Posted in Minnesota December 30, 2015 by

13 Incredible, Almost Unbelievable Facts About Minnesota

Full of history and culture, there’s always something new to learn about Minnesota. These crazy facts range from the ones you’ve always wondered about to the ones you never gave much thought to, but all of them are guaranteed to astound you. Here are 13 things that make Minnesota truly unique.

1. There are 69,200 miles of rivers and streams in Minnesota. That's enough to circle the equator 2 3/4 times!
Flickr/Sean Berry
Distance around the equator = 24,901 miles. Sources: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources/National Geographic.
2. Minnesota produces more turkeys each year than there are people in California.
Flickr/Gerry
Turkeys produced: 44-46 million annually. Source: Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. California Population - 38,802,500. Source: US Census.
3. Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people; that's 909,528 boats, more than the population of South Dakota (and North Dakota).
Flickr/Passej
Source: US Census.
4. Minnesota has over 3 times more white-tailed deer than college students.
Flickr/USFWSmidwest
1.5 million white-tailed deer. Source: Minnesota DNR. 433,952 Students. Source: Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
5. 3 million cows live in MN. More cows than there are people in 20 different states.
Flickr/mgbjay
Source: US Census.
6. The Mall of America in Bloomington is big enough to hold 32 Boeing 747 airplanes.
Flickr/RLEVANS
Source: History.com.
Yes, these.
Flickr/Aero Icarus
Source: History.com.
7. MN stocks its waters with 256,259,500 fish on average per year. That's enough to give 4 out of 5 people in the US a fish.
Flickr/James St. John
Sources: Minnesota DNR/US Census.
8. Minnesota harvests 18,900,000 lbs of fish per year; that's enough to fill the beds of 10,384 Ford F-150 Pickups.
Flickr/Randen Pederson
Sources: Minnesota DNR/Ford.
9. In 2015, the MN State Fair logged 1,779,738 visitors, enough to fill the new Vikings stadium more than 24 times!
Flickr/Bala Sivakumar
Stadium Capacity: 65,400 (73,000 for Super Bowls). Sources: Minnesota State Fair/US Bank Stadium.
10. In 2014, MN produced 1.18 billion bushels of corn, the weight of over 90 Empire State Buildings.
Flickr/Kris
Each bushel weighs 56 pounds for a total of 33,040,000 tons compared to 365,000 tons for the Empire State Building. Sources: USDA/Empire State Building.
11. Minnesota's craft breweries sell enough beer annually to pay for the entire state to stream Netflix for over 2 years!
Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild
The Standard Netflix streaming deal costs $9.99 per month, and the breweries sell $1,394 million each year ($242.62 per person in MN). Sources: Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild/Netflix.
12. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources manages 3,134,900 acres of land - nearly twice the size of Delaware.
Flickr/Doc Searls
Delaware is 2,488 square miles compared to the Minnesota DNR's 4,898. Sources: Minnesota DNR/Wikipedia.
13. MN has 13,136,357 acres of total surface water, more area than all the land in Hawaii and New Jersey combined.
Flickr/Justin Meissen
MN has 2,560,299 acres of deep water and 13,136,357 acres of total surface water area including wetlands. Source: Minnesota DNR.

Which one of these surprised you the most? Tell us on the Only In Minnesota Facebook Page!