Honestly, if you spent five minutes on those "crazy fact" TikToks, you’d probably think Minnesota is a place where you can’t walk your cow down Main Street or cross the border with a mallard on your head. People love talking about weird laws in Minnesota because they sound like something out of a Coen brothers' fever dream. But here is the thing: half of what you read online is basically fan fiction.
The other half? Well, the truth is actually weirder because the real laws usually involve mundane things like mud, bingo, and the specific dress code of a massage therapist in West St. Paul.
The Duck on Your Head Myth and Other Internet Lies
Let's kill the biggest one first. You've seen it. I've seen it. Every "dumb laws" listicle claims it is illegal to cross the Minnesota-Wisconsin border with a duck on your head.
It’s a total lie.
Jeff Kase, from the Minnesota Legislature’s Revisor’s Office, has had to debunk this more times than he’d probably like to admit. The theory is that it’s a massive game of "telephone" stemming from old 1913 regulations about cotton duck fabric—which is a heavy canvas material used for workwear, not a feathered bird. No one is going to tackle you at the St. Croix River for wearing a bird as a hat.
Same goes for the "all bathtubs must have feet" rule. Total nonsense. If that were real, basically every homeowner with a modern alcove tub would be a hardened criminal.
🔗 Read more: Why Everyone Uses Different Words for Everything and How Language Actually Works
The "Dirty Tire" Law is Actually Real (and Enforced)
If you’re driving through Minnetonka, you might want to hit the car wash. While the "duck" thing is a myth, Minnetonka City Ordinance 845.010 is very, very real. It basically says you can't drive a vehicle if your tires are depositing mud, dirt, or "sticky substances" onto the public road.
Why? Because the city considers it a public nuisance. It’s not just about being tidy; it’s about road safety. Slick mud on asphalt turns a suburban street into a skid pad, and the city doesn't want to pay for the cleanup. If you’re a contractor or someone coming off a muddy job site, you technically need to scrape those wheels before you pull onto the pavement.
You Can’t Get Arrested for Being Drunk
This sounds like a "get out of jail free" card, but stay with me. Under Minnesota Statute 340A.902, public drunkenness is not a crime.
You read that right. In Minnesota, you cannot be charged or convicted just for being intoxicated in public. The state shifted its focus decades ago to treat alcoholism as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
But there is a massive catch. While you won't get a ticket for "public intoxication," you can absolutely be arrested for:
- Disorderly Conduct: If you’re yelling at a mailbox.
- Trespassing: If you wander into someone's yard.
- DUI: If you even think about touching your car keys.
- Property Damage: If you break something while stumbling.
Basically, you’re allowed to be drunk, but you aren't allowed to be a jerk while doing it.
The Great Mosquito Nuisance
Minnesota has 10,000 lakes and about ten trillion mosquitoes. The state is so fed up with them that they actually wrote them into the law books. Under Section 18G.14, areas where mosquitoes "incubate or hatch" are legally declared a public nuisance.
This gives the government the legal authority to enter private property for "abatement"—basically, they can come in and spray or treat standing water to kill the larvae. It’s one of the few places in the country where a bug is a legally defined enemy of the state.
Strange Local Ordinances You Might Actually Break
When you get down to the city level, things get specific. Really specific.
- West St. Paul Massage Dress Code: If you’re a massage therapist here, the law (Ordinance 111.04) dictates your wardrobe. You need short-sleeved shirts, skirts no shorter than three inches above the knee, and closed-toed shoes. No cleavage, and your hair must be pulled back. It was designed to keep businesses "professional" and prevent exploitation, but it reads like a strict high school dress code.
- The Pig Limit: In West St. Paul, you can only have two pot-bellied pigs. This law was actually inspired by a local celebrity pig named Daisy Mae.
- Hitchhiking is a No-Go: Under Statute 169.22, standing in the roadway to solicit a ride is illegal. It’s mostly a safety thing—drivers slamming on their brakes on a busy highway is a recipe for a 20-car pileup.
- Bingo Limits: For a long time, nursing homes were only allowed to hold bingo games two days a week. It sounds like the plot of a weird rebellion movie, but lawmakers finally realized how silly it was and voted to nix the limit in 2015. Now, Grandma can play every day if she wants.
Why Do These Laws Exist?
Most of these aren't just "lawmakers being crazy." They usually fall into three buckets:
- Blue Laws: These are the old-school religious laws. Minnesota only recently (2017) allowed liquor stores to open on Sundays. Before that, you had to drive to Wisconsin or stock up on Saturday.
- Public Safety: The "dirty tire" and "hitchhiking" laws are about keeping people from dying in car wrecks.
- Obsolete Tech: There are still laws on the books about streetcars (which haven't run in the Twin Cities in decades) because it’s a pain to go back and repeal every single sentence ever written.
Your Minnesota Legal Checklist
If you're worried about staying on the right side of the law while visiting the Gopher State, keep these practical points in mind:
- Scrub your tires before leaving a muddy construction site or trail in Minnetonka.
- Don't feed the ducks in West St. Paul; it’s actually a fineable offense under their nuisance wildlife ordinances.
- Know your rights regarding public intoxication, but always have a designated driver or an Uber app ready.
- Check local burning bans before starting a fire; in many suburbs, recreational fires have to be out by midnight.
- Don't stress the "duck on the head" stuff. You can wear whatever you want on your head—though people might still look at you funny.
If you really want to see the "hidden" law of Minnesota, look up Minnesota Statute 1.141, which defines the state flag. It was just changed in 2024 to a much simpler, cleaner design because the old one was... well, a bit of a mess.
💡 You might also like: Saks Fifth Avenue in Huntington: What You Need to Know Right Now
To stay current, you can always search the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes database. It’s the only way to know for sure if that "weird law" you heard at the bar is actually a thing or just another urban legend.