Jenkins, MN

Jenkins began as a supply depot, not a resort town. The land was granted to Isabella Jenkins and her husband in 1883, and teams hauled supplies from Brainerd to logging camps across the north woods. The railroad arrived in 1895, bringing freight trains loaded with logs and passenger service that ran twice daily and twice nightly. Jenkins incorporated in 1904, the same year its first school opened, and the town’s name stayed tied to the people who held the original land.

Passenger trains ended in 1963, freight continued into the 1980s, and the old rail line now carries the Paul Bunyan Trail. That change captures Jenkins well: a former logging-and-rail stop that has shifted toward lake-country life. The city is a gateway to the Whitefish Chain’s fourteen connected lakes, with Pequot Lakes Public Schools serving local students and Brainerd providing the larger regional network. A schoolhouse, trail, woods, and water now share the same map. Jenkins is a Crow Wing County city where the railroad’s old line still guides today’s recreation and the lakes keep the town tied to northern Minnesota.