Minnesota has three nicknames: "Land of 10,000 Lakes", which evolved from the desire of early settlers to advertise the state's large number of lakes to attract more people; "Gopher State", which was inspired by an early political cartoon criticizing the construction of several railroads in the mid-1800s; and "North Star State", a reference to both the state motto and Minnesota's position as the northernmost point in the
contiguous United States. Many other symbols have been proposed for addition to the list of official state symbols but were never officially adopted. Since 1971, the
white-tailed deer has been proposed as the state mammal eight times. Other creatures proposed as representations of the state have included the
northern leopard frog, the
eastern timber wolf, the
thirteen-lined ground squirrel, and the
Blanding's turtle. In 2007, another proposal, also unsuccessful, was to designate the
Tilt-A-Whirl as the state's official amusement ride. It was invented in
Faribault in 1926, and debuted at the
Minnesota State Fair a year later. In 2005, the state legislature overwhelmingly voted in favor of appointing a
state poet laureate, a position offered by 34 other states. Governor
Tim Pawlenty vetoed the measure, believing that the state could "benefit from the richness and diversity of all of the poets in Minnesota and recognize and embrace their work as merit and circumstances warrant." "Minnesota Blue", a 1985 poem by state native and poet-songwriter Cordell Keith Haugen, has been unsuccessfully proposed as state poem. Five other states have official poems. Proposals for state book have included two of
Laura Ingalls Wilder's works,
Little House on the Prairie and
On the Banks of Plum Creek. ==See also==