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Early on, Bemidji area residents recognized the qualities of the area which drew both city residents and visitors to its lakes. With the beautiful landscape, excellent fishing and hunting, and healthy air, tourism was a popular investment and a draw for people from Grand Forks, Minneapolis, and other cities and states.
The annual tournament of the Northern Minnesota Firemen's Tournament association (western division) was held in Bemidji during the week of the Fourth of July in 1910. The Bemidji Commercial Club recommended that the races and contests be arranged so that the visiting firemen could camp here and take an outing while participating in the tournament.
Although Bemidji was not incorporated until 1896, it had a steady pattern of growth beginning in 1870 when Oliver W. Barnes traveled by stagecoach, ox team and a canoe route to the Bemidji area with a government surveying party and spent spent the next six years mapping the northern part of the state. Barnes reported only one Native American person living at the outlet of the Mississippi for miles around the Bemidji area. The title to the Bemidji land was acquired in 1883 by Phillip Reilly of the John Martin Reilly Lumber Company of Minneapolis for its pine value. In 1888, Marion Ellsworth ...