American Agriculture History Minute: Creameries Merge in St. Paul, Minnesota

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

In July 1921, 320 cooperative creameries merged in St. Paul, Minnesota to become the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association. Their aim was to improve the quality of their butter and improve marketing.

The quality of the butter did improve and the marketing team decided to have a contest to name the improved product. The winning entry, Land O ‘Lakes, using the Minnesota nickname as the land of 10,000 lakes.

Well, the public often confused the product name with the name of the cooperative. So in 1926, the organization changed its name to Land O ‘Lakes.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.