Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A tribute to a Golden Girl will soon grace an orange truck clearing snow and ice from Minnesota highways.

"Betty Whiteout" is the runaway winner in this winter's Minnesota Department of Transportation Name-A-Snowplow contest.

The name honoring Hollywood icon Betty White, 

, received 40,024 online votes in the results announced Thursday. 

Coming in second with 21,372 votes was "Ctrl Salt Delete," followed by "The Big Leplowski" (17,478), "Plowasaurus Rex" (13,209) and "Scoop Dogg" (13,144).

"Blizzard of Oz" (12,742), "No More Mr. Ice Guy" (11,198) and "Edward Blizzardhands" (10,664) rounded out the top eight. 

Later this month, those winning names will go on MnDOT plows serving each of the agency's eight districts around the state.

The "Betty Whiteout" name will go on a MnDOT plow serving District 8, covering parts of southwest and central Minnesota.

Alas, it won't be plowing highways in the Twin Cities — home to White's fictional character Sue Ann Nivens from the “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Or the roads near St. Olaf College or Otter Tail County's St. Olaf Township, which shared a name with the oft-mentioned hometown of White's "The Golden Girls" character Rose Nylund.

The destinations for the other winning names are:

field of 50 finalists that went up for an online vote last month

. Nearly 60,000 people cast votes, choosing up to eight names per ballot.

The 50 finalists were selected from more than 22,000 ideas submitted by the public in December.

It's the second winter MnDOT has held its Name-a-Snowplow contest. 

Last winter's winners were "Plowy McPlowFace," "Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya," "Duck Duck Orange Truck," "Plow Bunyan," "Snowbi Wan Kenobi," "F. Salt Fitzgerald," "Darth Blader" and "The Truck Formerly Known As Plow."

Two of this winter's winners — "Blizzard of Oz" and "Edward Blizzardhands" — had been among the names that fell short in voting last winter.

Andrew Krueger

Author

A tribute to a Golden Girl will soon grace an orange truck clearing snow and ice from Minnesota highways. "Betty Whiteout" is the runaway winner in this winter's MnDOT Name-A-Snowplow contest.

'Betty Whiteout,' 'Ctrl Salt Delete' top winners in MnDOT Name-a-Snowplow contest

Go Deeper.

Like this?