Posted by Orin Kerr:
Constitutional Mystery Explained!:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_25-2009_01_31.shtml#1230651765


   Last month, I happened to be at a gas station in Bloomington,
   Minnesota, just south of the Twin Cities, when I went to go get a diet
   Coke inside and was amazed to see the following name on the door of
   the gas station:

                              [DredScott2.jpg]

     Yes, that's right, the gas station was called [1]Dred Scott
   Automotive. How could this be?, I wondered. Was it just a coincidence,
   and perhaps the gas station owner just happened to have the name Dred
   Scott, like the slave suing for his freedom in the infamous [2]Dred
   Scottt v. Sanford? (It's [3]happened before, although it may be a
   stage name.) Or maybe the gas station owner was a con law junky, and
   he thought it would be funny to name the station after one of the most
   infamous cases in all of constitutional law? Or maybe he was a very
   subtle racist, and he was trying to send a message that the station
   offered first class service -- at least for the white man?
     The answer turns out to be kind of interesting, at least to me.
   Scott's claim to freedom was based on his having spent years as a free
   man before being forced to move back to a slave state. Most of his
   time as a free man had been spent in the area of [4]Fort Snelling,
   where he had traveled with the doctor who had purchased him in
   Missouri. From the opinion:

     The plaintiff was a negro slave, belonging to Dr. Emerson, who was
     a surgeon in the army of the United States. In the year 1834, he
     took the plaintiff from the State of Missouri to the military post
     at Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, and held him there as a
     slave until the month of April or May, 1836. At the time last
     mentioned, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff from said
     military post at Rock Island to the military post at Fort Snelling,
     situate on the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the Territory
     known as Upper Louisiana, acquired by the United States of France,
     and situate north of the latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty
     minutes north, and north of the State of Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson
     held the plaintiff in slavery at said Fort Snelling, from said
     last-mentioned date until the year 1838.

   It turns out that [5]Fort Snelling, then described as "situate[d] on
   the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the Territory known as
   Upper Louisiana," is in territory that is now part of the state of
   Minnesota: pretty near Bloomington, Minnesota, to be specific.
     As I understand it, then, the area near Fort Snelling has a number
   of businesses that honor Dred Scott and the region's role in trying to
   give Dred Scott his freedom. As a result, when you're in Bloomington,
   you can get your car fixed at Dred Scott Automotive, and you can even
   play put-put at [6]Dred Scott Minigolf. (Might want to wait for the
   spring on that one, though.)

References

   1. 
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Dred.Scott.Automotive.Bloomington.MN.952-944-0010
   2. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=60&invol=393
   3. http://www.dredscott.com/
   4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Snelling
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Snelling
   6. http://linksminigolf.com/index_files/Page362.htm

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