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Origin of the name "Gopher State"
From The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier by Charles E. Flandrau
Published by E W
Porter, St. Paul MN 1900 and made available on-line through
Project Gutenberg
Most of the states in the Union have a popular name. New York is called the
"Empire State," Pennsylvania the "Keystone State," etc. As you come west they
seem to have taken the names of animals. Michigan is called the "Wolverine
State," Wisconsin the "Badger State," and it is not at all singular that
Minnesota should have been christened the "Gopher State." These names never
originate by any recognized authority. They arise from some event that suggests
them, or from some important utterance that makes an impression on the public
mind. In the very early days of the territory--say, as early as 1854 or
1855,--the question was discussed among the settlers as to what name should be
adopted by Minnesota, and for a time it was called by some the "Beaver State."
That name seemed to have the greatest number of advocates, but it was always met
with the objection that the beaver, although quite numerous in some of our
streams, was not sufficiently so to entitle him to characterize the territory by
giving it his name. While this debate was in progress the advocates of the
beaver spoke of the territory as the beaver territory, but it never reached a
point of universal adoption. It was well known that the gopher abounded, and his
name was introduced as a competitor with the beaver; but being a rather
insignificant animal, and his nature being destructive, and in no way useful, he
was objected to by many, as too useless and undignified to become an emblem of
the coming great state,--for we all had, at that early day, full confidence that
Minnesota was destined to be a great and prominent state. Nothing was ever
settled on this subject until after the year 1857.
As I have before stated, in that year an attempt was made to amend the
constitution by allowing the state to issue bonds in the sum of
$5,000,000 to
aid in the construction of the railroads which the United States had subsidized
with land grants, and the campaign which involved this amendment was most
bitterly fought. The opponents of the measure published a cartoon to bring the
subject into ridicule, which was very generally circulated throughout the state,
but failed to check the enthusiasm in favor of the proposition. This cartoon
represented ten men in a line, with heads bowed down with the weight of a bag of
gold hung about their necks, marked "$10,000." They were supposed to represent
the members of the legislature who had been bribed to pass the act, and were
called "Primary Directors." On their backs was a railroad track, upon which was
a train of cars drawn by nine gophers, the three gophers in the lead
proclaiming, "We have no cash, but will give you our drafts." Attached to the
rear of the train was a wheelbarrow, with a barrel on it, marked "Gin," followed
by the devil, in great glee, with his thumb at his nose. In the train were the
advocates of the bill, flying a flag bearing these words: "Gopher train;
excursion train; members of extra session of legislature, free. We develop the
resources of the country." Over this was a smaller flag, with the words: "The
$5,000,000 Loan Bill."
In another part of the picture is a rostrum, from which a gopher is addressing
the people with the legend: "I am right; Gorman is wrong." In the right hand
corner of the cartoon is a round ball, with a gopher in it, coming rapidly down,
with the legend: "A _Ball come_ from Winona." This was a pun on the name of Mr.
St. A. D. Balcombe from Winona, who was a strong advocate of the measure. Under
the whole group was a dark pit, with the words, "A mine of corruption."
The bill was passed, and the state was saddled with a debt of $5,000,000, under
which it staggered for over twenty years, and we never even got a gopher train
out of it.
This cartoon, coming just at the time the name of the state was under
consideration, fastened upon it the nickname of "Gopher," which it has ever
since retained. The name is not at all inappropriate, as the animal has always
abounded in the state. In a work on the mammals of Minnesota, by C. L. Herrick,
1892, he gives the scientific name of our most common species of gopher, "_Spermophilus
Tridecemlineatus_," or thirteen-striped gopher, and says: "The species ranges
from the
Saskatchawan to Texas, and from Ohio to Utah. Minnesota is the peculiar home of
the typical form, and thus deserves the name of the 'Gopher State.'"
Although the name originated in ridicule and contempt, it has not in any way
handicapped the commonwealth, partly because very few people know its origin,
but for the greater reason, that it would take much more than a name to check
its predestined progress.
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Gopher photo credit:
