In the winter of 1857, Gus Aspinwall snowshoed here from St. Paul to try to make his fortune after abandoning a site later called Grand Rapids that he thought was too far ahead of the frontier. He planned a town called Wadena on this ground, with a bustling railroad station, steamboat landing, town square, and more than 1,500 building lots. With trade already established here and the heavily used 240 mile Red River Oxcart Trail crossing the Crow Wing River just above this spot, the venture seemed promising. His brother Nat drew the survey, and Wadena was registered in St. Cloud as the county seat. But the financial panic of 1857 left settlers short of cash, the Indian War worsened relations between native tribes and whites, the Civil War drew men away, and the promised railroad was built four miles south. Gus's post office, store, and boarding house near 4th and Main survived only a few years, leaving behind a faded town plot and the cut to the old rope ferry.