Railings from the Laurel Street Bridge, which stood at the Mississippi River site from 1898 to 1978, were salvaged before the old bridge was demolished. Six sections were saved by the City of Brainerd and later used at the end of a cul-de-sac on Hawkins Drive, though those six are now gone. About 60 sections were sold to a farmer southeast of town, where they lay unused until Mike McMillion found them advertised on Craigslist and bought them for livestock fencing. In August 2016, while browsing Andy Walsh's "Share History and Stories about Brainerd Lakes Area" Facebook group, McMillion saw a photo of the old bridge being taken down and recognized the railings as his hog panels. A few years earlier, four of the original 1898 plaques had been found in the basement of City Hall. In 2017, the City exchanged one of those plaques with McMillion for four railings that he had not yet installed. By 2018, 120 years after the bridge's construction, four railings had returned in two locations: the original bridge site and the Crow Wing County Historical Society museum on Laurel Street.