University of Virginia Library

LETTER VI.
THE TOWN OF CROW WING.

I AM highly gratified with the appearance of this place. Mr. Burke says—" In order that we should love our country, our country should first be lovely," and there is much wisdom in the remark. Nature has done so much for this locality that one could be contented to live here on quite a moderate income. The land is somewhat elevated, near the bank of the Mississippi, affording a pleasant view over upon the western side, both above and below the two graceful mouths of the Crow Wing River. Towards the east and north, after a few miles, the view is intercepted by a higher ridge of land covered with timber; or, by the banks of the Mississippi itself, as from this point we begin to ascend it in a northeasterly course.

Crow Wing was selected as a trading post upwards of twenty years ago. Mr. McDonnald, who still resides here, was, I believe, the first white settler. Till within a recent period it was the headquarters of the Mississippi tribe of Chippewas, and the principal trading depot with the Chippewas generally. Here they brought their furs, the fruits of their buffalo and their winter hunts, and their handicraft of beads and baskets, to exchange for clothing and for food. Thus the place was located and settled on long before there was a prospect of its becoming a populous town. Mr. Rice, the delegate in congress, if I mistake not, once had a branch store here with several men in his employ. The principal traders at present are Mr. Abbee and Mr. Beaulieu, who have large and well selected stocks of goods. The present population of white persons probably numbers a hundred souls. The place now has a more populous appearance on account of the presence of a caravan of Red Lake Indians, who have come down about four hundred miles to trade. They are encamped round about in tents or birch bark lodges, as it may happen to be. In passing some of them, I saw the squaws busily at work on the grass outside of the lodge in manufacturing flag carpets. The former Indian residents are now removed to their reservation in the fork of the Mississippi and Crow Wing rivers, where their agency is now established.

The houses here are very respectable in size, and furnished in metropolitan style and elegance. The farms are highly productive, and the grazing for stock unequalled. There is a good ferry at the upper end of the town, at a point where the river is quite narrow and deep. You can be taken over with a horse for twenty-five cents; with a carriage, I suppose, the tariff is higher.

Perhaps one cause of my favorable impression of Crow Wing is the excellent and home-like hotel accommodations which I have found. The proprietor hardly assumes to keep a public-house, and yet provides his guests with very good entertainment; and I cannot refrain from saying that there is no public-house this side of St. Paul where the traveller will be better treated. Mr. Morrison—for that is the proprietor's name—came here fifteen years ago, having first come into this region in the service of John Jacob Astor. He married one of the handsomest of the Chippewa maidens, who is now his faithful wife and housekeeper, and the mother of several interesting and amiable children. Mr. M. is the postmaster. He has been a member of the territorial legislature, and his name has been given to a large and beautiful county. I judge that society has been congenial in the town. The little church, standing on an eminence, indicates some union of sentiment at least, and a regard for the higher objects of life. Spring and summer and autumn must be delightful seasons here, and bring with them the sweetest tranquillity. Nor are the people shut out from the world in winter; for then there is travel and intercourse and traffic. So are there pleasures and recreation peculiar to the season.

But the serene and quiet age of the settlement is near its close. Enterprise and speculation, with their bustle and turmoil, have laid hold of it. The clank of the hammer, the whistle of steamboats, the rattling of carts, heaps of lumber and of bricks, excavations and gratings, short corners and rough unshapen walks, will usurp the quiet and the regularity of the place. Indeed a man ought to make a fortune to compensate for residing in a town during the first years of its rapid building. The streets appear, on the map, to be well laid out. A number of purchasers of lots are preparing to build; and a few new buildings are already going up. As near as I am able to learn, the things which conduce to its availability as a business place are these—First, it is the beginning of the Upper Mississippi navigation. From this point steamboats can go from two to three hundred miles. But they cannot pass below, on account of the obstructions near Fort Ripley, at Little Falls, and at Sauk Rapids. This of course is a great element in its future success, as the country above in the valley of the river is destined to be thickly settled, and boats will run between this point and the settlements along the river. It will also be a large lumber market, for the pine forests begin here and extend along the river banks for hundreds of miles, while the facility of getting the logs down is unexceptionable. The territory north of Crow Wing is now open for settlers to a great distance, the Indian title having been extinguished. Two land districts have also been established, which will be an inducement for fresh emigration. There is no other place but this to supply these settlements; at least none so convenient. A great deal of timber will also come down the Crow Wing River, which is a large stream, navigable three months in the year. Arrangements are complete for building a steamboat the ensuing winter, at this very place, to begin running in the spring as far up as Ojibeway. Next season there will be a daily line of stages between this and St. Paul. I understand also that it is intended next summer to connect Crow Wing with the flourishing town of Superior by stage. It will require considerable energy to do this thing; but if it can be done, it will be a great blessing to the traveller as well as a profit to the town. The journey from St. Paul to Lake Superior via Crow Wing can then be performed in three days, while on the usual route it now occupies a week. Such are some of the favorable circumstances which corroborate the expectation of the growth of this place. The southern or lower portion of the town is included within the Fort Ripley reserve, and though several residences are situated on it, no other buildings can be put up without a license from the commanding officer; nor can any lots be sold from that portion until the reserve is cut down. With the upper part of the town it is different. Mr. C. H. Beaulieu, long a resident of the place, is the proprietor of that part, and has already, I am informed, made some extensive sales of lots. He is one of those lucky individuals, who have sagacity to locate on an available spot, and patience to wait the opening of a splendid fortune.1

My observation and experience in regard to town sites have taught me an important fact: that as much depends on the public spirit, unity of action, and zeal of the early proprietors, as upon the locality itself. The one is useless without these helps. General Washington wrote an able essay to prove the availability of Norfolk, Va., as the great commercial metropolis of the country. He speculated upon its being the great market for the West. His imagination pictured out some such place as New York now is, as its future. The unequalled harbor of Norfolk, and the resources of the country all around it, extending as far, almost, as thought could reach, might well have encouraged the theory of Washington. But munificence and energy and labor have built up many cities since then, which had not half the natural advantages of Norfolk, while Norfolk is far behind. A little lack of enterprise, a little lack of harmony and liberality, may, in the early days of a town, divert business and improvements from a good location, till in a short time an unheard-of and inferior place totally eclipses it. Knowing this to be the case, I have been careful in my previous letters not to give too much importance to many of the town sites which have been commended to me along my journey. I do not discover any of these retarding circumstances about Crow Wing. I must conclude at this paragraph, however, in order to take a horseback ride to the Chippewa agency. In my next I intend to say something about the Indians, pine timber, and the country above here in general.