Old Crow Wing

Old Crow Wing. . , To weary travelers on the rough section of the Woods Trail from Detroit Lakes, the thriving town of Crow Wing was a welcome sight. In its 1860s heyday the bustling community was hostel and home to over 600 people. Stores, warehouses, saloons, hotels, and churches lined the streets crowded with travelers, traders, lumbermen, and entrepreneurs., Here the Woods Trail crossed the Mississippi. A ferry, established in 1849, was located at the upriver end of the town and could be crossed for 25¢. Southbound oxcart brigades often stopped here to transfer their contents to wagons for the last leg of the trip to St. Paul. Going north, wagon drivers switched goods to carts and often spent the remainder of their money on the comforts the town had to offer., This confluence of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers had been a prominent meeting place since prehistoric times. Fur traders frequented the site in the late 1700s, and a permanent post was established in the 1820s. Allen Morrison operated the post, and later ran the Crow Wing Ferry. By the 1840s several other prominent traders, including Clement H. Beaulieu, William A. Aitkin, and John H. Fairbanks, headquartered at Crow Wing. The village became the main depot for area Ojibwe trade and the home of the influential Ojibwe leader Hole-in-the-Day II. Transportation, the key to economic success for Old Crow Wing, was also a factor in its demise. In 1871 the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Mississippi at a point upriver in stead of at Crow Wing. As the town of Brainerd grew up at the new crossing, the community of Crow Wing faded into history., Crow Wing State Park was established out of local concern to preserve and interpret the history of Old Crow Wing, once the foremost trading center of the region. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places., Hole-in-the-Day II, Clement H. Beaulieu