This column has a soundtrack, and you might know the one. Imagine yourself in the North Woods on a summer night, next to a clear, quiet lake. Now listen for the haunting calls of a common loon ...

MINNESOTA, USA — "Imagine now, a clear summer evening in the north woods. Above you, the bands of the Milky Way framed by the dark spindly boughs of spruce and fir. And cutting though the stillness ...

Why Minnesota chose the common loon as its state bird, and how its haunting call became the sound of summer lakes.