List of Minnesota state symbols

There are nineteen official symbols of the US state of Minnesota, as designated by the Minnesota Legislature.^[1] The first named symbol is the state's motto, L'Étoile du Nord – French for "Star of the North". It was selected in 1861, shortly after Minnesota achieved statehood, by the first governor, Henry Sibley, as a reflection of Minnesota's location in the Northern United States. That same year, the original state seal was adopted. Minnesota did not designate another official symbol until 1945, when "Hail! Minnesota", then the official song of the University of Minnesota, was designated as state song. In 1984, Minnesota became the first state to appoint a state mushroom, the common morel (Morchella esculenta).^[1] The newest symbols of Minnesota are the state flag and state seal, both adopted on May 11, 2024.^[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). The 1918 black-and-white photograph Grace, taken by Eric Enstrom in Bovey and later reproduced as a color painting by his daughter, was named state photograph in 2002.

Many other symbols have been proposed as representations of the state, but for various reasons have been unsuccessful. 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. Through the years, the state legislature has also voted on unsuccessful bills to designate the Tilt-A-Whirl as official amusement ride, the works Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek as state book, and "Minnesota Blue" as official poem.