And we thought this was the Land Of 10,000 Lakes! Clearly Minnesota has some pretty special forests, too.
No, this image isn’t Photoshopped. It’s straight off Google Earth, as seen from a satellite high in outer space.
Don’t believe it? Check it out for yourself right here.
This prideful rendition of the North Star State near Williams, Minn., was first spotted by an observant Redditor and has since been picked up by the Minneapolis weekly paper City Pages.
The paper did a little research into the unique patch of forest and found that it is the result of some logging orchestrated by a DNR forest technician named Bill Lockner.
According to a DNR spokeswoman quoted by the paper, Lockner cut down several thousand acres of stagnant Jack Pines in order to create the state’s shape in the early ’90s using nothing but a “compass and hip chain.”
Quite the accomplishment! The then-barren ground has since grown back with different vegetation as the surrounding forest, which was later logged. The preserved Minnesota shape is what currently remains.
