Physical Geography
Much of the Brainerd Lakes region can be characterized as a pitted outwash plain. This geological feature occurs when the front of a glacier gets stalled and streams of melting glacial water flow down sloped land. When large blocks of ice at the front of the glacier get buried in outwash and finally melt they become ice-block basins. Many of the lakes in the Brainerd Lakes region were created in these ice-block basins. The many lakes in the area have made Brainerd first a natural choice for water-based recreation and resorts. Other parts of the region are more morrainic in character, formed by the force of moving glaciers. This characterizes the gentle hills in the region.
The Cuyuna range is somewhat of an anomaly, formed through igneous activity. The Cuyuna range is the only igneous rock outcrop for forty miles until the Mesabi range. Mining operations were established here in the first half of the 1900's, in order to harvest the iron from beneath these hills.
"The soil in the highlands is sandy loam and in some places a mixture of sand and clay. The soil in the lowlands is black muck, vegetable mold, and in some places peat with sand or clay subsoil (State Bureau of Immigration 1923)." Because of the dense forests and poor soil agriculture in the region developed slowly. However, by 1919 important dairy processing operations were established along with dairy farms.
The region is also rich in forests, and the white pine stands in particular made the region an important logging area.
