Brainerd Minnesota History

 

Here we would like to highlight those manufacturing businesses, especially those that are STILL manufacturing.  So help us compile a list and let’s see how amazed we are at what fine products were, and are sometimes still Made in Brainerd...or close.  

 

BUY LOCAL!!!  "Lakes PROUD" is a buy local campaign with a "mission of growing the regional economy by creating an understanding that it matters where consumer and business dollars are spent."-Brainerd Dispatch, 9/18/2015

 

Here’s a start:

 

batteries:  Ray-O-Vac, at the Electric Garage?  Closed years ago...info needed.

BEER:  My favorite topic.  Brainerd Brewing Co., east side of Boom Lake, closed 1914, and now/2013 a brewery in Baxter too!  Oh, and 2 in Nisswa! I was going to remove this old post but decided to leave it to show how time flies.  Go check them out now! See the UPDATE below:

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UPDATE: 8/17/2015...Coming soon, Roundhouse Brewing Co. in the NP Center!!!  See what it's all about

and what we are about to receive on their ABOUT page:   Update to the update...it's open, it's GOOD! 

                                                                2020: Yep, old news! They have since moved to Nisswa.

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And a Lakeland TV video found here: 

 

 

 

 

Compasses: Tru Nord, from the 1940s, still made here!  We need a story, G!  

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Books: I know there have been many local authors, so please send in some lists and links!  Here is one I discovered during the 2015 Library Photo Scanning Project.  It was a booklet made in 1982, and I digitized it for Al for your enjoyment here.  I also have a printable version available upon request.  This will print out oriented for folding just like the original.

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 boxcars: 1870’s, NPRR
bread:
bricks: 3 manufacturers; Ebinger-Koop, Schwartz, LP White
cigars: see below
concrete blocks: WW Thompson, still made here!

cooking oil: Made right down from us at Pierz, Smude's sunflower oil! 

display tables: Quik Stand, still made?

Foundry" TBA
fishing lures: early Brainerd Bait Co.?, modern.  See pink link below.

fishing spears: Fred Drexler
garments: Hickerson Garment Factory

honey: I always buy a year's supply of great locally-grown honey a the fair, but where can I buy more?
iron ore: Brainerd Cuyuna Mining Co.
magazines: In Fisherman
milk & dairy: Thiesse Dairy, dry milk plant, Land O’ Lakes, Meadow gold.  See below.

newspapers:  There are more than one in the area. Here is the one we all know, for local news so you know what's going on in             YOUR  community!  Brainerd Dispatch
paper & pulp: Weyerhaeuser, Northwest Paper Co., Potlatch, Sappi, Wausau, etc.
postcards: Northern Minnesota Novelties/Crosslake, a new use for old postcards has been found!  See below.
railroad ties: NP Tie Plant
seasoning: A new seasoning and bloody mary mix are being made here now/2013; need story!

soft drinks:  Some familiar names you may recognize, usually from seeing an old bottle someplace.  Cullen & Braino info here:

 

 

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DETAILS:
CIGARS: 1911: 100 years ago Mrs. William Schlange left this afternoon by auto for her regular trip over the Cuyuna iron range, taking orders for the popular Schlange “Perfectos”, a Brainerd cigar made by Schlange & Coleman.
FISHING LURES:
---Al-Lure-O Weedless Bait Company: I have a lure with this name as being the manufacturer, in Brainerd, MN, but that's all I know of it.
---BRAINERD BAIT CO.: This was based in  Brainerd in 1919 or earlier, then moved to St. Paul in the 1940s.  Can anyone help here?  We need more info!   Where were they located???  Here is what I have so far: 
---LAKELAND WHOLESALE BAIT CO. (FISH BUST'R):
Fish Bust'r
Lakeland Wholesale Bait Company
Brainerd and Crosby, Minnesota
Richard Brunelle, founder of the Lakeland Wholesale Bait Company, which manufactured and distributed fishing tackle under the brand name "Fish Bust'r".
Richard Brunelle was born on September 24, 1926 in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1948 Brunelle founded the Lakeland Wholesale Bait Company in Brainerd, Minnesota.
All of the fish decoys were made by one Lakeland employee, Irvin Westra, who worked with the company until he was 73 years old. He died at the age of 83. Westra would cut out basswood pieces on a band saw to a rough shape and then the piece was finished carved by hand and holes were drilled into the bottom for lead weighing. Three sizes were produced - three, six or nine inches. The majority of the decoys were painted with a red head and white body. A few examples were painted yellow and red as well as yellow and green. The building of the Lakeland Wholesale Bait Company burnt in the 1990s and this fire effectively shut down the business as no fire insurance was carried by Brunelle. At the height of production; Brunelle had 29 employees working.

Reference: Decoy Magazine, Issue January/February 2004, Article Titled: "Fish Bust'r Spearing Decoys" by Donald J. Peterson

MILK, DRY: 1942 saw the building of a "defense plant" in the south end of Brainerd, operated by Land O'Lakes Company, making dehydrated milk. I am not sure if the government subsidized its construction, or operation, but have heard that it was listed on the Nazi's maps as a military target! This was related to me by Tom Rohr, who leases part of the building for his Quik Stand business. Perhaps in his spare time, which he has oodles of, he can do some research on the building itself, or see what traces remain of the original equipment.
It utilized 9 milk-tank trucks collecting skimmed milk from countryside creameries, converting it to a dry solid. Each truck carried 1675 gallons. Every other day a load of buttermilk was gathered. Capacity of the plant, still in operation in 1946, was 300,000 gal. of wet milk/day, operating 24 hours/day, 7 days/week! This translated to 24,000 # of dry milk making 12 tons of dehydrated milk daily, or 43,000 barrels yearly. The plant employed not less than 32 men, and in peak times up to 45.
As of 1946, the range of creameries collected from was north to Pine River, south to Rice, east to Aitkin, and (west?) to Freidheim. It also interchanged with other plants at peak times. The plant was still at this time a war plant, but LO'L had full intentions of further expansion, planning on dehydrating many other products. More research will be needed to determine the reason for and time of its demise, and date of the government's withdrawal. [B75, 1946]

 

POSTCARDS:
-C. Elmer Anderson, Service News, Brainerd
-HP Dunn, Brainerd
-Johnson’s Pharmacy, Brainerd
-L. Hohman, Brainerd
-Joe Marchel, 1940’s, Brainerd
-Northern Minnesota Novelties, Crosslake

One wonders if somebody should be making postcards in Brainerd again!  Stay tuned on this one.

 

If you make it here, send your story or link here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOKS, Made in brainerd, by Brainerd authors!!!  

Find more on the Research page.  Here are just a few: