I stumbled across a raging reddit war over which northern state has the most (and least) impressive welcome sign.

"Do we not have THE coolest state sign?" asked one reddit user, sharing a photo of himself with his family posing in front of one of Minnesota's impressive monoliths.

(If photo above does not show, click here)

Apparently, not everyone agreed.

"That gave me eye cancer," insulted one.

"I kinda like the old one," reminisces another, "simple like a forest service sign. The red Minnesota logo is too '90s for my taste."

"It's still better than Iowa, which is just a standard traffic sign," countered a third.

Personally, I've always liked Minnesota's welcome sign (labeled a welcome and exit monument by the Minnesota Department of Transportation). According to MDOT, the current Type 1 entrance monument design (there are three types) was developed through a student design competition at the University of Minnesota in 1996.

The winning design emphasizes Minnesota’s distinct shape and outstanding natural regions of the state. The design shows three distinct areas showing Minnesota’s three prominent biomes: coniferous forests of the northeast, deciduous forests across the center and the prairies of the south and west. The mid-section is striped and symbolically represents the unique landscape of the Mississippi River.

History and context aside, I dug up photos of Minnesota's surrounding neighbor-states' welcome signs to compare and rank for myself. Here's what I determined:

State Welcome Signs Ranked Best to Worst

What do you think -- how would you rank these state welcome signs?

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