1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brainerd

BRAINERD, a city and the county-seat of Crow Wing county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Mississippi river, about 127 m. N.W. of Minneapolis. Pop. (1890) 5703; (1900) 7524, of whom 2193 were foreign-born; (1905) 8133; (1910) 8526. It is served by the Minnesota & International and the Northern Pacific railways. The latter maintains here large car and repair shops, and a sanatorium for its employees. There are also the Sisters of St Joseph hospital, a county court house, a public library and a Y.M.C.A. building. A dam across the Mississippi provides water power (about 60,000 H.P.) which is utilized extensively for manufacturing purposes. Lumbering is an important industry, and there are saw mills and planing mills, and an extensive creosote plant for treating railway ties and timber. There are also flour mills, paper and pulp mills, cigar factories, a brewery, a large foundry and a grain elevator. In 1906 large quantities of iron ore were discovered in the vicinity, the new range, the Cuyuna, running through the city from north-east to south-west. Brainerd, named in honour of David Brainerd, was settled in 1870, and chartered as a city in 1883.