Title: How did Minnesota become the Gopher State? - StarTribune.com
Headings: How did Minnesota become the Gopher State?
StarTribune
How did Minnesota become the Gopher State?

Content: How did Minnesota become the Gopher State? - StarTribune.com
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Although Minnesota is known as the Gopher State, the animal is not among the state's official symbols. Photo: Brian Peterson, Star Tribune
Curious Minnesota
How did Minnesota become the Gopher State? By Mary Lynn Smith Star Tribune
October 25, 2019 — 3:16pm
It appears Minnesotans have been misled about their beloved gophers. For more than a century, Minnesota has been known as the Gopher State, a nickname that led the University of Minnesota to adopt a smiling, bucktooth rodent dubbed Goldy Gopher as its school mascot in the 1940s. The Minnesota State Fair named Fairchild the gopher as its official mascot in 1966 then added his nephew, Fairborne the gopher, more than two decades later. Dressed in civilized attire, the mascots bop around campus and the fairgrounds with their striped tails wagging. And that, according to people who know their rodents, is the telltale sign that what you’re seeing is no true gopher.