Many birds "talk" in their sleep and some even sing on moonlit nights.

The Twin Citites are ranked one of the best bicycling urban centers in the nation. Keep it up by exploring Northern Spark with your own bike or make use of the popular Nice Ride MN system.

The city's name is attributed to its first school teacher, who combines mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the greek word for city.

There are three locks between the Central Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis and the Wabasha Bridge in St. Paul. HOUSEBOAT will take you through two of them during a performance by The BodyCartography Project.

The control of fire, among other things, allowed the expansion of human activity into the cold, dark hours of the night.

Document your journey with your camera or smart phone. Then upload your images to the Northern Spark flickr Pool, Facebook, and/or tag them “northernspark.”

Northern Lights will provide free bus transportation between all Zones and major Sites for Northern Spark.

Ladders are one of the earliest tools of exploration. A Mesolithic rock painting that is at least 10,000 years old depicts two naked humans deploying a wobbly ladder to harvest honey. On June 4th there won't be ladders to climb or honey to harvest, but you will be able take the stairs from the Wabasha Bridge down to Raspberry Island — one of many Northern Spark sites in downtown Saint Paul.

The original name of the settlement that became Saint Paul was Pig's Eye. Named for the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had led squatters to the settlement.

A Gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Various hydrometry readings are made at gauging stations such as volumetric flow rate, water quality and observations of biota.

The term comes from the trail of breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the popular fairytale.

Many of the Northern Spark projects are interactive or participatory — you can touch glowing algae, make an egg glow, play ping-pong, and much more — so be sure to keep your hands free by toting your phone, camera, and compass in a handy carry-all.

A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.

Minnesota is known as The Land of 10,000 Lakes, but the official count of lakes more than ten acres (40,000 m²) in size is approximately 11,842.

A portable lighting device used for signaling or guidance. The simplest technology used is the candle lantern, which can be lit with fire. The use of captured fireflies in transparent or semi-transparent containers as (short-term) lanterns was a widespread practice in ancient India and China.

Need caffeine or food to keep you energized for your Northern Spark excursion? The Black Dog Café + Wine bar in Saint Paul will be serving the goods (and hosting projects) along with other Street Food vendors throughout the city.

In 1997 construction was begun on a new Science Museum building in the city of St. Paul. During the course of site preparation, it became apparent that significant archaeological resources existed there. The city therefore gave archaeologists a month to explore and salvage them. Public interest mounted when archaeologists uncovered the foundations of a brothel operated by Nina Clifford, the city's most famous madam. In the course of their work, the archaeologists recovered more than 14,000 artifacts from several brothels and the privy of a saloon.

Almost from the invention of the telescope in the 17th century the advantages of mounting two of them side by side for binocular vision seems to have been explored. This basic construction is still used in very cheap models and in opera glasses or theater glasses.

Silica sand, which looks like gems at a microscopic level, can be found at places like Minnehaha falls in south Minneapolis.

A clearing (or glade) is an open area within a woodland.

Urban Exploration is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. The Twin Cities boasts a thriving UE community and one local group has explored City House — the former Saint Paul Municipal Grain Elevator on the north shore of the Mississippi river, and one of the many Northern Spark sites.

The term "X marks the spot" was first recorded in 1813.

In the 1920s, the Wabasha Street Caves in downtown Saint Paul were used as a restaurant and nightclub venue known as the Wabasha Street Speakeasy. The speakeasy was said to have been frequented by gangsters such as John Dillinger and Ma Barker, however there is no evidence that these visits occurred; thus, these stories are considered legend.

The Romans built numerous towers as part of a system of communications, one example being the towers along Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Each tower was in sight of the next in the line, and a simple system of semaphore signaling was used between them.

In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm (10 inches) diameter.

A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others.

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The earliest street lamps were used by Greek and Roman civilizations, where light primarily served the purpose of security, one aspect of which was to protect the wanderer from tripping over something on the path.

On the night of June 4th forego celestial navigation and use your mobile device or smart phone to access Google Maps.

A robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in a direction of a boundary.

The oldest tree in Minneapolis was a bur oak that stood watch from a bluff above the Mississippi River gorge for at least 300 years. It died in 2010 and was taken down in July of that year.

Use your smart phone or mobile device along with the Northern Spark Mobile Site to help plan your night and guide the way. (Coming this Spring)

Traversing the city with you will be the Northern Spark Smart City Walkers — equipped with flashlights and loads of information about the artists, projects, and sites.

The use of ropes for hunting, pulling, fastening, attaching, carrying, lifting, and climbing dates back to prehistoric times. On June 4th Northern Spark artists will use rope to hoist a flag and tow a barge.

The use of ropes for hunting, pulling, fastening, attaching, carrying, lifting, and climbing dates back to prehistoric times. On June 4th Northern Spark artists will use rope to hoist a flag and tow a barge.