History

Decades before Minnesota became a state and Park Rapids was settled, French fur traders and explorers seeking the source of the Mississippi River traced the lakes, rivers and streams in this wilderness country. In 1832, Anishinabe guide Ozawindib led Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to the true source of the mighty Mississippi at Lake Itasca only 20 miles from here.

It wasn't until the Civil War ended that trading posts at Leech Lake and White Earth were established and a government trail, known as the White Earth Road, was blazed to connect them. In 1868, this trail crossed what is now Hubbard County, skirting the south shores of local lakes: Elbow (Belle Taine), Fish Hook and Portage and extending northwest to White Earth. The White Earth Road was said to be the only road passable for wagons or buggies until 1881 when early homesteaders made another trail north from Verndale, a stop on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Later still, the Green Trail cut along the east shore of Fish Hook Lake and north to Bemidji.

As local historian Clif Miller stated so eloquently, "Where the grass of the sunlight prairie met the dark boreal pine forest, the onward tide of homesteaders and lumber men paused to build a town and supply depot. It was on the banks of the shimmering rapids, in a stand of park like pine trees, so they called it Park Rapids.

"Here the trapper brought his furs after the long winter in the woods. The Indian came to trade for the supplies he needed. The lonely timber cruiser came out of the woods to renew his supplies and make and send out his reports. Here the advancing frontier met the wilderness. Soon the logging camps came to cut the big pine trees into lumber and Park Rapids became the supply center. Many narrow, winding trails were cut through the woods to the north and the big tote teams were hauling their loads for many miles along them.

"The main street of this busy, bustling and brawling town of Park Rapids was made extra wide so these teamsters could turn their long outfits (of four- or six-horse teams) around wherever they needed to." (Even though the city council contemplated building sidewalks to replace boardwalks on Main Street in 1891, the hitching posts weren't removed from Main Street until 1913.)

Three Prairies drew first settlers

The settlers who left the train at Verndale came with their teams and wagons or on foot 50 miles or more to the Three Prairies: First Prairie around Hubbard, Second Prairie around Park Rapids and Third Prairie around Osage/Ponsford. These prairies attracted homesteaders because it was possible to possess a home where there was an abundance of pure water, wood, wild game and fertile fields waiting for the plow. Most planted only wheat out of fear other crops wouldn't grow in the harsh northern climate.
The earliest settlers came in 1879 and more followed in the 1880s. (The Hubbard County Old Settlers Association, organized in July 1900, recognized anyone who came to the Shell Prairies before Aug. 1, 1891.)

Government surveyors reportedly ran lines in Straight River Township south of Park Rapids as early as 1860, the surveyors' reports a required precursor to lumbermen moving in to cut timber from towering pine forests. Park Rapids was settled in Todd Township which was not surveyed until 18 years later, but logging camps soon followed. The earliest logging camp near Park Rapids was located on Portage Lake and operated during the winters of 1881 and 1882. To supplement their income, some homesteaders brought their horses and worked in the logging camps which proliferated in the winter.

Early entrepreneurs

Among Park Rapids' earliest settlers was F.C. Rice who said when he first saw Park Rapids there was one solitary log house, built where Main Street is now and between 1st and 2nd Streets. This "claim shanty" belonged to C.O. "Charles" Todd, who filed the original townsite of Park Rapids in 1879. Todd later relinquished his rights to F.C. Rice. The Rice Brothers (Franklin and Gilbert) came in about 1880 and one year later located a mill on the Fish Hook River. Their water-powered saw mill turned out rough lumber that helped settlers in building and their grist mill produced flour for the settlers and feed for their horses.

F.C. Rice also conducted the first 4th of July celebration in Park Rapids in 1881 and suggested the name for the town on that occasion. That fall a post office was established at the corner of First and Main Streets with C.F. Rice (Franklin's nephew) as postmaster.

Robert F. Shields, a Civil War veteran, was one of those Rice mentioned as among the first handful of settlers he met. Shields built the first store in Park Rapids in 1881 and sold general merchandise under the name of the Pioneer Store. He later became the first sheriff of Hubbard County.

Another historic figure in the community was Capt. John S. Huntsinger, another Civil War veteran. He came to Park Rapids in 1882 and built the first hotel, the Headquarters, on Main Street.

The same year, Dr. P.A. Walling came to practice, soon followed by Dr. C.W. Cutler. Both physicians started drug stores and continued their practices even though they were often unpaid or paid with lumber, logs, wood, hay, oats, potatoes or flour. The first school also opened in 1882 in the front part of Hazen Ricker's harness shop. A teacher was paid by subscription but there was difficulty obtaining textbooks for the 30 pupils who enrolled.

Park Rapids starts to grow

In 1883 Park Rapids was chosen as the county seat when the Legislature detached 16 townships from Cass County and organized them as Hubbard County. Gov. Lucius F. Hubbard, who served from 1882-87, appointed Dr. Cutler and two others as county commissioners until an election could be held. The county was enlarged and "squared off" when 12 more townships were added in 1895.

The first head count taken after the Village of Park Rapids incorporated was the 1885 Minnesota census. Enumerators identified 172 families in the area and reported they came from 20 states and nine foreign countries. The same year a wooden bridge, financed by private subscription, was built across Fish Hook River.

The city fathers pinned their hopes for the community's future success on completion of a railroad into town and were disappointed when it took so long to become a reality. "Amid all the discouragements of 10 years' pioneer life the people of these prairies and this village have often consoled and comforted themselves with the thought that next year the railroad will surely be built." When the Wadena and Park Rapids rail line was completed from the south, Great Northern Railroad officials were given "a Shell Prairie welcome" July 31, 1891. The Park Rapids and Leech Lake Railway Co. extended the Great Northern east to Cass Lake in 1899. (Today, that railroad bed provides the gently rolling footing of the Heartland State Trail.)

As Park Rapids became a vacation destination, the trains brought summer tourists and fishermen. Resort owners with teams and buckboards met them at the depot and continued their journeys into lake country. The same year the railroad came to Park Rapids, Itasca was established as Minnesota's first state park. The Itasca Stage carried many of these visitors from Park Rapids to the new park.

Only a decade after the city was named, Park Rapids was prepared to grow and prosper and the scene was already distant from the days Clif Miller described when the teamsters and their horses traversed "many long lonely miles through these woods trails with only the song of the wolves and their companionship with each other before they returned to the bright lights of the kerosene lamps of the City of Park Rapids."

Learn more at the Hubbard County Historical Society Web site and the Hubbard County Genealogical Society Website.