MINNEAPOLIS

From Far Out Man, by Eric Utne:

The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota word Minisotah, which combines mini, meaning “water”, with sotah, meaning “sky-tinted” or “cloudy”. Minnesota is the “Land of Sky-Tinted Waters” and the “Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.” Actually, there are more than fifteen thousand lakes. The point where Minnesota’s three watersheds meet, known to the Ojibwe as the “Hill of Three Waters”, is just a stone’s throw from Bob Dylan’s birthplace in Hibbing, Minnesota.

I think Minnesota’s location — between the forest and the prairie, headwaters of rivers flowing in three directions, halfway between the North Pole and the equator, sitting in the geographical heart of the continent — gives the people of the state of unique balance and depth. I like to think these characteristics make Minnesota the spiritual as well as literal headwaters of North America.