Brainerd Minnesota History
Railroad!
Since there would be no Brainerd if it were not for the railroad, it is only fitting that a website on Brainerd include a page on "The Railroad". The Northern Pacific RR was the first to set up "shop" here, but many others branched out from here. Here we will present a brief history of these railroads.
To be continued...
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Brainerd Railroad Museum?
It is strange indeed that the town that first served as the headquarters for the NPRR, has no RR museum per se! We lost our locomotice at Lum Park, the M & I caboose at the NP Center, and the caboose at the fairgrounds, al due to lack of funding. In 2013 an effort was made to recreate the first NP Depot, but that did not materialize. So for now, please do visit the WONDERFUL RR exhibit at the CWCHS's museum on Laurel St. You can also get the scoop on the NPRR hoistory on their website, a compilation by Ann M. Nelson:
Northern Pacific Railroad (The "NP")
Check out this great website on Minnesota bricks, and their article on the bricks at the old NP! Look for August, 2010.
And here is info on our local brick plant owner, William Schwartz:
So what does one do with acres of old brick RR buildings? Well...see below!
Minnesota & International Railway (The "M & I")-TBA
Brainerd & Northern Minnesota Railroad
-from Jeremy Jackson, below:
A Brief History of the B&NM Railroad, by Jeremy Jackson:
In 1880, Charles A. Pillsbury formed the Gull River Lumber company and built a sawmill west of Brainerd. All timber, particularly the white pine, surrounding the lakes was soon cut, and in 1889, tracks were laid for an inland railroad to move logs to the lake landing, for steamboat-booming transportation to the outlet of Gull River at the logging dam. This narrow-gauge railroad incorporated as the Gull Lake & Northern Railway, extended some 12 miles northwest from the log landing at Gilpatrick or Kilpatrick Lake (Margaret Lake), with several miles of branching spurs.
In 1892, the Brainerd & Northern Minnesota Railway (B&NM) was incorporated. Crow Wing County issued $100,000 in bonds to aid in the construction of the new logging railroad, that was built from NE Brainerd, to the north and then west, bridging the narrows of Upper Gull Lake, and then northwesterly into the Foothills of Cass County, eventually terminating at the remote logging outpost of Munroe; then later at Spider Lake, about thirteen miles west of Pine River, Minnesota.
In NE Brainerd, construction began on a new sawmill and lumber yard, as well as new railroad shop buildings for the B&NM. The machinery for the sawmill was removed from the sawmill at Gull River Village, now a ghost town previously located a few miles west of Brainerd where the railroad has a bridge over the Gull River, parallel to the Highway 210 Gull River Bridge.
The incorporators of the B&NM were ex-Gov. John S. Pillsbury, George A. Pillsbury, Arthur E. Bardwell, William. B. Ransom, James E. Glass, Raymond W. Jones, and James A. Kellogg, all of Minneapolis. The Brainerd & Northern Minnesota Railway absorbed the assets of the Gull Lake & Northern Railway (GL&N); the narrow gauge logging railroad constructed in 1889.
Some of the new grade for the B&NM was constructed immediately upon the old grade of the GL&N.
The construction and operation of the old B&NM system was cut short by the financial panic of 1893, as well as by the difficult terrain of the mainline railroad grade. In 1894, the assets of the B&NM were purchased by new investors, and the railroad grade was abandoned from Spider Lake to Lake Hubert; a distance of nearly thirty miles. A new survey for a more direct route from Lake Hubert to Leech Lake was completed, and the new railroad was constructed following this new survey line toward Leech Lake, reaching the new terminus town of Lathrop or Lothrup in late 1894, Walker in 1896, and Bemidji in 1898.
-JJ, 8/1/2016
A college student here would like to produce a short video on the NP Center, about its importance to this town. Here is his story!
"So I came about this project being that I am at the end of my two years in my college program, I have to do a final project and I decided to take a spin into a history documentary and my teacher recommended the Northern Pacific property and I went with it.
Basically, I want to inform people how the Northern Pacific railway gave Brainerd it's foundation.
Also, how it has come up throughout the past century becoming a boost in the economy financially, work wise, & population wise."
It will be fun to watch his progress, so keep posted here.
UPDATE, 5/11/2013: Tyler has it finished, and other than me looking like I was run over by one of those NP trains, it rocks! The day he found me was the day after a night I was in the shop until 5 AM fiddling with my Coleman lantern collection...and that is my disclaimer.
See it here:
Brainerd History Week video by the Brainerd Dispatch: