“The Brainerd Public Library was awarded in 2014 a local Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage grant through the Kitchigami Regional Library System to start the Brainerd Lakes Area Historical Photo Scanning Project.” this is how an article in the Brainerd Dispatch on June 14th began. What a neat project! Photos were contributed by individuals, businesses, and organizations and then scanned. The Brainerd Public Library and the Crow Wing County Historical Society cooperated in the project.

I had family in the area and have vacationed many times in this beautiful lakes country as a child, with children, with grandchildren, and with friends. The article drew me in completely with the large photo from 1948 showing a Northern Pacific Railway car that was surrounded by many dozens of railroad workers. If you know much about me, you know that railroad history and railroad records are one of my history and genealogy passions.

If you have family from that area, read the article here. If you don’t have family in the area, read the articles and maybe work to get such a project started where you reside or in an ancestral area?

© 2021, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.