Pillager, MN

Pillager is a Cass County city of 507 residents in the 2020 census, on the north bank of the Crow Wing River just east of Lake Placid. A post office opened here in 1886, and the city took its name from the Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians, an Ojibwe band associated with the upper Mississippi and Crow Wing country. Minnesota Highway 210 and County Road 1 meet the town, linking it west toward Brainerd and east toward the lakes and forest.

The river valley shapes much of Pillager's older map. A natural break called the Pillager Gap offered an easier route through the surrounding land, and a trading post supported settlers and logging enterprises in the late nineteenth century. The railroad connected Pillager with Brainerd and Staples, helping the community keep its place after the mills closed. Today the Crow Wing River, Lake Placid, Pillsbury State Forest, school, and highway give the city its setting. Pillager is a small north-central Minnesota town whose name carries Ojibwe history and whose streets still face the river crossing.