Etymology

he word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River: The river got its name from one of two words in the Dakota language, either 'Mnisota' which means "clear blue water",^[7] or 'Mnißota', which means cloudy water.^[8][9][10] Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota.^[10] Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls ("laughing water" (waterfall)), Minneiska ("white water"), Minneota ("much water"), Minnetonka ("big water"), Minnetrista ("crooked water"), and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, the Greek word for "city".^[11]

Geography

Minnesota, showing roads and major bodies of water

Minnesota is the second northernmost U.S. state (after Alaska). Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the only part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U.S. region known as the Upper Midwest and part of North America's Great Lakes Region. It shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba are to the north. With 86,943 square miles (225,180 km²),^[12] or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States,^[13] Minnesota is the 12th-largest state.^[14]