|
 Lift Truck Chain Minnesota - Minnesota State is situated within the Midwestern United States. Minnesota is the twelfth biggest state in the union, and the twenty-first most crowded state with 5.3 million inhabitants. The state, the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory was admitted to the Union on May 11, the year 1858, as the thirty-second state. Known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the state's name was derived from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water." Those waters, along with wilderness areas, forests and parks, offer residents and visitors a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.
Almost 60% of Minnesota's residents reside in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area referred to as the "Twin Cities", the center of transportation, industry and education, and home to a globally known arts community. The remainder of the state comprises western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for forestry, recreation and mining.
Once primarily a producer of raw materials, the economy of Minnesota has transformed in the last 200 years to emphasize services and finished products. Probably the most significant characteristic of the economy is its diversity; the relative outputs of its business sectors closely match the United States as a whole. Minnesota economy had a gross domestic product of $262 billion in 2008. 33 of the United States' top 1,000 publicly traded businesses, according to 2008 revenues, are headquartered in Minnesota, comprising Target, United Health Group, General Mills, 3M Medtronic, U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise, Hormel, Land O' Lakes, Best Buy, Valspar and SuperValu. Private companies based in Minnesota State consist of Cargill, the largest privately owned business within the US, and Carlson Companies, the parent company of Radisson Hotels.
The earliest industries within Minnesota State were agriculture and fur trading. St. Anthony Falls helped to power the flour mills around the city of Minneapolis during its formative years. In the agricultural sector, less than 1 percent of the population is employed, as it still remains vital to Minnesota's economy. This sector ranks 6th within the United States in the value of agricultural products sold. The state of Minnesota is the U.S.'s largest producer of sweet corn, sugar beats, and green peas for processing, and farm-raised turkeys. Forestry continues to be strong, as well as logging, pulpwood processing and paper production, and forest products manufacturing. The state of Minnesota was popular for its soft-ore mines, which produced a large portion of the globe's iron ore for over a century. Even if the high-grade ore is currently depleted, taconite mining continues, utilizing methods locally developed to save the industry. In 2004, the state produced 75 percent of the nation's usable iron ore. The mining boom created the port of Duluth which continues to be essential for shipping coal, agricultural products and ore. The manufacturing sector now consists of technology and biomedical firms as well as the older heavy industry and food processors. The nation's very first indoor shopping mall was Edina's Southdale Center and its Bloomington's Mall of America is its biggest.
| |
