Sign in Using FacebookSt. Paul Guide » More About St. Paul: Interesting Facts
Interesting Facts
- Invention Convention? Many Twin City creations have achieved marketplace fame all over the world. The list includes: 3M's Post It Notes and cellophane tape, Cream of Wheat, Totino's Frozen Pizza, Green Giant Vegetables, Tonka Toys, and Rollerblades.
- Many famous people are natives of the Twin Cities: John Paul Getty, Walter Mondale, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Loni Anderson, Prince, Cheryl Tiegs, and Charles Schultz, just to name a few.
- The two week long Minnesota State Fair is held in St. Paul, and is the largest in the nation. It attracts more than 1.5 million people each year.
- The Mall of America is billed as "the nation's largest fully enclosed retail and entertainment complex" and is located in Bloomington, 3 miles south of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. The mall covers 4.2 million square feet of space, houses more than 520 stores, 25 restaurants, 27 fast food eateries, 9 nightclubs, 14 movie screens, a theme park, a 1.2 million gallon aquarium and an 18-hole miniature golf course! To make things even better, clothes and grocery purchases in Minnesota carry no sales tax!
- St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, has a Skyway system that links many buildings one-level above street level. Extending more than five miles, it is one of the longest publicly owned systems of elevated covered walkways in the world!
- The first St. Paul Winter Carnival was held in 1886, just one year after a New York Times reporter described St. Paul as an "American Siberia." Though too costly and time consuming to erect every year, Ice Palaces have been constructed at 17 of the carnivals. The ice palace created at the 1992 St. Paul Winter Carnival holds the record as the world's largest ice sculpture. Constructed using more than 20,000 blocks of ice, the ice palace stood 165 feet tall and weighed over 12 million pounds.
- In a pig's eye! Check the history books, and you'll find that the first settlement in the area that would become St. Paul, was called Pig's Eye in honor of Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who built his cabin here in 1838. Pig's Eye residents later renamed the settlement St. Anthony, and then adopted the name St. Paul in 1841.
- "Public Enemy #1 Involved in Shoot-out with Feds!" Infamous gangster John Dillinger made local headlines when he narrowly escaped capture after a gun-fight with FBI agents in downtown St. Paul in 1934.
- Located on the St. Croix River, just east of St. Paul, is the charming little town of Stillwater. Due to the surprising number of antiquarian book-dealers whose businesses are here, Stillwater proudly assumed the title of "The First Booktown of North America" in 1995. This one-time boomtown is also known as "The Birthplace of Minnesota" and is the "Antique Capital" of the state.
- St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theatre, named in honor of its famous native son, is the home of Garrison Keilor's popular radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," which is broadcast to more than 2.5 million radios all over the United States.
Eat Out and Save Money!
