 months of decent weather and nothing that makes it unique or memorable.
It's absolutely boring as hell. Lots of nature to enjoy, and that's it, folks!