Excerpt from The Story of Minnesota, Vol. 1 The Story of Minnesota is called, on its shield, "The Star of the North," though the words, as written, appear in French, thus: "L 'Etoile du Nord." Since every State is represented by a separate star in our nation's flag, it is natural to speak of States, sometimes, as "stars;" and of all the States, Minnesota projects farthest to the north. In fact, it includes part of a peninsula away up in the Ike of the Woods, which singular fact calls for an explanation. When our nation made peace with Great Britain at the close of the Revolutionary War, it was agreed that the Mississippi should be our western boundary all the way up to our northern boundary. But it was found, later, that the Mississippi did not extend so far north. Hence the western boundary was pieced out by an imaginary line running northward from the source of the river into the lake mentioned, cutting off for us an odd piece of land which we cannot reach except by boat, unless we pass through some of the Canadian land. It was proper that the motto on Minnesota's shield should be written in French, for that was practically the only European language used in this region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the words recall to mind the arduous labors and great services of brave French explorers, missionaries. and traders in the days of the long ago. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.