Demographics | Government | Utilities | Education | Healthcare | Housing | History | Map

Brainerd is the largest city in Crow Wing County. The Mississippi River runs through the middle of the city and Brainerd is at the geographical center of the state.

Early on, t he Chippewa hunted and grew blueberries here. In 1805, Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike of the US Army camped in Brainerd to rest, on his way to finding the source of the Mississippi River.

On September 19, 1871, Thomas H. Canfield, president of Lake Superior and Puget Sound Company, signed a paper showing the first map of "Brainerd.” The first streets where marked as "Gregory Square.”

The president of Northern Pacific railroad in 1871 was John Gregory Smith. He didn't want the town to be called Smithville or Smithton. His wife's maiden name was "Brainerd" and his middle name, Gregory, was used for the town's square. The railroad locationed its principal machine and car shop in Brainerd.

Other industries sprang up in the 1800's: lumber companies; paper companies; flouring mills; agricultural and implement concerns to name a few. The tourist trade was active early on in Brainerd. The area was known for its purity of air, sandy soil, fishing and boating in this "northern Minnesota" atmosphere.

According to The Northwest Magazine in July 1888, "The city of Brainerd has been called the "central city of Minnesota. While Brainerd is considered 'up north' it is in fact almost on the extreme northern frontier of the settled part of Minnesota."