Minnesota: “Land of Two Seasons: Winter Is Coming and Winter Is Here”

“Land of 2 seasons: Winter is coming, Winter is here” was cited with other “Minnesota slogans” in the newsgroup rec.humor in January 1990.  The “Land of Two Seasons: Winter Is Coming and Winter Is Here” joke is usually grouped with other jocular Minnesota slogans, but Alaska (in 1993) and Michigan (in 1995) have also been given the line.
 
Two related sayings are “Minnesota has two seasons—winter and July” (cited in the 19th century) and Google Groups: rec.humor
Minnesota Slogans
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1/13/90
Minnesota Slogans
 
1.  I came, I thawed, I transferred….
2.  Survive Minnesota and the rest of the World is easy.
3.  If you love Minnesota, raise your right ski.
4.  Minnesota - where visitors turn blue with envy.
5.  Save a Minnesotan - eat a mosquito.
6.  One day it’s warm, the rest of the year it’s cold.
7.  Minnesota - home of the blonde hair and blue ears.
8.  Minnesota - mosquito supplier to the free world.
9.  Minnesota - come fall in love with a loon.
10.  Land of many cultures - mostly throat.
11.  Where the elite meet sleet.
12.  Minnesota: CLOSED FOR GLACIER REPAIRS
13.  Land of 2 seasons: Winter is coming, Winter is here.
14.  Minnesota - glove it or leave it.
15.  Minnesota - have you jump started your kid today?
16.  There are only 3 things you can grow in Minnesota: Colder, Older, & Fatter.
17.  Many are cold, but few are frozen.
18.  Why Minnesota? To protect Ontario from Iowa!
19.  WARNING: You are entering Minnesota, Please use an alternate route!
20.  Minnesota: theater of sneezes.
21.  Jack Frost must like Minnesota he spends half his life there.
22.  Land of 10,000 Petersons.
23.  Land of the ski and home of the crazed.
24.  Minnesota - home of the Mispi-Mispp-Missispp (Where the damn river starts!)
25.  10,000 lakes and no sharks!
 
Google Groups: rec.sport.football.pro
Welcome to Minnesota!
Shari Nelson
1/15/92
To all you Super Bowl fans coming to the great white north for the BIG game, I thought you might enjoy this:
 
                          Hail
            Minnesota. I came, I thawed, I
            transferred.  There are only 3 things you can grow in
            Minnesota—older, colder, fatter. Survive Minnesota and the
              rest is easy.  Jack Frost must like Minnesota—he
              spent 1/2 his life here.  You are entering Minnesota—
              use alternate route.  Land of 2 seasons—winter is
              coming and winter is here. 1 day is warm—the
              rest of the year it is cold.  Land of many
                cultures—mostly throat.  Why Minnesota?
                To protect Ontario from Iowa.  If you love
                  Minnesota raise your right ski.  Land
                  of the ski and home of the crazed.
                  Minnesota, have you jump-started
                  your kid?  Land of 10,000
                  Petersons. Minnesota—Home of
                blonde hair & blue ears.  Minnesota—
                come fall in love with a loon.
                  Minnesota—glove it or leave it.
                  Minnesota—closed for glacier repairs
                  Minnesota—theatre of sneezes.
                  Minnesota—mosquito supplier of the world.
                  Where the elite meet the sleet. Many are cold,
                  but few are frozen.  Save a Minnesota—eat a
                  mosquito.  Land of 10,000 lakes & no sharks!  In
                  Minnesota ducks don’t fly south—people do! ***
     
Google Groups: rec.humor
“Welcome To ............”
Ron Asbestos Dippold
9/3/93
(...)
Welcome to California: (If you’re an illegal alien).
Welcome to Alaska: have you jump started your kid today?
Welcome to Alaska: land of many cultures - mostly throat.
Welcome to Alaska: Land of 3 seasons - last winter, this winter, next winter.
Welcome to Alaska: Land of two seasons: Winter is coming, Winter is here.
 
30 June 1995, Daily Globe (Ironwood, MI), pg. 31, col. 2:
Winter In The U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan—ed.)
(...)
Land of Two Seasons:
Winter Is Coming, Winter Is Here.
   
Google News Archive
July 2000, Log Home Design, “Editor’s Log” by Teresa Hilgenberg, pg. 10, col. 1:
As columnist Guy Huenecke observes in this issue’s Builders Corner (page 56), “in the land of two seasons (winter is coming and winter is here), time may be short.”
 
Google Books
Minnesota
By Ann Heinrichs
Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books
2003
Pg. 12:
Some people joke that Minnesota has two seasons. One is “winter is coming.” The other is “winter is here.”
   
Google Books
Winter in Minnesota:
A Postcard Book
By Minnesota Historical Society
Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press
2003
Back cover:
In the land of two seasons — winter is here and winter is coming — Minnesotans find ways to amuse themselves no matter what the weather, turning the state’s snow-covered fields and 10,000 frozen lakes into a winter playground.
 
Google News Archive
3 December 2008, Hendricks (MN) Pioneer, “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it” by Al Batt, pg. 4, cols. 2-3”
Some claim that we have three seasons: Winter is coming, winter is here and winter is leaving. The simplest way to describe our weather is to say that it is unusually unseasonable.
 
Twitter
Patti Olson
‏@PattiJOlson
MN ~ Land of 2 seasons. Winter is coming.  Winter is here.  Hope everyone has a great evening!
7:59 PM - 22 Jan 2009
 
Twitter
Emma Malone
‏@malone_emma
Minnesota, the land of 2 seasons. Winter is coming and winter is here
8:45 PM - 23 Feb 2015