Crow Wing State Park

About this park

Crow Wing State Park, established in 1959, protects 2,335 acres at the confluence of the Crow Wing and Mississippi rivers just south of Brainerd, preserving the site of Old Crow Wing, a once-prosperous 19th-century river town and trading center that was entirely abandoned after the railroad bypassed it in favor of Brainerd. Walking trails wind past plaques marking where the town's well, buildings, and the historic Beaulieu House once stood, giving visitors a genuinely tangible sense of a community that has otherwise completely vanished from the landscape. A well-preserved section of the Red River Oxcart Trail, part of the larger Woods Trail network that once carried traders and settlers between St. Paul and the Red River settlements, still runs through the park, and both the Old Crow Wing town site and this stretch of trail are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park holds a genuine ecological distinction as well: it's the only place in Minnesota where all three of the state's major biomes, prairie, hardwood forest, and pineland, meet in a single location, visible in the park's mix of bur oak, white and red pine, and open savanna dotted with big bluestem and Indian grass. More than 18 miles of hiking trails explore this varied terrain, and the park also marks the southern trailhead of the long-distance Paul Bunyan State Trail, connecting Crow Wing directly to Brainerd and the broader lakes region beyond. A riverside campground with electric sites, canoe access, and a dock make the park a popular launching point for paddlers heading downriver on the Mississippi, and white-tailed deer, beaver, and nesting eagles are common sights along the park's wetlands and waterways.