Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

After a couple of years of COVID-19 and last year’s subzero temperatures canceling the Polar Plunge, the event took place this year on Lake Minnewaska.

A number of brave souls took turns jumping into the icy waters of the lake raising money for the annual summer Waterama celebration held the last full weekend of July.

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Not sure, but Minnesota must be unique because we “name” our state snowplows.

“Yer a Blizzard, Harry” and “Blizzo” join the state’s snowplow fleet as winners of the 2023 “Name a Snowplow” contest, along with six other popular names, the Minnesota of Transportation announced recently.  More than 64,000 voters cast a ballot in the contest. One newly named snowplow will be assigned to each of MnDOT’s eight districts.

The winning names, in order of vote totals, and their future homes are:

Yer a Blizzard, Harry – District 8 (Southwest Minnesota)

Blizzo – Metro District (Twin Cities)

Clearopathtra – District 1 (Northeast Minnesota)

Better Call Salt – District 3 (Central Minnesota)

Han Snowlo – District 7 (South Central Minnesota)

Blader Tot Hotdish – District 2 (Northwest Minnesota)

Scoop! There it is – District 6 (Southeast Minnesota)

Sleetwood Mac – District 4 (West Central Minnesota)

Tallies for all 60 finalists can be found on MnDOT’s Name a Snowplow website. *

The agency invited people to submit creative ideas for snowplow names in December 2022. After receiving more than 10,400 name ideas, MnDOT staff narrowed the list to 60 finalists for the public to vote on. This is the third year that MnDOT has hosted the annual Name a Snowplow contest.

MnDOT now has 25 named snowplows statewide, including Plowy McPlowFace, Betty Whiteout, Duck Duck Orange Truck and The Big Leplowski. In addition to the 24 named snowplows selected through “Name a Snowplow” contests, staff in District 1 chose to add a named snowplow to their region in 2022. Giiwedin, the Ojibwe word for the North Wind, is stationed at MnDOT’s Duluth Truck Station and covers Highway 33 near the Fond du Lac Reservation.

MnDOT will share additional information on its social media pages once the new 2023 names are placed on the snowplows.

*Note: Individuals were able to vote for up to eight choices, so the final totals will differ from the overall number of votes. There was a total of 64,075 unique voters.  ###