The Brainerd Brewing Co. on Boom Lake’s east shore was in operation as late as 1914. Razed a decade later, part of the brewery’s foundation was uncovered by the Brainerd History Group in 2009.
The Battle of Little Big Horn, aka Custer’s Last Stand, took place almost 150 years ago in late June of 1876. George Armstrong Custer was no stranger to Brainerd, and former Brainerd resident Mark Kellogg was the only reporter to die in the battle between Native Americans and the U.S. Army.
Before semitrailers and airplanes became the dominant form of transportation for cargo and even personnel, the country’s waterways such as the Mississippi River in Brainerd were used. Ferries carried supplies and men across the river, and along it, in the region’s early days.
The Norwood Street ice skating rink near 10th Street provided hours of outdoor wintertime recreation for Brainerd lakes area residents in years past. But it was by no means the only ice skating rink in the region that existed for the enjoyment and sport of the local inhabitants.