Naming things Minnesota-style

On this day in 1806, Alexander Faribault was born in Wisconsin. As a young man, he moved to the wilds of Minnesota and established a fur trading post where the Cannon and the Straight rivers meet. A town grew there and it is named Faribault in his honor. It is the county seat of Rice County, MN.  A bit further to the southwest is Faribault County, named for Alexander's son Jean-Baptiste Faribault, also a fur trader. The county seat of Faribault County is Blue Earth, MN. Just to the north of that is Blue Earth County, the county seat of which is Mankato. Is this confusing enough? No? Well, to bring us full circle, the little town of Rice, MN is not in Rice County.

And the Straight River is not even close to being straight. And the Cannon river has nothing to do with cannons -- the name comes from a mangling of the French word for canoe.

The furs that the Faribault fellows were after were beaver and mink and river otter, which ended up in Europe where they were made into hats.

Speaking of fur hats...