Walker (Minnesota) 5.33

Walker is a city in Cass County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 941 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cass County.Walker is part of the Brainerd Micropolitan Statistical Area.Minnesota State Highways 34, 200, and 371 are three of the main routes in the city.HistoryThe area was inhabited for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. Before European settlement, the Ojibwe moved into the area from the Great Lakes, pushing out the historic Dakota peoples, such as the Assiniboine and Hidatsa. European American settlers followed the early fur traders and trappers, and encroached on Native American territories.Following the construction of the railroad to the area, Patrick McGarry founded Walker in 1896. He named the settlement after the logging giant Thomas B. Walker, in hopes of luring construction of a sawmill. Thomas B. Walker instead chose to found and set up operations in nearby Akeley, because of his wife's moral objection to the bars and brothels in Walker, a rough frontier town. Walker developed with business, jobs and other services generated by four other logging companies.