Central Minnesota

A typical image of central Minnesota includes the many large and small lakes that surround the cities of St.

Area high school athletic conferences acknowledge the region's location and natural geography with names including Central Lakes,[1] Granite Ridge, Great River, [2] Heart O'Lakes,[3] Mid-State,[4] and Pine to Prairie.

But agriculture is still important in the region, especially the southern and western parts, where the land and soil is conducive to crops such as corn and soybeans.

Dairy farms also dot the region in areas where crops cannot easily be grown, but their numbers have been drastically dwindling in recent years.

Paper companies own expansive amounts of land in the region's heavily forested eastern and northern parts, but logging activity has long since peaked.

[1] The 1996 film Fargo and its television series are largely set in the region's cities of Brainerd and Bemidji, but central Minnesotans' accents are not as pronounced as those in the franchise.