10 hours ago
Welcome to Cosmos, a Minnesota town that's out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
In Cosmos, Minnesota, residents are a little closer to the stars.
"We had a real moon rock here one year after the moon landings and it came from NASA," said Cosmos City Councilman Mark Minnick.
Minnick, a life-long resident and a town historian, says Norwegian immigrant Ole Nelson built the first log house in the 1860s, but pioneer Daniel Hoyt came up with the name "Cosmos" as a way to bring people in. Hoyt had plans to build a major university in town.
"Big. Everybody would want to come. Full credentials. Oh, it was going to be big time. Big time," Minnick said. "The name stuck, but the university didn't materialize."
But that didn't really matter, because the name is what put the town on the map.
Instead of the typical Elm Street or Oak Street, Cosmos named all its streets after galaxies, planets and constellations, from Milky Way to Mars Street.
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And when you travel through town, busy Highway 7 briefly turns into Astro Boulevard. Even the water tower is space-themed, but it's nothing like the old water tower, which had a rocket sitting right on top of it, about 140 feet closer to space. It could blast off, but it just wouldn't get very far.
"Those are oil barrels and then the local blacksmith shop welding everything up, made the nose cone and the fins and then it got mounted on top of the water tower," he said.
The rocket is now in the town's Space Festival parade every July. Neptune Ned and a random bird simply known as "Local Chicken" also make an appearance.
The town's local newspaper, the Galactic Gazette, has more than 100 subscribers and contains space news and dad jokes. The staff is comprised of Minnick, his wife Deb and friend Curt Meyer.
This Cosmos is a smaller universe, and that's OK with its space-loving residents. Though some are still waiting for an alien other than Neptune Ned to pay a visit.
"They exist, they just aren't showing themselves," Minnick said.
The Cosmos Space Festival began after the moon landing in 1969. It's the third week in July, and it's not all about space. In the past, they've also had carnival rides, pig races and "cow pie bingo."
