Hail Minnesota! For its beautiful lakes, charming towns, and hardy citizens. We have so much that other states envy: giant Indian mounds, the world's largest Paul Bunyan, and the Twins and the Vikings. We spawn musicians of all types, from the Andrews Sisters to Bob Dylan, and we've never lacked for presidential candidates: Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, and, of course, Harold Stassen all gave it a whirl or two—or three—and it's fine with us that none of them made it to the White House. They gave it their all, just like Minnesotans do every day.
Yes, we're musical and political, but we're also very, very weird. We have more strange sites, strange history, and, happily, strange folks than we deserve. And who better to recount all of these odd people and places for you than Eric Dregni, a man with a lifelong passion for the weird.
With notepad and camera in hand, Eric scouted the highways and byways, lakes, streams, and rivers of Minnesota in search of the odd and the offbeat. He tracked down impossible-to-believe tales, only to discover odd grains of truth that will astonish—and sometimes creep out—even the most knowledgeable Minnesotan.
So come along with Eric and climb the Witch's Tower, toss your hat in the air with Mary, sit right down in a two-story outhouse, and spend a night in the Pharaoh's Chamber or the Space Odyssey room at an exotic hotel. Or maybe you prefer to stay in the Drunk Tank at the Jailhouse Historic Inn. Visit—and take a taste—at the Spam Museum, then go gape at the country's largest collection of underwear. After all that, relax at the Bowling Hall of Fame. It's all here, it's all weird, and it's all ours.
I need, we hail Minnesota! And give daily thanks for its bountiful oddities. Read on. We guarantee you'll appreciate our state that much more.
