At the junction of the Crow Wing River and the Mississippi, Old Crow Wing became a place where travelers, traders, and warriors met, first as a strategic point in contests between the Ojibwe and Dakota and then as the site of an American Fur Company trading post in 1823. In the 1840s it grew into an important stop on the Red River Trail, bringing furs from Canada, the Dakotas, and western Minnesota to St. Paul. The village gained a rough reputation as fur traders and “river pigs,” lumbermen who managed freshly cut logs on the Mississippi, came to socialize and trade, while soldiers from nearby Fort Ripley were often called in to settle disputes. Missionaries and educators were also drawn there out of concern for the village’s children. By the 1860's, more than 600 people lived there, and figures associated with Crow Wing gave their names to places across Minnesota, including Morrison, Rice, and Aitkin. Chief Hole in the Day II built a house and farm near Crow Wing as an example of a self-sufficient community for Ojibwe people. Despite appearing destined to become a major Minnesota community, Crow Wing declined when the Northern Pacific Railroad passed just north of it at Brainerd, whose higher ground and single river crossing made it more practical, and the village founded where canoes and carts crossed the river soon died.