A Minnesota Tall Tale
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Following the Homestead Act of 1862, many Scandinavians pioneered the lands of the mid-West. These frontier settlers worked hard, and were justly proud of their new home in America. They were not above boasting about their new country, especially to settlers who came from the old.
One man would often speak longingly to his neighbor, Sven, about the echoes in the mountains surrounding his old home.
"I vould call out ‘Yonson’," said he, "and 20 minutes later comes back such a strong echo that it would knock me to the ground."
Well, Sven was not about to let that boast go unchallenged.
"You call that an echo?" he scoffed. "Why, here in Minnesota, we can yell ‘Yonson’ and in less than a minute we’ll get 500 hundred echoes saying ‘Vich Yonson?’!"
