St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1951-01-05
NORTH STAR STATE
BY GEORGE LUDCKE

Ages ago, from their arctic source,
Ice mountains roared down with a primal force
And from giant tracks that glacier makes,
Emerged the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.
Minnesota means Land of the Sky Blue Waters"
In Indian tongue; but her sons and daughters
Gave her the nickname, North Star State,
When she Joined the Union in So.
She is haunting music of Indian names,
Cities where homesteaders staked their claims,
Trails early French explorers trod
Missionaries for King and God.
Pipestone quarrys sacred lore
Traces of men who have gone before.
Viking rhinestone with ancient script
Found in a rocky pasture crypt
Minnesota is Hawatha's ground,
The wild cataract Father Hennepin found
Mills that grind her wheat to flour,
Still using St Anthony Falls for power.
She's Fort Smelling, alerted at sumters fall,
Farm boys who answered Abe Lncoln's call.
The smell of spring in her fresh-ployed loan
To veterans of Saipan and Belgum-home!
Minnesota is opportunity
For newcomers to the Land of the Free.
Faith in God by plain farm people;
Sunsets rays a white church steeple.
Swedish and German immgrations,
Merging in later generations;
Iron range miners and names they've got
Middlewestern melting pot.
A stream in Itasca's pines, the source
OF the mighty Mssissippis
Haunt of a Kingsze umberjack,
Paul Bunyan born in loggers shack
Minnesota is red iron ore,
Dug for the nations hard steel core.
She's blocx-long lake boat with wheat filled hold,
Bread for the nation prairie gold.
Men whom obstacles couldn't bewilder
Jim Ill., from clerk Empire Builder.
Wild geese winging through northern sky,
boy named Lindbergh who learned to fly.
She's the sudden strike of a hungry bass;
Malards Swimming across the pass
Drum-beat of grouse the autumn air
A white tail deer in its leafy lair.
Minnesota is pioneer land grant college
Grown To word-renowned knowledge
symphony proof of her cultural claim;
Golden Gophers of gridron fame.
Minnesota is healing and hope for many
Mayo Clinic and Sister Kenny
All champions glowing health
Proof of her dairy and garden wealth
She's Sinclair Lewis famed main Street"
At Sank Center where lakes and farmland meet
Rival schools that Mortified claims,
Along with bank robbed by Jessie James.
Minnesota is timber; from northern pine
To cottonwoods down the Iowa line
She's Spht-Rock Lighthouse cool North Shore,
And Canadas neighborly open door.
She's the State Fair each year bigger than last
Where farm meets city and present meets past.
Breadbasket that fills its needs and more
Food for the hungry foreign shore
Minnesota is temperature change
Extremes of her busy thermometers range
She's hot summer shimmering corn
And winters cold blast, arctic born.
She's the bird flight north in early spring
And the rich green growth that her summers bring
A riot of color when calls
Slumberng peace when the soft snow falls
Twelve states larger in the nation,
Sixteen have greater population;
But you can't tell with figures show with charts
Mnnesoa's place in her peoples hearts.
Statistics can't picture the glad hearts leap,
When the native returns; or why roots grow deep
Where the pines tall the prairies roll
Money can't the wealth of the soul