But the serene and quiet age of the settlement is near its close.  Enterprise and speculation, with their bustle and turmoil, have laid hold of it.  The clank of the hammer, the whistle of steamboats, the rattling of carts, heaps of lumber and of bricks, excavations and gratings, short corners and rough unshapen walks, will usurp the quiet and the regularity of the place.  Indeed a man ought to make a fortune to compensate for residing in a town during the first years of its rapid building.  The streets appear, on the map, to be well laid out.  A number of purchasers of lots are preparing to build; and a few new buildings are already going up.  As near as I am able to learn, the things which conduce to its availability as a business place are these—­ First, it is the beginning of the Upper Mississippi navigation.  From this point steamboats can go from two to three hundred miles.  But they cannot pass below, on account of the obstructions near Fort Ripley, at Little Falls, and at Sauk Rapids.  This of course is a great element in its future success, as the country above in the valley of the river is destined to be thickly settled, and boats will run between this point and the settlements along the river.  It will also be a large lumber market, for the pine forests begin here and extend along the river banks for hundreds of miles, while the facility of getting the logs down is unexceptionable.  The territory north of Crow Wing is now open for settlers to a great distance, the Indian title having been extinguished.  Two land districts have also been established, which will be an inducement for fresh emigration.  There is no other place but this to supply these settlements; at least none so convenient.  A great deal of timber will also come down the Crow Wing River, which is a large stream, navigable three months in the year.  Arrangements are complete for building a steamboat the ensuing winter, at this very place, to begin running in the spring as far up as Ojibeway.  Next season there will be a daily line of stages between this and St. Paul.  I understand also that it is intended next summer to connect Crow Wing with the flourishing town of Superior by stage.  It will require considerable energy to do this thing; but if it can be done, it will be a great blessing to the traveller as well as a profit to the town.  The journey from St. Paul to Lake Superior via Crow Wing can then be performed in three days, while on the usual route it now occupies a week.  Such are some of the favorable circumstances which corroborate the expectation of the growth of this place.  The southern or lower portion of the town is included within the Fort Ripley reserve, and though several residences are situated on it, no other buildings can be put up without a license from the commanding officer; nor can any lots be sold from that portion until the reserve is cut down.  With the upper part of the town it is different.  Mr. C. H. Beaulieu, long a resident of the place, is the proprietor of that part, and has already, I am informed, made some extensive sales of lots.  He is one of those lucky individuals, who have sagacity to locate on an available spot, and patience to wait the opening of a splendid fortune.[1]