Minnesota, known as the North Star State and the Gopher State, grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany, while its vast forests, open pit iron ore mines, and the busy shipping lanes of Lake Superior attracted different settlers and made the state notably diverse. Associated with Paul Bunyan in the north and the Jolly Green Giant in the south, it is best known for its 15,000 lakes, numerous place names tied to lakes, falls, rivers, rapids, isles, bays, and beaches, and a state name that means "sky colored water" in Dakota. The Mississippi River begins as a small stream flowing out of Lake Itasca, and Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis inspired "The Song of Hiawatha," though Longfellow never visited. In the 19th century, as boundaries were being fixed during the statehood process, most of Minnesota’s boundaries were eventually defined by rivers and lakes, but its southern border became a straight political line. After 1838, the area that became Minnesota belonged partly to Wisconsin Territory east of the Mississippi River and partly to Iowa Territory between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. When Iowa prepared for statehood in 1844, its constitutional convention chose a northern boundary that would have included the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, but Congress instead favored a smaller Iowa so that at least two more free states could later be formed from the former territory. Iowa’s northern border was fixed at latitude 43.30, and when Iowa became a state on August 4, 1846, the future southern boundary of Minnesota was set before Minnesota Territory was organized, leaving the confluence area that later became St. Paul and Minneapolis well north of the line.