Lake Wobegon

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It has been suggested that Mist County, Minnesota be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Lake Wobegon is a fictitious town in the U.S. state of Minnesota, claimed to have been the boyhood home of Garrison Keillor. Keillor reports the News from Lake Wobegon on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, broadcast live every Saturday afternoon over Minnesota Public Radio and public radio stations throughout the US. Keillor was actually born and raised in Anoka, Minnesota.

Lake Wobegon is the seat of Mist County,^[1] a tiny county near the geographic center of Minnesota that supposedly does not appear on maps because of the incompetence of surveyors who mapped out the state in the 19th century. The 800 residents are proud of the statue of the Unknown Norwegian (so called because the model left before the sculptor could get his name). The town is the home of the Whippets baseball team. It is served by Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, the Sidetrack Tap, and the Chatterbox Cafe. The Catholic parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church are there, although Keillor identifies the founders of Lake Wobegon as New England Unitarian missionaries who came to convert the Native American Ojibwe Indians through interpretive dance.

Tuna hotdish, snow, Norwegian bachelor farmers, ice fishing, tongues frozen to cold metal things, and lutefisk are common elements of the local culture.

Lake Wobegon represents many small farm towns in the upper Midwest and northeastern Montana, especially western Minnesota, North Dakota, and, to some extent, eastern South Dakota; these are rural, sparsely populated areas that were settled only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely by homesteading immigrants from Scandinavia, especially Norway.

The characterization of the fictional location, where "the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average," has been used to describe a real and pervasive human tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others. The Lake Wobegon effect, where everybody claims – impossibly – to be above average, has been observed among drivers, CEOs, stock market analysts, college students, and state education officials, among others.

Despite not existing, the town appeals to many people and some have humorously gone off in search of it. A book of photos, co-authored by Mr. Keillor, documents images which could have in fact come from there. Keillor has also written several pseudo-autobiographical books about life in Lake Wobegon.

The name is a play on words, with two possible meanings that are mutually contradictory. The word "woebegone" means "beset with trouble," while the phrase "Woe, be gone" indicates a dismissal of troubles. On the show the town's name comes from an old Indian word meaning "the place where we waited for you all day in the rain."