Crow Wing County Historical Society

10/24/2026

An amputation kit? Human hair art? Creepy dolls? We've got all of those and even more creepy curiosities from the Museum. Join us today (Saturday, October 24) from 11am-1pm in the Parker Building doorway between Brekken's and E.L. Menk Jewelry on Laurel Street in Brainerd.

10/21/2026

Local merchant, A.L. Hoffman, took this photo on January 2, 1898 as the Sleeper Opera House burned. Theviot Millinery and O'Brien's General store were also destroyed in the fire. These buildings were located on South 8th Street in Brainerd - across the street from what is now Ya-Sure Kombucha.

10/19/2026

A view in Merrifield, year unknown.

10/17/2026

An undated photo of Webster Cottage on Serpent Lake in Crosby. A widow named Bertha Tasker Webster (1869-1934) owned two large lots along what is now Lakeshore Drive in Crosby.

10/14/2026

New homes in Barrows in 1912.
In 1911 the town was named for W.A. Barrows, Jr. of the Virginia Ore Mining Company after an iron ore deposit was discovered in the area. It was a short-lived boom with the new Barrows post office closing down in 1918 after the mine shut down.

10/10/2026

Come see us at the Indigenous People's Celebration on Monday, October 12 from 4:30-7 at Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts in Brainerd. We will have a variety of indigenous artifacts from the collection and would love to share information on a collaborative new grant project.

10/07/2026

The Bachelor Maidens Club of Brainerd circa 1910.
Groups of young, unmarried women who opted to be independent of men, live life on their own terms, and manager their own affairs formed social groups known as Bachelor Maids' Clubs around the turn of the 20th Century.
The woman in the front row, third from the left is one of the Reilly sisters whose family owned a dry goods store in Brainerd. Both sisters did eventually marry, although not until their mid-to-late twenties, which was considered quite late in life.

10/05/2026

Aerial view of Brainerd in 1934.

10/03/2026

In May 1923 four intrepid ladies set out from Crow Wing County to California in an automobile - stopping along the way to visit friends and family. They picnicked, camped out, and did their own vehicle maintenance on the trip. Lydia Hahn McKay (a married mother of 5) largely financed the trip and went along with her younger friends Hildegarde Erstad (a teacher), Thora Ingebritson Fullerton (a public health nurse), and Dagny Ingebritson (a high school teacher). The ladies were connected through their Red Cross volunteer work.

09/30/2026

FYI - Any child who is in 6th grade during the 2026-27 school year is eligible for the MN History Pass. The pass provides free admittance for the 6th grader (not parents or siblings) to Minnesota Historical Society sites and museums through August 31, 2027.

Discover materials associated with a particular person or name. Includes birth, death, census, veterans graves, and Gold Star Roll records.