Hortense McKay, a 1927 graduate of Washington High School in Brainerd, was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for her work in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in Bataan in WWII.
A Michigan resident with ties to the Brainerd lakes area kept his earlier promise to donate $2,500 to construct a roof over a locomotive engine at the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds because his relatives were employees of Northern Pacific Railway.
The Brainerd Fire Department observes its sesquicentennial this year and battled many of the blazes that ravaged and in some cases burned to the ground the historic businesses of downtown Brainerd, such as the early hotels and saloons that helped establish the city.
The Northern Pacific Railway was the driving force behind Brainerd’s first bridge across the Mississippi River, and the bridge was constructed in 1870. But five years later, it came crashing down and five passengers were killed.