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Crow Wing County history
COUNTY HISTORY
Crow Wing County has a rich history since its beginning in 1857 - from starting out as a railroad and logging community to later transitioning to a lakes tourism region.
This story features some of those memories for Crow Wing County, which has a rich history since being established in 1857. Highlights of those changes were influenced by the early settlers trading with area Indian tribes, the railroad cutting through the county, the growth in the logging industry and eventually the ideal landscore of the area’s lakes and trees for attracting tourism.
How it started
Crow Wing County actually had its start south of Brainerd near Crow Wing State Park. That’s the junction of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers. Old Crow Wing was one of the most populous towns in Minnesota in the mid-1800s.
The county is named as early explorers noted the island at the junction of the two rivers was in the shape of a wing of a crow. The area was a center for logging and fur trading between the Ojibwe and settlers. A general supply store was built as the population reached about 600.
Crow Wing eventually became a ghost town as the focus of the county moved up the river a few miles when Northern Pacific Railroad officials determined that the train crossing over the Mississippi River should go through Brainerd. The bridge connected the rails from Duluth to Moorhead.
The name for Brainerd, which was originally called The Crossing, was the idea of Northern Pacific president John Gregory Smith, who in 1870 named the township after his wife, Anne Eliza Brainerd Smith, and father-in-law, Lawrence Brainerd. Once the bridge was built, the Brainerd station was expanded to a machine and car shop.
Brainerd was organized as a city on March 6, 1873. On Jan. 11, 1876, the state Legislature revoked Brainerd’s charter for six years, as a reaction to the election of local handyman Thomas Lanihan as mayor instead of Judge C.B. Sleeper. Brainerd functioned as a township in the interim.
The railroad continued to expand in Brainerd in the early 1880s. Lumber and paper, as well as agriculture in general, were important early industries, but for many decades Brainerd remained a railroad town: in the 1920s roughly 90 percent of Brainerd residents were dependent on the railroad. Participation in the nationwide railroad strike in 1922 left the majority of Brainerd residents unemployed and embittered many of those involved.
The Northwest Paper Co. built Brainerd’s first paper mill in 1903, and that became a major employer in the Brainerd area for the next century.
Service industry jobs increased in the county as the Brainerd lakes became a popular tourist destination with summer cabins and
the growing resort business on the hundreds of lakes. Some of the added area attractions tied to tourism have included Paul Bunyan Land east of Brainerd (originally in Baxter), Brainerd International Raceway (originally called Donnybrooke) and the Paul Bunyan State Trail splitting north and south through the county.
Expansion around the county
Brainerd continued as a major hub for activity in the lakes area, but the supporting cast of area communities were enjoying steady growth in population over the years. The railroad extended north of Brainerd in the early 1900s. That helped establish many communities along the tracks, like Nisswa and Pequot Lakes, and eventually led to tourism growth as travelers rode the rails to vacation in the lakes area. The railroad connection for bringing Twin Cities visitors to the lakes area was completed in 1877 when the last spike was driven at Sauk Rapids that connected the Twin Cities and Brainerd by a direct line. Iron ore mining led to the growth of the Cuyuna Range in the early 1900s. It started with the village of Cuyuna and later developed to the south with the communities of Crosby and Ironton. By the end of 1910, Cuyuna had a hospital, a doctor, a veterinarian, a barber shop, a theater-meeting hall, two restaurants, two hotels, two boarding houses, a church, a newspaper, a post office, a funeral parlor, two saloons, a jail, two grocery stores and a school. The village of Cuyuna was growing rapidly, but George Crosby was laying out a new town 4 miles south to be named after him. A total of 50 drilling rigs were at work exploring, two steam shovels were grading the line for a new railroad and many prospectors and land speculators arrived. The original county courthouse, built in 1872, was located on Fourth Street to the north of Washington Street in Brainerd, and later became an apartment house. The current Crow Wing County Historic Courthouse building was erected in 1919-20. The county offices in downtown Brainerd expanded during the period of 2004-07 with the addition of a new jail, judicial center and community services buildings. In addition, other structures remodeled included Central Services (formerly the Highway Department), Land Services and the Law Enforcement Center. The Highway Department moved to a new off-site campus on the east side of Brainerd near the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport. The Waste Management offices also moved to a new location at the County Landfill property. 6 | CROW WING COUNTY RESIDENTIAL RESOURCE GUIDE 2023
