page_title: Bemidji, Minnesota
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Bemidji, Minnesota / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Carson's Trading Post, the earliest white business in Bemidji, Minnesota, 1894.
context_page_description: Bemidji is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates Bemidji's population as of 2019 at 15,434, making it the largest commercial center between Grand Forks, North Dakota and Duluth, Minnesota.
  As a central city for three Indian reservations, Bemidji is the site of many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service. Near Bemidji are the Red Lake Indian Reservation, White Earth Indian Reservation, and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River; it is nicknamed "The First City on the Mississippi". Bemidji is also the self-proclaimed "curling capital" of the U.S. and the alleged birthplace of legendary Paul Bunyan.
context_section_description: Bemidji is a college city, with strong arts influences. The city's streets are lined with small shops and adorned with sculptures and other forms of public art.
  The Concordia Language Villages are near Bemidji. They have supported several language conversational groups (including French, Chinese, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, and German) that meet weekly in local coffeehouses. In 2018 Concordia's Korean Language Village received a $5 million grant. The Korean village is the newest of the Villages.
  In 2011, Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. of the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation complimented Bemidji's Ojibwe language signage in places of business.
  During the summer, the Paul Bunyan Playhouse operates a non-Equity, summer stock theater at the Chief Theater. The Bemidji Community Theatre provides live theatre there when the Paul Bunyan Playhouse is not in operation.
  The statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are a popular tourist destinations. Many people photograph themselves in front of them. The statues are next to the Bemidji Tourist Information Center, where tourists can learn about local activities, events, and attractions. The center also includes many artifacts of the lumberjack's legend and a giant visitors' book travelers can sign; the names go back a long time. An old fireplace there was built with 900 stones, taken from every state in the United States, and most of the Canadian provinces, and Minnesota national parks.
caption: 1894 photo of Carson's Trading Post, Bemidji's first business owned by European Americans. Brothers George Earl and Merian Ellsworth Carson moved to the area in 1888. Merian eventually married a woman from a Leech Lake Band.[27]
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