List of Minnesota state symbols

[2] Minnesota schoolchildren have been the force behind the successful promotion of four official symbols: the blueberry muffin (1988), the monarch butterfly (2000), the Honeycrisp apple (2006), and ice hockey (2009).

Suggested animals have included the white-tailed deer, the northern leopard frog, the eastern timber wolf, the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, and the Blanding's turtle.

Originally, eight bird choices were proposed in the late 1940s, which in addition to the common loon included the eastern goldfinch, the mourning dove, the pileated woodpecker, the scarlet tanager, and the wood duck.

A decision was delayed due to citizen indecision, but a letter-writing campaign over a decade after the original proposal led to the selection of the loon.

[37] 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.

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.