Minnesota
Behold the beaver! Drive is on to make prehistoric giant Minnesota’s official fossil
Paleontologist Alex Hastings held up a fossilized animal skull and showed it off to a couple of Girl Scouts who passed through Bad Weather Brewing on a cookie sales mission to the taproom’s patrons on a sunny weekend day.
The giant beaver skull is several times larger than the beavers that roam Minnesota today. Hastings told the curious onlookers that the prehistoric creature was the size of a black bear and tapped in at 200 pounds.
“So the giant beaver lived about 12,000 years ago here in the cities to about 10,000 years ago, and it is a good choice for our state. Of course, beavers, the modern beaver is still very widespread across the state. It’s an important part of our ecology here,” Hastings said.
A fossilized skull of a giant beaver found in Minnesota was on display in St. Paul as part of an effort to raise awareness about a bill that would make it Minnesota’s state fossil. Dana Ferguson | MPR News
Hastings and others from the Minnesota Science Museum are working to raise awareness about the giant beaver and about their effort to make it the state’s official fossil. While Minnesota has a variety of state symbols, ranging from a bird to a flag to a muffin to a state beverage, it’s among a handful of states that hasn’t adopted an official state fossil.
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The giant beaver fossils are part of the science museum’s collection and they were discovered in Minnesota. Hastings said that makes them a good fit.
“What’s really fun about the giant beaver is that it would have actually been around when the first people were settling into Minnesota,” Hastings said. “So the first inhabitants in this land would have been encountering the giant beaver.”
A few years ago, the Minnesota Science Museum asked people to vote on which fossil should be the official one. Hastings proudly notes the giant beaver was the overwhelming winner.
The bill to designate the giant beaver as the official fossil isn’t even the only one about beavers this session. There’s also legislation to permit human consumption of beavers of the non-giant variety. The two proposals are unrelated.
Unfortunately for University of Minnesota fans, Hastings said gophers don’t date back far enough to meet the criteria for a fossil, so another giant rodent should fit the bill.
“I don’t know of any dated gophers that go back that far, but we do have dated beavers that go back that far,” he said. “And why can’t we get love for all rodents here in Minnesota and not just gophers?”
Bad Weather Brewing co-owner Joe Giambruno displays a special beer he brewed to raise awareness about a bill that would make the giant beaver Minnesota’s state fossil.
Dana Ferguson | MPR News
Joseph Giambruno, who co-owns Bad Weather Brewing, said he heard about the museum’s effort to recognize the giant beaver as the state fossil and wanted to do something to help. So he brewed a beer in collaboration with the museum.
“It’s a black IPA, it has some roasted chocolate malt characteristics. The hops we chose are more on the piney side, so kind of like you’re chewing on a pine tree, like a beaver would do,” Giambruno said.
Hastings said the name — Epoch Beaver — also has deeper meaning.
“It’s spelled E, P, O, C, H, that’s epoch, as in, like the Pleistocene, the Ice Age, epoch. And it’s a really nice new black IPA,” he said.
Giambruno said it’s his first foray trying to sway policymakers with his brews.
“We’ve had folks out for different charity events and certain things,” Giambruno said. “But this is the first time we’re working with someone to lobby lawmakers.”
Kelsea Gilliland, of Minneapolis, said she was sold on the new beer and the policy proposal. She sent an email to her legislator to encourage them to pass it.
“I think it would be fun if I could be a part of it, and I don’t want to get left out,” she said. “I think our state should have a state fossil.”
Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, will take all the help he can get making it law.
“Maybe it’s not something that’s a high priority for a lot of people, but if we can get enough support, maybe we can, you know, get it across the line,” Myers said.
While the bill has a ways to go, he’s hopeful the nod to Minnesota’s prehistoric past will bring legislators together.
A 19-year-old man is accused of driving a stolen car and crashing into a Minnesota State Patrol squad car in Minneapolis Friday evening, injuring three people, including a trooper.
Officials say the incident started around 10:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. The criminal complaint says Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office deputies found a stolen red Hyundai and were following it when the driver of the car started to flee and drive recklessly.
The Hyundai entered Minneapolis and the deputies turned off their lights and stopped pursuing the car, the charges say. The car drove through Aldrich Avenue and 46th Street at approximately 80 mph, blowing through a stop sign before crashing into the side of a state patrol vehicle.
The 19-year-old, who was driving the Hyundai, fled on foot but was apprehended a short time later, the complaint says.
The trooper was hospitalized with a fractured right fibula and a fractured left scapula, court documents say. The two passengers in the Hyundai were also both taken to the hospital; one had a compound neck fracture and brain bleed, while the other had neck pain, the complaint says.
According to the charges, the teenager told police in a post-Miranda statement that it’s fun to drive around in stolen vehicles.
He faces three counts of criminal vehicular operation, one count of receiving stolen property and one count of fleeing a peace officer.
The outer edges of the Twin Cities are booming with new places to live.
So far this decade, the Twin Cities metro has, on average, added about 17,000 housing units per year, according to data from the Metropolitan Council. That includes homes, condos and apartments.
If you go by total housing units added, at the top of the list is Lakeville, a city growing so fast it put a pause on accepting new building permits. It has added 4,861 units from 2020 to 2025.
It’s followed in order by Woodbury (4,271 units), Maple Grove (3,599 units), Rosemount (3,186 units), Cottage Grove (2,279 units) and Blaine (2,677).
“Those suburban edge communities have the land supply, and they have the infrastructure, and the connection to the metro,” Todd Graham, the Metropolitan Council’s principal forecaster, explained.
Space to add homes and infrastructure to handle the growth, all while staying within the metro bubble, is why developers are targeting those communities.
Cottage Grove has been adding about 287 homes a year this decade, but the mayor tells us of a new trend.
“What’s changing is we are seeing additional multifamily apartments, higher density,” said Myron Bailey. “And then we’re putting a little bit more focus on some affordability options, especially around our business park.”
Which suburbs will grow the most in the future?
If you go by population, Blaine and Maple Grove are forecasted to add about 20,000 people each from 2020 to 2050.
But if you go by percentage, two communities stand out. Corcoran in Hennepin County is expected to more than triple its population from 6,185 in 2020 to 19,600 in 2050. Carver in Carver County will see its population nearly triple from 5,241 in 2020 to 14,900 in 2050.
“We’re planning for it in the City of Carver. We have a long-term financial plan, we have a strategic plan, we have a comprehensive plan,” said Carver Mayor Courtney Johnson.
For example, new builds will push the limits of Carver’s current water treatment plant sometime in the next decade.
“We are already thinking about where and how we’re going to build a new one to expand our capacity to bring fresh water into homes,” she said.
Cottage Grove is building a second water tower right now on the west side of Highway 61, with plans for a third in the future. The city also has ample space to add homes and businesses.
Carver, meanwhile, has a smaller footprint, but it has an agreement in place with the neighboring Dahlgren township.
“When the landowners in that community are approached by developers for homes or commercial, they would then become part of the City of Carver, and then our boundary area would expand,” said Johnson.
Corcoran’s boundaries are the opposite of Carver’s. The town covers just under 36 square miles, making its land size similar to Maple Grove and Plymouth. Most of it still consists of farmland, prairies and wooded areas with home developments spread throughout.
A spokesperson for Corcoran told WCCO that new developments will be focused on the eastern third of the city, where growth can be best supported. That includes a new water tower and water treatment plant in the city’s northeast district.
With more neighborhoods and people come a need for more entertainment, dining and shopping. Bailey said that’s becoming apparent in his community.
“The biggest complaint that I get is we don’t have enough restaurants or retail in our community. So, that’s been frankly one of the things that I’ve been trying to work on,” said Bailey.
One element of growth that is particularly challenging for smaller towns is maintaining their small-town image. Johnson said much of Carver’s development is happening on their western edge, where farmland is plentiful. The downtown area near the Minnesota River, however, will keep its historic charm.
“We have one of the largest contiguous areas on the National Register of Historic Places. That’s never going to change, and we’re working really hard to maintain that area and promote our historic downtown,” she said.
Corcoran is taking a similar approach, balancing the need for growth while preserving the city’s existing character. Being a rural community is part of the city’s identity, meaning growth will have to happen in a “thoughtful and intentional way.”
Closer to the heart of the metro, cities like Edina and Bloomington are projected to add thousands of households over the next several decades. There’s very little space to build new subdivisions and homes, but that’s not where the growth is expected to happen.
“They identify that they have land supply available for transition to either high-density apartments or mixed-use neighborhoods,” said Graham.
That includes rezoning land initially developed for commercial property to allow for apartments and condos.
“In the Southdale area, you’ve seen that there are apartment buildings going up and there are plans for more of that,” Graham said.
To see how your community in the Twin Cities is projected to grow by the year 2050, click here.
Minnesota
Several vehicles damages by large rocks, oil thrown off I-35 bridge near Rush City, sheriff says
Law enforcement in an east-central Minnesota community is asking for the public’s help to find those responsible for throwing large rocks and vehicle oil off an Interstate 35 overpass.
The Chisago County Sheriff’s Office said there have been multiple reports in the past week of vehicles being struck by objects dropped from the bridge by 530th Street near Rush City, about 60 miles northeast of the Twin Cities metro area.
On Sunday night just after 10 p.m., authorities say someone “threw numerous large rocks and a significant amount of oil onto passing vehicles and the roadway itself,” resulting in “multiple vehicles being damaged.”
The sheriff’s office says the Minnesota State Patrol is assisting in the investigation, and anyone with information is asked to call 651-257-4100.
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