Brainerd Minnesota History
Brainerd History Group
The Brainerd History Group (BHG) was started in 2008 after a group of folks helped Brainerd celebrate Minnesota's Sesquicentennial. After that event, we were having so much fun we just kept it going and came up with the BHG! We met monthly on the 3rd Wed. except Dec., at 5:30 PM at various locations. Most locations were posted in the Dispatch in the What's Doing Section. We tried to tour an old historic site about every other Gathering, as we called them. Well, by about 2014 we had toured almost every old building in town, and no longer meet as a group at a location, rather "meet" via this website and quarterly updates on what's going on in town in the history arena can be found on the City Newsletter's back page called History Corner. Please see the Home Page. If you would like to tackle one of the many projects that need doing, please see the page called...PROJECTS!
Since Andy Walsh came up with his great Facebook page , THIS is where most of us "meet" now. The next best place is at an event during Brainerd History Week . This has been going on since 2014.
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Please see the HOME PAGE to see what else is going on in Brainerd history!
Just a time to meet and eat! A BBQ is always fun!
This was made from bricks found on site.
This was from the Frenchie's Island trip in about 2010.
This is all we had the energy to excavate, but it made a nice little patio in the woods! Boom Lake and the river are the view. This is the Brew House, but only about 1/10th of it!
NEWSFLASH, 5/9/2013:
They’re back! It’s spring, and
Vandalism at the Brainerd Brewing Co. site, spring, 2013: As usual they are at it again. This time I first noticed some modern-day concrete chunks on the newly-found Bottling House slab, and some OLD beer bottle shards. Somebody had been digging around below the bank and threw them up on the slab smashing them to bits. The concrete turned out to be pieces of the stepping stones we laid a couple of years ago at the entrance to the Brew House.
The fence posts and rope
has been ruined, and there are bricks laying all over from the banking we put up in 2008. The picnic table has been chipped away one seat, so it will need sanding. Fortunately, the monument was untouched…I suppose somebody was walking along and disrupted their “fun”. So, we’ll have a bit more cleanup than expected, and I’ll get there a bit early to get a start on it next Wed. (May 15). I’ll have to figure out a better system of fencing to keep foot traffic off of the plantings, perhaps metal posts to support the rope. The sooner the area gets cleared out and becomes more mainstream to the rest of the park the better. I sometimes wonder if we should have left the site untouched for another few decades in hopes that a new generation might be more respectful of others’ property and historic sites. Oh, well, a sign of the times I guess.
The good news is that it is getting less frequent, and less severe...mostly messing up the place. I haven't had to get the mortar out in a few years.
Good news!!! 5/10/2013: Parks & Rec has sent a crew down to the brewery site and they did a GREAT job of ridding the new slab of the fallen tree limbs, and the view is great! These limbs were directly over the slab preventing access to much of it, and they came in, cut it up and hauled it all away. See the BEFORE shot on the Home page on the slideshow. Thanks, Tony!!!
Help Wanted!
See the PROJECTS page!!!
The best way to get things done is to form mini-groups on mini-projects, that lead to MAXI results.
NEWSFLASH, 5/9/2013:
Vandalism at the Brainerd Brewing Co. site, spring, 2013
They’re back! It’s spring, and as usual, they are at it again. This time I first noticed some modern-day concrete chunks on the newly-found Bottling House slab, and some OLD beer bottle shards. Somebody had been digging around below the bank and threw them up on the slab smashing them to bits. The concrete turned out to be pieces of the stepping stones we laid a couple of years ago at the entrance to the Brew House.
The fence posts and rope have been ruined, and there are bricks laying all over from the banking we put up in 2008. The picnic table has been chipped away one seat, so it will need sanding. Fortunately, the monument was untouched…I suppose somebody was walking along and disrupted their “fun”. So, we’ll have a bit more cleanup than expected, and I’ll get there a bit early to get a start on it next Wed. (May 15). I’ll have to figure out a better system of fencing to keep foot traffic off of the plantings, perhaps metal posts to support the rope. The sooner the area gets cleared out and becomes more mainstream to the rest of the park the better. I sometimes wonder if we should have left the site untouched for another few decades in hopes that a new generation might be more respectful of others’ property and historic sites. Oh, well, a sign of the times I guess.
Nostalgia Time>:
The clipping to the left was kind of the seed to this dicussion, but it is a small, poor quality copy. Can someone read it? Then it needs to be transcribed to text.
