Here’s a bit of Minnesota trivia for you: White Bear Lake is a good place to go when you’re hiding out! According to the White Bear Lake Conservation District, many gangsters came to White Bear Lake to hide out during Prohibition when they were in trouble. Among those rumored to come were Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Al Capone.

That’s not the only cool thing about White Bear Lake—it’s also believed that F. Scott Fitzgerald used it as the setting for his book Winter Dreams. Although the town is called Black Bear Lake in Fitzgerald’s book, he came up to White Bear Lake during the summers. Maybe that’s because of the gangster rumors, or because it’s one of the largest lakes in the metro area!

Something else pretty great, and more current, going on in White Bear is the Cash for Clunkers program. As we reported last week, residents of cold states like Minnesota are trading in their clunkers at much higher rates than those in Sunbelt states where the cars don’t have to deal with the effects of rust and salt. According to the Vadnais Heights Press, the stimulus program has gotten a much more enthusiastic response from the public than anyone thought

“It’s brought more people to the market,” said Bill Krouse, the general manager at Polar Chevrolet Mazda in White Bear Lake, “There’s no doubt about it.”

In fact, Minnesota ranks No. 4 in the nation with $26.2 million requested from the government as of Tuesday, August 4th. For more information about the Cash for Clunkers program in Minnesota, check out this post or head to www.Cars.gov.