Lake Wobegon is a fictional town created by Garrison Keillor as the setting of the recurring segment "News from Lake Wobegon" for the radio program A Prairie Home Companion broadcast from St Paul, Minnesota. The fictional town serves as the setting for many of Keillor's stories and novels, gaining an international audience with Lake Wobegon Days in 1985. Described as a small rural town in central Minnesota, the events and adventures of the townspeople provided Keillor with a wealth of humorous and often touching stories. [1] [2]
Keillor has said that people often ask him if it is a real town, and when he replied that it was not, they seemed disappointed because "people want stories to be true". So he began to say it was in "central Minnesota, near Stearns County, up around Holdingford, not far from St. Rosa and Albany and Freeport, northwest of St. Cloud", which he says is "sort of the truth, I guess." [3]
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 The Origins of Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor, 8:22, May 14, 2014 |
Keillor has said the town's name comes from an old Native American word meaning "the place where we waited all day in the rain [for you]." Keillor explains, "Wobegon sounded Indian to me and Minnesota is full of Indian names. They mask the ethnic heritage of the town, which I wanted to do, since it was half Norwegian, half German." [4] The English word woebegone means "affected with woe."
Keillor's weekly monologue about Lake Wobegon included recurring elements: [5]
The fictional settlement Lake Wobegon resembles many small farm towns in the Upper Midwest, especially western Minnesota, North Dakota, and to some extent, northern Iowa, Wisconsin, eastern South Dakota and northeastern Montana. These are rural, sparsely populated areas that were settled only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely by homesteading immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia. One of these, Holdingford, Minnesota, which Keillor said is "most Wobegonic", is on Stearns County's Lake Wobegon Regional Trail and advertises itself as the "Gateway to Lake Wobegon", even hosting a "Lake Wobegon Cafe." [6]
Keillor formed most of his ideas for Lake Wobegon while working at public radio station KSJR [7] on the campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, basing it on Avon, where he lived, and other local towns such as Albany, Freeport, Cold Spring, Richmond, Rockville, St. Joseph, St. Stephen, St. Wendell and Holdingford. Stearns County was predominantly German and Catholic in the 1970s, and the second-most Catholic county in the US (second only to New Orleans). To balance the religious and ethnic demography of Stearns County with the rest of Minnesota, Keillor "imported" Lutheran and Scandinavian elements into the town, making it more recognizable and therefore more interesting to the rest of the state.
Lake Wobegon is portrayed as the seat of Mist County, Minnesota, [8] a tiny county near Minnesota's geographic center that supposedly does not appear on maps because of the "incompetence of surveyors who mapped out the state in the 19th century": the surveyors worked inward from the state's boundaries, and when they reached Lake Wobegon, had no room left for it on the map. The town's slogan is Gateway to Central Minnesota. [9] Holdingford now has the same slogan.
Lake Wobegon is occasionally said to be near St. Olaf, Minnesota, another fictional town referred to in The Golden Girls television series. (There is actually a St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.) The town's school and amateur sports teams compete against the Uff-das of Upsala, a real town in southwest Morrison County, which is close to Holdingford. The town residents drink Wendy's Beer, brewed in St. Wendel, a real town in northeast Stearns County. The nearest good-sized town referred to in Keillor's monologues is St. Cloud. Lake Wobegon is sometimes compared favorably to a rival fictional town called Millet; a real town called Rice lies 20 miles north of St. Cloud.
Microsoft Virtual Earth returned a location northeast of St. Cloud when Lake Wobegon was entered into its search engine. The programs distributed at live performances of A Prairie Home Companion in 2005 had a map showing Lake Wobegon about two miles north of Holdingford, northwest of St. Cloud.
Keillor often refers to a cafe in downtown Lake Wobegon called the "Chatterbox Cafe". There was a real cafe and gas station in Olivia by that name, but it is now closed and abandoned, with nothing remaining to identify it but one sign. Olivia is in north-central Renville County.
The Minnesota Rails and Trails project began creating the Lake Wobegon Trail in 1998. It now stretches from Waite Park, Minnesota just west of St. Cloud, to Freeport, Minnesota, where it forks; one trail heads northwest to Osakis, Minnesota, the other northeast to Holdingford, Minnesota and Bowlus, Minnesota, and on across the Mississippi River. Keillor participated in the trail opening ceremonies and said that Holdingford was the most "Wobegonic" town in his mind. [10] The Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon takes place every year in May on the trail. Runners leave from Holdingford and run to St. Joseph, Minnesota.
Keillor chronicles a number of bizarre incidents in the fictional town's early history, akin to the events in Black River Falls in Wisconsin Death Trip .
Keillor identifies the original founders of what became Lake Wobegon as New England Unitarian missionaries, at least one of whom came to convert the Native American Ojibwe Indians through interpretive dance. A college was founded at what was then called New Albion, but the project was abandoned after a severe winter and numerous attacks by bears. The project had only one survivor, a very practical woman who married a French Canadian fur trapper who fed her in exchange for her help with the chores. This pragmatic couple were the founders of the current settlement.
New Albion's founders decided to settle at Lake Wobegon because they had gotten lost and did not know how to get back to where they had last been. To celebrate this, the colony's motto was Ubi Quid Ubi (Latin: "We're Here!...Where are we?"). Later the motto in the Lake Wobegon incorporated town seal is described as Sumus Quod Sumus (Latin: "We Are What We Are").
Most of the population are descendants of German immigrants, who are mostly members of the Catholic parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, and descendants of Norwegian and Swedish immigrants, who attend Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church. Keillor's family were members of the Sanctified Brethren.
The 800 residents (1950 Census: 728) are proud of the Statue of the Unknown Norwegian (so called because the model left before the sculptor could get his name). Lake Wobegon is in competition with its fictional rival, St. Olaf, for having the most descendants of the same common ancestor. Lake Wobegon became a secret dumping ground of nuclear waste during the 1950s.
The fictional town is the home of the Whippets baseball team, tuna hotdish, snow, Norwegian bachelor farmers, ice fishing, tongues frozen to cold metal objects, and lutefisk—fish treated with lye which, after being reconstituted, is reminiscent of "the afterbirth of a dog or the world's largest chunk of phlegm." [11] But it is also the home of the Mist County Fair, old-fashioned show yards with flowers "like Las Vegas showgirls", sweet corn, a magnificent grain elevator, and the pleasant lake itself.
The Lake Wobegon effect is a common name for illusory superiority, a natural human tendency to overestimate one's capabilities. [12] The characterization that "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average" has been used to describe a real and pervasive human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others. In one survey of high school students, only 2% of the students reported that they were below average in leadership ability. [13] The authors of a study suggest that what they consider the “Lake Wobegon effect” can in some cases negatively affect doctors' treatment advice when, in planning treatment, doctors portray the patients as “above average”. [14]
Keillor himself has offered a contrarian opinion on the use of the term, observing that the effect does not actually apply in Lake Wobegon itself. In response to a listener query on the Prairie Home website, he pointed out that, in keeping with their Scandinavian heritage, Wobegonians prefer to downplay, rather than overestimate, their capabilities or achievements. [15]
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Businesses, organizations, and landmarks in Lake Wobegon include:
Keillor has written several semi-autobiographical books about life in Lake Wobegon, including:
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion, which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
A Prairie Home Companion is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed Live from Here and ran until 2020. A Prairie Home Companion aired on Saturdays from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota; it was also frequently heard on tours to New York City and other U.S. cities. The show is known for its musical guests, especially folk and traditional musicians, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and relaxed humor. Keillor's wry storytelling segment, "News from Lake Wobegon," was the show's best-known feature during his long tenure.
Stearns County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,292. Its county seat and largest city is St. Cloud.
Avon is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2010 census. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Freeport is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 632 at the 2010 census. Freeport is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.
New Munich is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 320 at the 2010 census. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Holdingford is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 708 at the 2010 census. It claims to be "The Gateway to Lake Wobegon", the fictional central Minnesota town created by author Garrison Keillor.
St. Cloud or Saint Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the county seat of Stearns County and was named after the city of Saint-Cloud, France, which was named after the 6th-century French monk Clodoald.
Lake Wobegon Days is a novel by Garrison Keillor, first published in hardcover by Viking in 1985. Based on material from his radio show A Prairie Home Companion, the book brought Keillor's work to a much wider audience and achieved international success selling over 1 million copies. Like some of Keillor's other books, it is unusual in that it could be said that the audiobook preceded the publication in written form.
A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and is his final film. It is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film received mostly positive reviews and was a moderate box-office success on a small budget. The film features an ensemble cast including Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, and Lily Tomlin.
Mabou is an unincorporated settlement in the Municipality of the County of Inverness on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The population in 2011 was 1,207 residents. It is the site of The Red Shoe pub, Beinn Mhàbu, the An Drochaid Museum, and Glenora Distillers
The Minnesota True Team State Meet was created in 1987 by the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association to determine the top overall team based on depth rather than top finishers. In a traditional track and field meet, only the top eight or nine competitors per event score points. In the True Team meet, each team has two competitors per event for A and AA and three competitors for AAA as well as one relay team, with each competitor scoring. Since 2005, Minnesota now holds a True Team State swim meet.
Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon is a novel by Garrison Keillor, a humorous fictional account of life in the fictitious heartland town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. It was first published in hardcover by Viking Press in September 2007.
Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories is a short story anthology written by Garrison Keillor, a humorous fictional account of life in small-town Minnesota set in the fictitious heartland town of Lake Wobegon. It was first published in hardcover by Viking Penguin, Inc. in 1987.
The Lake Wobegon Trail are two paved recreational rail trails in central Minnesota, named after the fictional Lake Wobegon in Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion". Each trail is marked with mileposts every 0.5 miles (0.80 km), corresponding with the mile markers of the former railroad lines. Snowmobile use is allowed on the trail in winter, conditions permitting.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a historic Roman Catholic church building in the unincorporated community of St. Anna, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud. The church was constructed in 1902 in a rural community settled by Polish immigrants. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its state-level significance in the themes of architecture, exploration/settlement, and religion. It was nominated for reflecting the settlement of rural Stearns County by Catholic immigrant groups clustered in small, ethnic hamlets dominated by a central church.
We Are Still Married: Stories & Letters is a collection of short stories and poems by Garrison Keillor, including several set in the fictitious heartland town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. It was first published in hardcover by Viking Penguin, Inc. in 1989. An expanded edition was published in 1990.
Live from Here, formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile, is an American variety radio show known for its musical guests, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and relaxed humor. Hosted by Chris Thile, it aired live on Saturday evenings from 2016-2020. The show's initial home was the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, moving later to the The Town Hall in New York City, where it remained until its cancellation the next year.
The Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon is a 26.2 mile foot race from Holdingford, Minnesota, to St. Joseph, Minnesota, on a paved trail called the Lake Wobegon Trail. The course is USATF-certified, making it a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon. The race is sponsored and organized by the St. Cloud River Runners, a running group active since 1983 with about 150 members.
Richard Olsenius is an American photographer, videographer, and music composer whose 50-year career has taken him around the United States, throughout South America and across the Arctic. His work, has appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, art galleries, museum collections, films and stage presentations.
Most of us have moderate to high self-esteem. Like the mythical residents of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, we need to believe that we are above average. For example, in a survey of a million high school students, only 2 percent stated that they were below average in their leadership ability (Gilovich 1991)
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