I Heart St. Paul

Red heart with an arrow through it next to black text over yellowed background. 

I ♥ placename buttons became popular as a result of an advertising campaign to help New York City's battered public image in the middle 1970s. However, this button suggests its wearer would have been quite fond of Minnesota's capital city, Saint Paul.  

Saint Paul, which along with its twin city, Minneapolis, straddles the banks of the Mississippi River and was home to the Hopewell, Dakota, and Ojibwe AmerIndian cultures for two thousand years before the arrival of Europeans. Saint Paul is currently known as the uptight city, but this has not always been the case. In fact, it was founded in 1838 by a bootlegger named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant and named Pig's Eye (L'œil de cochon, in French). In 1849, the city's name changed to Saint Paul, in remembrance of Paul the Christian Apostle, and became the Minnesota Territory capital.  

Diverse ethnic groups, such as the Czech, French, German, Hmong, Italians, Jewish, Mexicans, Polish, Scandinavians, and Vietnamese, have made Saint Paul a mid-size a cosmopolitan center, which is celebrated each year with the Festival of Nations. Industries such as the railroad, wheat mills, higher education, and the state government have helped shaped the city's culture, as well as its economy.