St. Olaf
According to Rose, St. Olaf is a Norwegian farming settlement in northern Minnesota, known on local license plates as "Big Statue Country". During the show's seven-year run, St. Olaf was only seen twice in flashbacks and once when the girls visited during an episode in which Rose was nominated for St Olaf's Woman of the Year award.
One of St. Olaf's chief attractions is a giant black hole, which the townspeople enjoyed standing around and looking at - which prompted Dorothy to refer to St. Olaf sarcastically as the real "entertainment capital of the world." St. Olafians also celebrate various oddly themed festivals. St. Olaf appears to be a bilingual town with a significant amount of unique vocabulary (that may be specific to the area and not appearing in standard Norwegian). One of the unique attractions of St. Olaf is Mt. Losenbauden, which features the faces of losing presidential candidates, complete with Adlai Stevenson twice.
St. Olaf, it is suggested by Rose's stories and all but declared by Anna in a Mother's Day episode, is full of idiots. "I don't mean to say that everyone there is an idiot, but it just seemed that, per capita, they have more than their share." Anna happily replies when Rose tells her that her children figured out that it would be cheaper for Rose to visit the family than it would for the family to visit Rose: "They figured that out, and they live in St. Olaf? You must be very proud!"
Read more about this topic: Rose Nylund