Crow Wing State Park
Encyclopedia
Crow Wing State Park is a 3,119 acre (12.62 km²) Minnesota
state park at the confluence of the Mississippi
and Crow Wing River
s. The park interprets the site of Old Crow Wing
, one of the most populous towns in the state in the 1850s and 1860s. The entire park was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1970.
formed from the outwash of Glacial Lake Grantsburg. The present-day vegetation is oak
forest with red
, white
, and jack pine
; and aspen
, with prairie
and wetland
openings.
The confluence of the Crow Wing and Mississippi Rivers formed a natural crossroads, attracting humans with its easy travel routes and quality hunting. At the beginning of the historical period the region was inhabited by Dakota
, who clashed with Ojibwa
being displaced from farther east . It is told that in 1768 a Dakota war party raided an Ojibwa village and carried off several women in their canoe
s. The village's warriors, returning from their own unsuccessful raid, laid an ambush
on a high bank over the river, digging shallow pits from which to fire their rifles. As the Dakota convey passed under the Ojibwa, the men opened fire, while the captured women overturned the canoes they were in and swam for shore. The Dakota regrouped and counterattacked by land, but were repulsed. The two day battle cemented Ojibwa control over the area.
European fur traders began frequenting the area in the late 18th century. A trading post
was opened in 1823, around which a town slowly grew. The town lay on the route of a new section of the Red River Trails
blazed in 1844, and the local economy boomed. Several Crow Wing traders went on to great prominence in early Minnesota, including the men after whom Morrison County
, Aitkin County
, and Rice County
are all named. A Métis
named Clement Beaulieu ran the American Fur Company
's trading post while another named William Whipple Warren
wrote an early history of the Ojibwa. Three churches were established in town, including a Catholic mission by Father Francis Xavier Pierz
.
Crow Wing's heyday came to a swift end. In 1868 the Ojibwa were resettled in the White Earth Indian Reservation
. In 1871 railroad magnate James J. Hill
decided to route his Northern Pacific Railroad over the Mississippi River in Brainerd
, ten miles (16 km) to the north. By 1880 most of Crow Wing's residents had moved on.
The Crow Wing County Historical Society led efforts to establish a state park around the townsite. The park was authorized by the Minnesota Legislature
in 1959. Some controversy arose when the Knights of Columbus
built a chapel
on the site of Father Pierz' mission. However the chapel was located on a small parcel of privately held land and no public funds were used for its construction, so legally separation of church and state
was maintained.
State funds and private donations enabled the park to expand by 552 acres (2.2 km²) in 2006, adding 3.13 miles (5 km) of frontage on the Mississippi River. There are plans to extend the Paul Bunyan State Trail
through Crow Wing State Park along this section.
Crow Wing State Park offers 14 miles (22.5 km) of hiking trails, some of which are open to cross-country skiing or snowmobiling in winter. There is a campground with 61 sites and a camper cabin. There is also a group camp and a riverside campsite for canoeists. A boat ramp provides access to the rivers, with rental craft available.
Although most of the structures of Old Crow Wing have decayed or were moved away, some are left and interpretive signs commemorate others. Clement Beaulieu's house, with its Greek Revival architecture
, was moved back to its original location in 1988. Several headstones are still visible in the Catholic cemetery. Oldest of all, the shallow depressions marked as the Indian Rifle Pits may be the vestiges of the 1768 Ojibwa ambush.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
state park at the confluence of the Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and Crow Wing River
Crow Wing River
The Crow Wing River is a tributary of the Mississippi River approximately in length. The river arises in a chain of 11 lakes in southern Hubbard County, Minnesota and flows generally southeast, entering the Mississippi at Crow Wing State Park, northwest of Little Falls, Minnesota. Its name is a...
s. The park interprets the site of Old Crow Wing
Old Crow Wing, Minnesota
Old Crow Wing is a ghost town in Fort Ripley Township, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers. For over a century, it was the northernmost European-American settlement on the Mississippi. In the 1850s and 1860s, it was the county seat...
, one of the most populous towns in the state in the 1850s and 1860s. The entire park was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1970.
Natural history
The park lies on a sandurSandur
A sandur is a glacial outwash plain formed of sediments deposited by meltwater at the terminus of a glacier.- Formation :Sandar are found in glaciated areas, such as Svalbard, Kerguelen Islands, and Iceland...
formed from the outwash of Glacial Lake Grantsburg. The present-day vegetation is oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
forest with red
Red Pine
Pinus resinosa, commonly known as the red pine or Norway pine, is pine native to North America. The Red Pine occurs from Newfoundland west to Manitoba, and south to Pennsylvania, with several smaller, disjunct populations occurring in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and West Virginia, as well...
, white
Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...
, and jack pine
Jack Pine
Jack pine is a North American pine with its native range in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains from Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, and the northeast of the United States from Minnesota to Maine, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana...
; and aspen
Populus tremuloides
Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, and Quakies,. The trees have tall trunks, up to 25 metres, with smooth pale bark, scarred with black. The glossy green leaves, dull beneath, become golden...
, with prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
and wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
openings.
Cultural history
-
- See also: Old Crow Wing, MinnesotaOld Crow Wing, MinnesotaOld Crow Wing is a ghost town in Fort Ripley Township, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers. For over a century, it was the northernmost European-American settlement on the Mississippi. In the 1850s and 1860s, it was the county seat...
- See also: Old Crow Wing, Minnesota
The confluence of the Crow Wing and Mississippi Rivers formed a natural crossroads, attracting humans with its easy travel routes and quality hunting. At the beginning of the historical period the region was inhabited by Dakota
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
, who clashed with Ojibwa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
being displaced from farther east . It is told that in 1768 a Dakota war party raided an Ojibwa village and carried off several women in their canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s. The village's warriors, returning from their own unsuccessful raid, laid an ambush
Ambush
An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...
on a high bank over the river, digging shallow pits from which to fire their rifles. As the Dakota convey passed under the Ojibwa, the men opened fire, while the captured women overturned the canoes they were in and swam for shore. The Dakota regrouped and counterattacked by land, but were repulsed. The two day battle cemented Ojibwa control over the area.
European fur traders began frequenting the area in the late 18th century. A trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
was opened in 1823, around which a town slowly grew. The town lay on the route of a new section of the Red River Trails
Red River Trails
The Red River Trails were a network of ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony and Fort Garry in British North America with the head of navigation on the Mississippi River in the United States...
blazed in 1844, and the local economy boomed. Several Crow Wing traders went on to great prominence in early Minnesota, including the men after whom Morrison County
Morrison County, Minnesota
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 31,712 people, 11,816 households, and 8,460 families residing in the county. The population density was 28 people per square mile . There were 13,870 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
, Aitkin County
Aitkin County, Minnesota
Aitkin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population is 16,202. Its county seat is Aitkin. A portion of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is in the county.-History:...
, and Rice County
Rice County, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 56,665 people, 18,888 households, and 13,353 families residing in the county. The population density was 114 people per square mile . There were 20,061 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile...
are all named. A Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
named Clement Beaulieu ran the American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
's trading post while another named William Whipple Warren
William Whipple Warren
William Whipple Warren was a mixed-blood Ojibwe historian, interpreter, and legislator in the Minnesota Territory. He moved from Wisconsin to Crow Wing in the fall of 1845. Warren suffered from lung problems for many years and died as a young man of 28 from tuberculosis on June 1, 1853.-Early life...
wrote an early history of the Ojibwa. Three churches were established in town, including a Catholic mission by Father Francis Xavier Pierz
Francis Xavier Pierz
Francis Xavier Pierz was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa and Ojibwa Indians. Because he was also responsible for attracting large numbers of Catholic German Americans to settle in Central Minnesota, he is referred to as "The Father of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint...
.
Crow Wing's heyday came to a swift end. In 1868 the Ojibwa were resettled in the White Earth Indian Reservation
White Earth Indian Reservation
The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in that state...
. In 1871 railroad magnate James J. Hill
James J. Hill
James Jerome Hill , was a Canadian-American railroad executive. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest...
decided to route his Northern Pacific Railroad over the Mississippi River in Brainerd
Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,590 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County and one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota...
, ten miles (16 km) to the north. By 1880 most of Crow Wing's residents had moved on.
The Crow Wing County Historical Society led efforts to establish a state park around the townsite. The park was authorized by the Minnesota Legislature
Minnesota Legislature
The Minnesota Legislature is the legislative branch of government in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is a bicameral legislature located at the Minnesota Capitol in Saint Paul and it consists of two houses: the lower Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota Senate...
in 1959. Some controversy arose when the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
built a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
on the site of Father Pierz' mission. However the chapel was located on a small parcel of privately held land and no public funds were used for its construction, so legally separation of church and state
Separation of church and state in the United States
The phrase "separation of church and state" , attributed to Thomas Jefferson and others, and since quoted by the Supreme Court of the United States, expresses an understanding of the intent and function of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States...
was maintained.
State funds and private donations enabled the park to expand by 552 acres (2.2 km²) in 2006, adding 3.13 miles (5 km) of frontage on the Mississippi River. There are plans to extend the Paul Bunyan State Trail
Paul Bunyan State Trail
The Paul Bunyan State Trail is a multi-use recreational rail trail in north-central Minnesota, USA, running between the cities of Brainerd and Bemidji. Named after the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan of American folklore, the trail is one of the longest continuously paved rail trails in the United...
through Crow Wing State Park along this section.
Recreation
Although most of the structures of Old Crow Wing have decayed or were moved away, some are left and interpretive signs commemorate others. Clement Beaulieu's house, with its Greek Revival architecture
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
, was moved back to its original location in 1988. Several headstones are still visible in the Catholic cemetery. Oldest of all, the shallow depressions marked as the Indian Rifle Pits may be the vestiges of the 1768 Ojibwa ambush.