Railroad Town in the Lakes: The History of Cushing, Minnesota
If you've driven U.S. Highway 10 between Little Falls and Staples, you've passed through Cushing, Minnesota, maybe without noticing. It's a small place: a post office, a park, a church, a bar and a town hall. But the story behind it runs from fur traders and a frontier fort to the railroad, the lake resorts and the quiet woods-and-water country it is today. We have more listings around Cushing right now than anywhere else, so we wanted to dig into where this little Morrison County community came from.
Before the Town: Fur Traders, Two Nations and a Frontier Fort
Long before there was a Cushing, this part of central Minnesota sat between the homelands of the Dakota to the south and the Ojibwe to the north. The lakes and rivers here, including the Crow Wing and Long Prairie rivers just to the north, were travel routes and harvest grounds for both nations.
Morrison County itself was established on February 25, 1856, and named for William and Allan Morrison, two brothers who worked the fur trade and explored northern Minnesota.
A few years earlier, in 1848, the U.S. Army began building a post on the west bank of the Mississippi, across from the mouth of the Nokasippi River. The government meant it as a buffer between Dakota and Ojibwe lands and to oversee the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people, who had been moved there against their will from Wisconsin. First called Fort Marcy, then Fort Gaines, it was renamed Fort Ripley in 1850. The fort lasted until a fire on a bitterly cold night in January 1877 destroyed three buildings, and the Army chose to close it rather than rebuild.
How the Local Lakes Got Their Names
Some of the oldest names on the map around Cushing come from that fort era. According to Warren Upham's classic book of Minnesota place names:
Lake Alexander was named before 1860 for Captain (later Major) Thomas L. Alexander, who was stationed at Fort Ripley. The lake has three islands: Crow, Potato and High.
Fish Trap Lake, in neighboring Scandia Valley Township, takes in the outflow from Lake Alexander. From there, Fish Trap Brook carries the water north toward the Long Prairie and Crow Wing rivers.
Shamineau Lake shows up with that spelling on the 1860 state map. Upham records that the name came from an elder known as Shamanons.
So when you're fishing these lakes today, you're on water that has carried the same names for more than 160 years.
The Railroad Comes Through
Cushing exists because of the Northern Pacific Railway. The Northern Pacific line through Morrison County was finished to Brainerd in October 1877. Then, in 1889, the railroad built the Little Falls–Staples cutoff. Work started in April and finished that September, and the new line cut 26 miles off the transcontinental route.
Stations sprang up along the new tracks. Randall was platted in March 1890 and named for John H. Randall, a St. Paul railroad official. Cushing Township was organized on October 30, 1891, and the railway village of Cushing was platted in December 1907.
The name most likely honors Caleb Cushing (1800–1879) of Massachusetts, a judge, congressman and diplomat. He had a real connection to this part of the country: in 1847 he was one of the financial partners, along with Franklin Steele, in founding St. Anthony (now part of Minneapolis) and starting the big lumber industry on the upper Mississippi.
The tracks are still there. Today the BNSF Railway runs through Cushing, and Amtrak's Empire Builder rolls past without stopping. The nearest passenger station is in Staples, about 23 miles northwest.
The Resort Era on Lake Alexander
For many families, Cushing's story is really a lake story. A memoir published by the Morrison County Historical Society describes life around Lake Alexander in the 1930s: most year-round homes were farmhouses, fishing was the main pastime, lakeshore owners hosted church picnics and family gatherings, and the "Cushing lot" on the south side of the lake gave folks a sandy beach and an easy place to launch a boat. The same piece remembers small family operations like a two-cabin resort with a fleet of wooden rental boats.
From the 1950s through the 1990s, Lake Alexander had a lively resort scene, with places like the Silver Moon, Ray's Resort, The Shady Inn and the Blue Front Resort, which rented out a fleet of Larson boats. Those resorts have all since closed, but they're a big part of why so many Minnesota families have summer memories here.
The lake itself is still the main attraction. The Minnesota DNR lists Lake Alexander at 2,709 acres with a maximum depth of 64 feet, and walleye is its primary management species. The water is known for being clear. The DNR's report notes summer clarity averaged about 15 feet in 2020.
Cushing Today
Cushing is still unincorporated, and Cushing Township is mostly woods, farm fields and water. The township covers just under 80 square miles, about 2 of them water, and it had 632 residents at the 2000 census. That works out to plenty of elbow room.
A few things make the area easy to enjoy:
Lakes in every direction: Lake Alexander, Fish Trap and Shamineau are all close by, plus plenty of smaller lakes and ponds.
Highway 10 access: It's a straight shot to Little Falls in one direction and Staples in the other.
Military history nearby: The remains of old Fort Ripley sit inside Camp Ripley, the Minnesota National Guard training site established in 1929 and named after the fort.
Local history on display: The Morrison County Historical Society, founded in 1936, runs the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum in Little Falls. It's a good stop if this post made you curious.
Owning a Piece of Cushing
What people loved about Cushing a century ago is mostly still here: clear lakes, quiet woods and a slower pace. Most of our parcels here are small, affordable pieces of land with electric nearby, and buyers use them for camping, weekend getaways, hunting or a future cabin. A few that fit the area especially well:
Lakefront Land On Fish Stocked, Private Lake: about two-thirds of an acre right on the water.
1.31 Acres With Private Pond: room to spread out, with your own pond.
Parcel For Off-grid Living with Hill: a parcel with some rise to it, for anyone who'd like to keep things simple.
You can see every parcel we have in Cushing, Randall, Mille Lacs and beyond on our current listings page. Browse what's available, and reach out with any questions. We're always happy to talk about land in this corner of Minnesota.
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