The St. Croix River forms a long stretch of the Minnesota-Wisconsin border and is one of America’s most scenic Wild Rivers. Sometimes called the New England of the West, its valley, together with the Brule River in northern Wisconsin, provided a water passageway between Lake Superior and the upper Mississippi River that was well known to the Dakota and Ojibway people and later became a highway for early fur traders. In the last half of the 19th century, lumbermen used the river to move logs and lumber in huge drives from the white pine forests of the north to growing midwestern markets. Swedish novelist Fredrika Bremer saw the valley as just the country for a new Scandinavia, and in 1850 the first of many Swedish settlers in Minnesota built their homes nearby. The Minnesota Territory had been organized and named two years earlier at a convention in Stillwater, later known as the Birthplace of Minnesota. In the 20th century, the valley became an important recreation area for Twin Cities residents. Interstate Park, north of here, was established in 1895 as a joint enterprise of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the first cooperative state park in the United States, and parks and forest reserves on both sides of the river now draw thousands year round. 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, yet its forests, open-pit iron ore mines, and Lake Superior shipping lanes also attracted people with different skills and helped make the state diverse. Famous symbols of the state include Paul Bunyan in the north woods and the Jolly Green Giant in the fertile farm belt of the south. Best known for its more than 15,000 lakes, Minnesota also has many places named for lakes, falls, rivers, rapids, isles, bays, and beaches, and even its name means sky colored water in Dakota. The Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, and Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis inspired The Song of Hiawatha, though Longfellow never visited the falls. Minnesotans take pride in their natural beauty and have been leaders in conserving resources and promoting quality of life.