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Minnesota state symbols

Minnesota has 22 official state symbols. The oldest is the motto of 1861; the newest, adopted in 2025, are a state fossil, the giant beaver, and a state constellation, Ursa Minor. In 2024 Minnesota replaced both its flag and its seal. Many of its symbols were proposed by schoolchildren.

22 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

Lady’s slipper, pine and loon

Minnesota’s first nature symbol was its flower, and it took two tries. In 1893 the Senate picked a lady slipper that does not grow wild in Minnesota. After a women’s study circle pointed out the mistake, a 1902 resolution chose the pink and white lady slipper, a large native orchid, instead; the choice became statute in 1967. The red pine, also called the Norway pine, became the state tree in 1953 at the urging of a Minneapolis women’s study club. The common loon followed as the state bird in 1961, after lawmakers had floated the goldfinch, the mourning dove, the pileated woodpecker and others in earlier bills.

Lakes and woods

Minnesota’s lakes supply several symbols. The walleye, the prized fish of Minnesota anglers, became the state fish in 1965. Wild rice, harvested by canoe from northern lakes, became the state grain in 1977. The Lake Superior agate, banded red and orange and found on the North Shore and across the state, became the state gem in 1969, after rock-hunting clubs insisted on keeping its traditional name rather than calling it the “Minnesota agate.”

Firsts and student ideas

In 1984 Minnesota named the morel, a prized edible mushroom, as the first official state mushroom in the country. The same year it adopted milk as the state drink. Schoolchildren proposed many of the symbols that followed. Third graders in Carlton asked for the blueberry muffin as the state muffin in 1988, inspired by a Massachusetts class that had won a state corn muffin. Fourth graders in Mahtomedi pushed for the monarch butterfly in 2000. Students in Bayport suggested the Honeycrisp apple, developed at the University of Minnesota, as the state fruit in 2006. And sixth graders in Minnetonka gathered more than 600 signatures to make ice hockey the state sport in 2009.

A photograph, a bee and a beaver

Some symbols are unusual. “Grace,” Eric Enstrom’s 1918 photograph of an elderly man praying over a simple meal, taken in Bovey, became the state photograph in 2002. The rusty patched bumble bee, an endangered species, became the state bee in 2019. In 2025 Minnesota adopted the giant beaver, an Ice Age beaver the size of a bear, as the state fossil, giving its Dakota and Ojibwe names, capa and amik, in the law, and Ursa Minor, the constellation that contains the North Star, as the state constellation.

A new flag and seal

In 2023 the legislature created a State Emblems Redesign Commission to replace the old flag and seal. It received 2,128 flag designs and 399 seal designs from the public, and its choices took effect on May 11, 2024. The new seal shows a common loon on stylized water, wild rice, a Norway pine and a four-pointed star, framed by the Dakota phrase Mni Sóta Makoce, “land where the waters reflect the skies.” Its outer ring of 98 gold bars stands for the state’s 87 counties and 11 federally recognized tribal nations.

The main symbols

The flag, the common loon and the lady’s slipper each have their own page. The state song is “Hail! Minnesota,” which began as a University of Minnesota song; to make it the state song in 1945, “our college dear” became “our state so dear.”

1 1860s 1880s 1900s 1920s 1 1940s 1 4 1960s 1 3 1980s 4 2000s 2 5 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 2020s, with five.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Culture and history

Places and institutions

Questions about Minnesota's symbols

What is the Minnesota state animal?
Minnesota has no state mammal. Its official animals are the common loon (bird), the walleye (fish), the monarch (butterfly), the rusty patched bumble bee (bee) and, as a fossil, the giant beaver.
What is the Minnesota state mushroom?
The morel, adopted in 1984. Minnesota was the first state to name an official mushroom.
What is the Minnesota state sport?
Ice hockey, adopted in 2009 after sixth graders at Minnetonka Middle School East gathered more than 600 signatures.
Why does Minnesota have a state photograph?
The photograph "Grace," by Eric Enstrom, showing an elderly man bowing his head in thanks over a simple meal, was taken in Bovey, Minnesota, in 1918. It became the state photograph in 2002.
Photo credits (6)

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